May 4

May the fourth be with you.

Ha!

It's so much fun that Daisy's birthday is also Star Wars day, though Caleb was more than a little bit jealous of that turn of events. Still, we had a great day. Daisy's requests for the day? Cupcakes, and breakfast for dinner (with sausage!) at Denny's with Grandma and Grandpa. To the agenda, Chris and I added church, and a hunt for birthday cakes.

We've been talking up the birthday thing for a while, so Daisy went to bed last night knowing that today was her birthday. She woke up crying at 3am, and Chris went in to comfort her. He told a tearful Daisy that it was her birthday, and she replied, "NO. IT. ISN'T. Not until my clock turns green!

So sometime after her clock turned green at 6:30 this morning, Daisy came out of her room to find this:

She was pretty excited.

"My clock turned green! I three now!"

I helped Caleb make this birthday crown for Daisy, and she was so excited to wear it! 

I love this shot of Daisy and Caleb both checking out her reflection. Please ignore the filthy mirror.

Caleb also chose a special birthday gift for Daisy. He helped me wrap it, wrote his name and her name on it, and decided he wanted to make a list of ten clues to help her figure out what it was.

(Hint: it was this. He definitely wanted it for himself as much as he wanted it for her, but it was a good choice so we didn't argue.)

After church, we paid a visit to our first cake of the day. 

Seriously. Can you believe the cuteness of Daisy in pigtails and her Easter outfit? The whole ensemble was her idea; however, she only decided upon it after I informed her that she could not wear leggings as pants to church.

Ha! She thought the cake looked so delicious that she pretended to eat it!

All three kiddos on the cake! (Don't worry, Mom. Chris was right there spotting Lily. She was in no danger.)

And then on to cake #2!  

This girl cracks me up. I think she's born to be a gymnast!

Cake #2 had photos of boats all over it.

Racing to the car - we were headed home for lunch and naps!

Lily went right down for her nap; Caleb fought a nap, so I gave him the iPod and told him to listen to the Cars sountrack until it was over. Luckily, that was all it took for him to fall asleep. Daisy, meanwhile... we really thought she fell asleep. 

Shortly after Lily woke up at three, Daisy got up to use the bathroom. Assuming she had been asleep for the past two hours, I told her she could be awake. Then we headed out to the back yard for some birthday photos, where she was remarkably cooperative.

Mmm-hmm. That's Daisy's remarkably cooperative face. Cute, isn't it?

Her shirt, which says "I'm three!" with a birthday cake, was a gift from Auntie Grace. Daisy loved it!

Whoops! How about a photo of Daisy's feet! I love that she's wearing her favorite shoes, and I love that they're on the wrong feet. It's so Daisy.

There's our sweet birthday girl!

After we took pictures, Caleb woke up and we all hopped in the car to find a few more birthday cakes before dinner. The next cake was not even ten minutes away, but when we arrived, I opened Daisy's car door and found this: 

At first, Chris and I thought she was just pretending. But when we heard a gentle snoring instead of giggles, we knew that she was for real. The girl was sound asleep. Apparently she hadn't been napping during nap time, after all!

Lily thought it was pretty funny!

Chris and I determined that he, Caleb, and Lily would go see the cake and explore while I stayed with Daisy in the car.

Just pretend Chris is actually Daisy?

Or pretend Lily is Daisy?

Daisy stayed asleep in the car for a full hour, so we called off our plans to find any more cakes. We were pretty thankful that we found the two before nap time, bringing our total to three cakes for Daisy's third birthday. On Caleb's birthday, we'll aim for five cakes for five years. Fun, right?

Eventually it was dinner time, and we had to wake Daisy.

Just as she requested: Sausage, Denny's, Grandma and Grandpa.

"Wiping" Grandma's face. Funny girl!

After dinner, we headed back home to burn off some energy before Chris' parents and my sister and her family came over for cupcakes and presents.

This girl. Seriously. She may be the best baby ever. Chris and I are continually baffled by her sunny, easygoing personality. She's just so happy and cheerful! We spent an hour at the restaurant, and she smiled and laughed the whole time. She only got one nap today, and her morning feeding schedule was totally off, but she barely even fussed all day. At bedtime, after she'd been awake for nearly six hours, she just rubbed her eyes and buried her face in my shoulder. No crying. Just sleepy.

We are pretty lucky!

Plus, she's super cute.

Cupcakes (I used this recipe for chocolate quinoa cake, and a buttercream icing. Daisy requested chocolate icing, but I did some chocolate and some vanilla.), candles, and the birthday crown. 

Can you tell that Daisy is ready for the challenge of blowing out her candles?

I love this picture and the next, because at first you just see Daisy blowing out her candles. But look behind Daisy, and you see Caleb, who is clearly terrified.

He thought Daisy was going to catch on fire, and he could  barely stand it. Everything about this is so perfectly Caleb.

After we sang "Happy Birthday", Daisy opened an insane amount of presents. When she had finally finished opening everything, Chris and I took her outside so she could see our birthday gift for her:

Her very own sand box! Daisy was beyond excited; she was so happy with her sand box that she didn't even want to eat cupcakes! Eventually, we were able to pull her away and feed her cupcakes.

What a happy girl! I'm so thankful we were able to have such a perfect day to celebrate Daisy.

Happy third birthday, Daisy Doo!