Rainy Day Ramblings

This rainy day has finally slowed us down.  We have been busy busy the past few weeks.  We love living in Ames SO MUCH!!  Well, at least the kids and I do...can't speak for the hubs who was living his dream out in the woods.  It's so fun living somewhere with so much to do!  We have been trying out all of the parks in Ames...there's so many!!!  I think we have been to 9 so far...about 15 more to go!  We have a favorite and have been there a few times now...including a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa!  I love it because it reminds me of being in the country -- we even saw deer each time we went! 

I wanted to use this down time today to write a blog, but had a few different topics....so I have shortened them all into ramblings....

1.  Eggs and Raspberries
I don't do a whole lot in the kitchen, but 2 things really drive me crazy!!  First - eggs sticking to my pan....ggrrrr!!  I make scrambled eggs nearly every morning for my breakfast.  Not only are they delicious, put I eat them with peppers, onions, and spinach to get some veggies in right away.  BUT, I cannot stand scraping and scrubbing my pan afterwards each time.  I have tried different heat settings, different oils and sprays....I just don't get it.  We bought really nice expensive pans with wedding money and I would expect nothing to stick to them....but darn eggs!  At least I love them enough to deal with it. 

Raspberries...my kids LOVE them, but why the heck do they get moldy the day after I buy them??  I've tried washing them right away as well as not washing them until we eat them.  I've tried different types of containers....but nevertheless, I throw away half the container every single time. Any tried and true tips??

2.  Summer Nights
I got out of the house alone for an hour last night to run to the library.  On my way home I had the windows down and felt the wonderful summer night air.  I saw people out running, walking, biking, and couples holding hands.  I started to reminisce about summer nights before I had kids.  I miss being able to stay out in the summer night air as late as I wanted to.  Whether it was walking, sitting by a pond, listening to a live band somewhere.... there's just nothing like summer nights.  Remember being younger and staying out with your friends super late in the summers?? Now, we are home by 7ish and have kids in bed around 8 and can't go anywhere :(  I think I need to have "me time" from 7-9 a few nights a week, don't you?!?!

3.  School!
Last year we considered putting Wyatt into daycare and I checked some out that were (sort of) near us, but just wasn't impressed with them.  Plus, the drive to and from just didn't seem worth it.  Now that we live in town and there are more options I toured some daycare centers and fell in love with one in particular.  They call it a school rather than daycare, due to the curriculum and that the youngest age they enroll is 2.  We have Wyatt registered and he will start after he turns 2 later this month.  Yesterday we went there for a "play date", which we will do several times before he officially starts there.  We spent a little over an hour there yesterday, joining right in with the kids and I have to say I'm so excited for Wyatt and a little jealous that I don't get to go hang out there too...I loved his teachers a lot!!  I know the first couple weeks will be hard for both of us (and maybe Rylee too), but it will be a great thing for both of us too!  Being a boy, Wyatt just needs a little more than I can give him...he gets way too bored with me, regardless of how much fun stuff I take him to do.  It will just be part-time too. 

Rylee starts prek this fall and I'm super excited for her also!!  She too is ready for more than I can teach her.  I know she will love learning and I'm so excited to see what all she can do at the end of the year.  We have had a play date at her school as well-- on the playground -- to meet some friends who may be in her class this fall.  I know she is super nervous about school, but I guarantee she will be asking to go by day 3!

4.  Swimming Pool
We got the best gift ever from my dad -- a family pass to the aquatic center.  We have been there almost every day that the temp has been over 80.  I think I'm the tannest I've been since I was 13 and had nothing better to do in the summers than hang out at the pool.  The aquatic center has "tot time" from 11-1 and we have taken full advantage of it. I wasn't sure how Wyatt would do, since he has never been a fan of the water...but he's a little fish now!!  Yay!!!  Not gonna lie, I love being a "pool mom" :)

5.  Grandma and Grandpa
We LOVE having Grandma and Grandpa so close.  I'm trying not to take advantage of them, but it is so WONDERFUL having someone to watch the kiddos for me for an hour or two in the evenings.  James and I have even gotten away a couple of times without the kids to run errands.  I know Grandma really likes seeing the kids more too...and it's probably nice that it's in shorter amounts of time now so she doesn't get so worn out ;)

