Celebrating Elle's 3rd birthday

Elle's birthday was on a Wednesday this year, and even though I was off of work, on maternity leave, Tim had to work. So we celebrated mostly on the Monday before her birthday (Tim's normal day off) and then spread the fun over the next few days.

Elle is big in to sea creatures right now and loves aquariums (just like me, muah hahahaha). We decided to go to the Florida Aquarium - we had been there on Memorial Day and she'd really liked it, so we knew it would go over well again. She loved it!

We also let Elle decide where she wanted to eat her birthday dinner - no idea why, but she chose Red Lobster, just as she had last year. This year's trip was made "fun" but her insistence to look at the lobster tank a dozen times, her frequent requests to go potty (thus ruining my meal) and the fun that orange slices can provide:

The day before her birthday, we went to a local bike shop to get her fitted for a helmet ... which went along well with the "big gift" we gave her on the morning of her birthday. She'd been asking for a pink scooter for weeks, so she got a pink scooter. (We got the Mini Kick/Mini Micro scooter, largely on the recommendation of two moms who have kids Elle's age - thanks, Claire and Kate!)

We rounded out the safety/scooter ensemble by using a birthday gift card to purchase elbow and knee pads (Elle calls them elbow, knee or lily pads depending on how excited she is at that given moment). She likes the scooter and helmet, but to be honest, July in Florida is kind of a rough time to ask a kid to suit up and scooter around in the heat and humidity. She's tried it out a few times (and scootered every where in the condo for the first three days, until she scootered over my toes and I declared the scooter an outside-only toy) and is scared to go too fast, haha. I'm sure that will change soon and we'll be begging her to slow down.

She also chose her birthday cake - she wanted a pink cake with sprinkles, so I used this recipe for a strawberry cake, and she was in love. She helped me bake it and was super excited when she saw the finished, decorated product.

All in all, a fun, intimate celebration of our favorite little girl - I still can't believe she's three!