6. Happy Happy
Life is just grand!  I feel the happiest I've been in a long time.   I feel so at home, being back in an area I'm familiar with.  I love having things to do and not just sitting around the house because driving anywhere takes up half my day, like it used to.  Of course it also helps that it is summer time and the sun shines bright and the days are long.  I think I wrote a blog last summer stating that it is becoming my new favorite season -- I see why teachers love their jobs -- summer break ;) 

Touring Homes

We made the mistake of not touring any homes before we built our last house.  This time, and our advice to anyone building, we are touring as many homes as possible.  This past Sunday we toured 3 open houses in Ankeny/Polk City area and last night we attended the Parade of Homes in Ames, which was so much fun!!  It was quite the event and I wasn't expecting there to be so many people.  It was like trick-or-treating or something....sometimes we would see people at one house that we saw 2 or 3 houses ago.  There were 8 homes on the tour, 7 of which were newly constructed.  The purpose of the event was to showcase 8 different builders.  As we don't have a builder picked out yet, we were curious to see their quality.  James being a construction guy is super picky about who builds his house...needless to say, he wasn't impressed by or interested in any of the builders. 

We did see a lot of cool features/layouts that we liked...and that's the reason why we wanted to look at other houses.  I can look at floor plans and pictures all day long, but nothing gives you a good feel like walking into a house and seeing it in person.  One of our favorite things, which every house last night had, was a doorway from the master closet to the laundry room.  How clever!!  I don't know why we never thought to do that with our last house....our master closet was adjacent to the laundry room and we easily could have had a door connect the two.  We also saw a couple of laundry room features we really liked...like the ironing board in the wall. 

Something else we saw a lot of that we are thinking we may try is mixing white and dark wood.  The first time we saw it, I wasn't a fan...and didn't figure James would be at all since he is normally anti-white trim.  Most of the stair railings we saw had a mix of white and dark wood and it did look pretty classy.  Speaking of stairs...we both really liked a certain stair case type that a few of the houses had.  I think we at least have that part of our house picked out :)

I saw lots of light fixtures I liked, but I'm pretty sure James didn't like a single one of them that I did :(  It's tough to have a husband who actually appreciates design and has opinions on it.  I'm jealous of my friends who's husband's say "get whatever you want".  But....I'm not the best decorator, so it's probably good when James veto's my opinions sometimes. 

We also saw things we didn't like.  The first one that comes to mind is door-less showers....what?!?!  At least half of the houses last night had them.  All James and I could think of is that there would be water all over the bathroom!  Don't get me wrong....they look super cool and I kinda wanted to try one of them out, but just not practical in our opinion.  Another thing we saw a lot of and didn't like was no where to sit and take your shoes off at the front door.  It wasn't that the houses didn't offer a bench...there just physically wasn't room to put one...and some of those houses didn't even have coat closets for guests.  I guess neither of these things is a huge deal, but just something we noticed and didn't think we liked. 

I'm thinking I should have been a realtor, because I'm really loving going into all of these homes.  Maybe I will just become that creepy woman who shows up to all of the open houses with no intentions to buy :)  Hey, it's fun and it's free! 

After looking at houses last night we stopped at a restaurant we hadn't tried yet.  It was a great pick, because we found our new favorite pizza!!!  Joe's Pizza and Pasta.  Specifically, we got the philly cheese stake pizza.  YUMMY!!!!  And it was HUGE...like, one slice is equal to 2 large slices of a Casey's pizza.  I was pretty sure our leftover box was not going to fit in our fridge....it barely did. 

Tell me, what are you some of your favorite features in your or someone else's house and why?? 

Rylee 4 Year Pics

As I may have mentioned previously, I bought my DSLR camera last year with the intent of taking my own pictures of my children to save money.  My first try was Rylee's 3 year pictures last year, which really turned out much better than I could have expected!  One year later, Rylee and I headed out yesterday evening to take her 4 year old pictures and, as usual, I was a bit nervous.  I hadn't had my camera out much at all since last fall.  Would I remember how to use it??  I hadn't thought of any pose ideas or anything...just not prepared at all.  But, it was a nice day, she was freshly bathed and I was in the mood to give it a shot.

I got her dressed and we climbed into the van to head to campus, where I planned to take the photos.  Rylee said to me, "Mom?  Are you sure I look okay?  I don't feel very cute in this."  I assured her she looked super adorable and promised her a special treat if she did good. 

We arrived on campus and decided together to do our first shots in front of some pretty purple flowers.  I was SHOCKED to get this picture right out of the gate!! 

I considered calling it quits right after this since I didn't think I could possibly get any more good smiles out of her.  I showed her the picture and praised her for giving such a great smile!  Genuine smiles are VERY hard to get from her on command.  She asked if she could be done and get her special treat now....ha!  Sorry sister. 

 

Next, we tried a couple of other spots nearby that she was excited about....but didn't get much worth keeping.  Here's the best of those.



Added affects to this one

Then I decided to try out some shots on her blanket that I grabbed at the last minute as I was walking out the door.  We had her 3 month pictures taken with this blanket and with the pink in her dress and hair bow I thought it might work for some shots.  I think Rylee was a little uncomfortable, because these were the best smiles I got.

 

 

We then headed towards the campanile, where we found this little bench and decided to give it a shot.  Decent.  The bells of the campanile began to chime right after this and I completely lost her attention!

 

 

 

Our next stop near the campanile was a pink flowering bush. If she could only understand what was about to happen at the campanile, she would have given me a much better smile.....

So... there were red and white rose petals creating a walk way to the campanile....and inside the campanile were candles and flowers....and a photographer hiding...waiting for a couple to arrive who would be getting engaged in that spot.  Awwwwe, right?!?!?!  Yeah....I wanted to hang out and watch! 

 

Next we headed over to some stairs to try a few different things.  Rylee kept forgetting she was wearing a dress and I had to remind her so many times to cross her legs!!  I got a few decent pictures here.

About this point she started asking if she could take "sad face" pictures because "it's too hard to smile"  haha.  I knew I didn't have much time left for good pictures!

 

I thought we had gotten enough after this one and told her we were done.  I hugged her for cooperating and not complaining and said, "Let's go get your treat!  What do you want to get?"  As she was telling me about the cookies she wanted I spotted another potential picture spot..... 

"Uh, Rylee....can we take some pictures by these stairs on our way to the car, please?!?!"

 

She was a good sport and agreed.  She thought these stairs would be a "cute spot."  Thank goodness, because we got one of the best shots of the day here!

I was so proud of her, that I showed her these shots right away.  I told her "thank you" again and we headed towards the car.  Until....

 

"Rylee, wouldn't it be cool to sit in this tree for a picture?!!?"  She gave a big sigh and told me she wanted to be done with pictures.  I promised this could be the last one and we would do it really quick.  She reluctantly agreed, like a good sport, and after a couple minutes of shimmying, we finally got her into the tree.  She didn't feel very safe up there, and to be honest, I wasn't so sure she wouldn't fall out.......but.....anything for a good picture!! 

I was happy with these and put my camera away so we could both be sure that was the end of picture taking. 

 

 My favorite part of the evening came next, as we got into the van... 

Rylee said, "Mom, I love you!!  Even though I had to take pictures!"  :)  I smiled SO BIG!! 

Man, I love this girl!!!  We really had fun doing these photos together!

 

Rylee + Mommy = Best Friends FOREVER!! 

 

 

Forever Young

Home Sweet Home.  That's how I'm feeling about living in Ames.  My heart is happy.  I keep thinking back to a couple months ago when we got an offer on our house and I wasn't sure I could move.  I'm glad my friends encouraged me to keep moving forward.  Everything is so familiar to me here and I see so many familiar faces when I'm out and about.  It's fun and I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be.

The bad news about living in a college town though...realizing I'm about a decade older than all of the students!  Seeing so many 18-23 year olds around town really makes me feel old.  I push the kids in the stoller during our walks and I get passed by all these young, fit collegiates.  I go into a clothing store at the mall and I'm the oldest person in there and wonder if I'm too old to be shopping there.  I want to go have a drink at a bar, but I don't want to walk into the wrong one and be the oldest person there.  My sweet friend told me I can still pass for 20, but I don't think I could even come close.  I'm pretty sure the students would recognize "too old" when they see it ;)  I mean, I thought 30 was crazy old when I was 20! 

Last night I was feeling a little old (or maybe it was just the wine I was drinking) and the kids were in bed and hubs was gone.  So, I started looking up songs from my senior year in high school and first couple years of college.  I played quite the list of songs and instantly felt 18-20 again :)  I just love how songs bring memories forward so well.  I've mentioned before how much I loved my senior year of high school.  There was lots of dancing that year...between 3 formals, 5-6 senior parties (at our school that was where a group of seniors would rent a big place and hire a DJ and we'd all go dance for HOURS!) and going to the clubs we could into at 18. One song that made me smile as I was looking at the list of hits from that year was K-Ci & JoJo .....you know the one... "Crazy, crazy crazy crazy....."  You're gonna sing it all day now....you're welcome. But seriously, wasn't that THE slow song everywhere you went???  Oh, good times.  There were plenty of other songs on the lists that I had forgotten about too.   In case you are interested in being taken back to 2000-2002, here is the list I was using...
http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=2001

Even though living in this town makes me feel a little old, I'm going to embrace how young I actually feel and do whatever I feel like doing, shop wherever I want to shop, etc.  This town has so much to offer and I'm sure there is plenty to do for "people my age".  If anyone in Ames or Boone wants to take me out on the town, please do :) 

Livin the Dream

...okay, maybe not MY dream, but I'm rolling with it.  I'm sure this little house is someone's dream, so I'm trying not to complain about it too much. 

We have been here for a week now. While it is definitely taking some getting used to, we are learning to enjoy the moment living in such tight quarters with limited space.  Strangely, I feel rather calm in this small house.  If I ignore all of the full boxes in the basement I feel like I have finally achieved the minimalist lifestyle I wanted....on the main floor we are living with just the essentials pretty much.  My cupboards and closets aren't even that full...it's rather peaceful in a way.  Sometimes I feel like I'm in a vacation home or something....like, when you stay some place for a week or so and you only bring your essentials and just use what is provided otherwise.  It's interesting that we can live with so little when we know it's only temporary, but yet we "need" so much more stuff if we are to live somewhere permanently.  If you didn't read this article I posted on Facebook last week, it's worth the read.  http://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/

This rental experience has me feeling lots of love/hate towards a lot of things.  Let me share those with you...

Electric smooth top stove. 
Love - SUPER easy to clean!!
Hate - takes SO LONG to cook my food!!  I am used to my gas stove that literally starts cooking my eggs the second I put them into the pan....I could scramble 4 eggs in less than a minute.  Now, it takes 5 minutes.  I also used to be able to brown hamburger in under 5 minutes....now....10 minutes.  I already dislike cooking, and this new lengthy cook time is killing me!  My patience is being severely tested and I'm losing the battle!  Can't wait til I try to boil water on it......

No Pantry.
Hate - no pantry! 
What could I possibly love about not having a pantry??
Love - my kids cannot help themselves to snacks all day long...heehee!!!  I finally have control over what they are eating all day long (yeah yeah, I should have had control before...).  I also love that we don't have an abundance of food, of which half will go bad and be thrown away like it was when we did have a pantry. 

No Water spout on the fridge.
Okay, this one I just hate.  Not only do I miss this convenience, but so does Rylee.  She used to be able to get her own water all day long and now I have to get it for her.  For a young child learning (and loving) to be independent, this is sort of a step backwards for her.

Wood floors.
Hate - hard and uncomfortable
Love - Easy to clean!!  I have lived in this house for 8.5 days now and have mopped the floors 4 times because it's just so easy...and dare I say..fun!  I never thought I would enjoy wood floors in the bedrooms either, but for the cleaning factor, I'm loving it in every room!!  It does look really nice too!

Shared bathroom.
This one gets lots of hate from me.  LOTS!!  This is definitely my least favorite thing about this house.  I don't know how I lived with only 1 bathroom for 18 years of my life!!  I have numerous reasons why I don't like this, but the top of my list is that it only has a pedestal sink....which not only means no storage, but also no countertop....which means no where to set anything while you are using it!!!  Luckily, there is a gross bathroom in the basement with a small countertop that I use to do my hair.  The shower in that bathroom is pretty much unusable though as sewage backs up into it....bleh!

Renting.
Love - yes, I actually have something to say here.... I love that we aren't responsible for anything!  Yesterday James said, "What should I do today?  I don't know what to do with myself!!??"  It's a breath of fresh air for me and the kids to have so much time to spend with James since he won't be working on the house or yard! 
Hate - all the rest of it.

Living right in town.
Love - simplicity of going ANYWHERE!  We can now leave the house multiple times a day and be right back in a matter of minutes.  I love that we don't have to plan our day around naps and bring extra things with us just in case we are gone longer than planned.  The kids are loving watching all the activity out the window...dogs, people, trucks, etc. 
Hate - the only thing I hate is the noise...and having to have curtains.  James however hates it all!  But secretly, I think he loves walking the kids to the park to play.  And when we have pizza delivered for the first time, I'm sure he will love that too!!

Being back near where I grew up is a lot of fun.  I have already run into people I know several times...including my Grandma at the grocery store this morning!  I have wanted to live in Ames for over 10 years now and I'm finally here.  A little walk on campus with a friend a few days ago even gave me a little motivation to get my camera back out.... as soon as it warms up again!

We close on our land we bought today and will start planning for the building of our new house soon!  Living in the moment and looking forward to the future is how I'm spending my days :)  Hope you're having a great Monday!! 



 

Home Sweet Home????

Well, we are all moved into our rental house and mostly settled.  It's been a whirlwind the past 4+ days....

On Friday evening my mom came and took the kids to get them out of our way for the weekend.  They couldn't wait to leave...I kept telling Rylee this was the last time she would ever see this house, but she didn't have an ounce of concern.  And I knew Wyatt had no idea what was going on...that he wouldn't be coming back to that house.  I was SO WORRIED that he would cry for "home" in our rental house and it would break my heart.  Once the kids left I was a little sad...just knowing half of our family had already left the house for good.

On Saturday we spent 12 hours loading our moving truck.  We had a couple of neighbors help for a little bit and we had no idea it would take us so long!!  In the first 90 minutes we got almost all of the boxes loaded into the truck and thought for sure we would be done by noon.....instead it was 8:30pm.  James kept rearranging things in the truck to make sure we could get everything in.

I reflected a lot while we were moving out.  Some things I took note of:

1.  No matter how clean you think you are...you're not!!  At least I'm not.  Here I thought I was an amazing cleaner this whole time, but as our things left the house and I saw how dirty the floors/walls/cupboards were I was pretty grossed out.  It made leaving it a little easier. I will remember how important it is to clean EVERYWHERE at least once a year! 

2. That house was just way too big.  Even when it was empty, it still felt full to me because there were so many rooms and so much space to double and triple check to make sure we got everything....and to clean.  James said the same, thing..."Why does it feel like there is still so much left to pack, even though there isn't??"  Having lots of space is nice....but unnecessary, way more work and a little overwhelming!  And the more space you have, the more stuff you seem to buy....

3. We have a lot of stuff...and it's just stuff!!  Ugh.  I have been decluttering like crazy for the past year and a half and thought for sure there just wasn't another thing I could get rid of.  But, as we were loading that truck all I could think was, "Everything in this truck is for sale...all of it....someone just come take it ALL!"  I even stopped for a minute to think what I would miss if it were stolen out of the truck....and I honestly could not think of a single thing that even existed in the truck...it was strange!  It was like a mental block, but I think it was a good thing....it reminded me that it's all just stuff.  When your things are in your house, in their "spot", they are useful or hold some sort of meaning....but take them out, and they are just materials.  Also, half of our things are just being kept in boxes in the basement for the time we will spend in our rental since we don't have room for them all....which makes me feel like most of those items aren't even necessary to keep..... hmmm.....

4.  Home is where your family is.  Once the kids were gone, never to return, something just didn't feel right in the house.  All of a sudden, it didn't feel like "home".  I began to see it as just materials. This is sad really because we spent so much time and effort building that house and it contained so many memories.  But, this empty feeling did make leaving a little bit easier.

Saturday night James and I spent our last night in the house the same way we spent our very first night there....sleeping on the floor in the living room.  We were too exhausted to be sad about our last night.  When we woke up though, one last time to the view that we will never be able to replace, it was a little sad.  As soon as I pulled away from the house a couple hours later I just focused on the future ahead.  I knew it wouldn't do me any good to sulk about what I just left. 

We showed up to the rental house and did a quick walk-through with the landlord and my gut sank realizing I was going to be living in a less than ideal (for me) house.  It smelled horrible from the previous tenant's dog and all of the wear and tear of the house just jumped out at me.  It was so hard to move our stuff into this place and even think about calling it "home".  I wasn't sure how I would make it through the next few days, let alone a year! 

Fast forward to yesterday.  I woke up, first of all to sunshine which always makes me happy, to having the house put together and settled.  We got to enjoy the day rather than spend it unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc.  James was still home from work yesterday and after mowing the lawn we finally got to walk over to the park near our house.  It was SO NICE to be able to do this!  Before, we had to drive 10 miles to get to a park.  After naps, we went to a 2nd park (one without swings even...a mama's dream!).  We also went for a walk around our neighborhood....and made a quick run to Target.  Yesterday I was able to partake in the things I was looking so forward to with this move...being in town and having so much to do!  My mom, who lives not too far away, even came over and watched Chicago Fire with me last night!  It was a much better day! 

Also, I started to see the rental house a little more positively yesterday.  It started when the cable guy told me this is the nicest rental house he has ever seen.  I took a look around and thought, "you know, aside from the wear and tear, it really isn't terrible."  We were able to get rid of the disgusting dog smell too, which was a huge step forward for me to be able to see this place more positively!  I think I actually really love our bedroom (even though it doesn't have a master bath and the kid's dresser had to go in it).  We are having a hard time sleeping though because we aren't used to noise.  We even woke up to blue lights flashing through the window in the middle of the night our first night (we live in a neighborhood with college students, so police stopping by in the night is probably the usual). 

I'm even slowly falling in love with how tiny this place is.  Last night I vacuumed and mopped every single floor, cleaned the bathroom, wiped down the counters, table and appliances in the kitchen....all in under 30 minutes.  It took me that long just to vacuum in my old house.  Granted, we had already done all of that when we moved in...and it was pretty clean when we showed up to move in....but, still...I will clean this place every single day if it only takes 30 minutes! 

The kids love this place!  When Grandma brought them over on Sunday, Rylee came running in screaming, "I'm home, I'm home!!! I'm so happy to finally be home!!!"  I have never seen her so excited for anything in her life!!  Wyatt, who I was very nervous wouldn't like it, was happy to see his bed and all of his things and hasn't seemed concerned one bit. Whew!!  They really love the yard and having sidewalks and so many dogs to watch walk by!  These kids' reactions have proven to me that home truly is where your family is!

On another note...the subdivision we bought land in added us to their email list and told us they are starting Friday night bonfire nights that we will be able to attend and start meeting future neighbors....that's super exciting!!  I think I will love that place.  But for now, I am going to make the most of living right in town in my tiny little rental house :)  ....even though I have 3 different curtains hanging in the living room that don't match and we are using a card table and folding chairs for our dining.....Hey, when you move to a college town and rent a house amongst college kids, you have to blend in, right???  However, I don't think we will be changing our wifi name to anything as vulgar as the one that popped up on my list of nearby wifi networks....yikes! 

Have a great Wednesday!! 

4th Birthday

My baby girl is 4 today!!  At 8:00am to be exact.  She has been waiting so patiently to turn 4 and was so excited to go to bed last night, knowing today would be a fun day.

We woke her up at 6:30 by singing Happy Birthday to her.  She told us "thank you" with her eyes barely open.  Then she asked us to cuddle her.....which rarely happens!  She got up a couple minutes later and went out to the kitchen to see her presents.  We let her open them right away so James could be a part of it before he had to leave for work.  She got Frozen flip flops, a Frozen tambourine, a jewelry making kit, a pad of drawing paper, her first "knock knock" joke book (she loves to tell jokes), and because she is always asking very advanced (in my opinion) "why?" and "how?" questions we got her National Geographic Big Book of Why for kids -- I think she will love it! 

She was so excited about everything she got and so sweetly told us thank you when she finished opening.  She is usually very good about saying 'thank you', but something about the way she said it today made me feel like we are doing something right as parents :) 

I never thought having her turn 4 would be emotional until sometime yesterday when I realized just how grown up she really is.  To top it off, she was extra cuddly last night for some reason.  She kept wanting to sit on my lap and told me several times, "Mom, you have such beautiful blue eyes; I think I wanna marry you"  hahahahaha.  I didn't bother telling her she can't marry me.  I took it as her way of telling me how much she loves me. 

She already had a little party with our playgroup friends on Sunday (which she exclaimed was the "best birthday party ever"), so I let her pick what she wants to do today....play at Monkey Joe's and get FroYo.  She also gets to go shopping with her great aunt for some summer clothes, which she is looking forward to.  I'm excited to watch her enjoy her special day!