Three years ago today, Miss Juliette entered our world and turned it upside down...for good! We can't even believe it's been 3 years already...our baby is growing up so fast! And, like she frequently tells us, she's not a baby anymore, but I tell her all the time that she will always be my baby!

I have to say, I don't think I've ever celebrated someone's birthday over a span of a couple of MONTHS! Because of our move, we went ahead and had Juliette's birthday party with her friends at the end of June. We had the party at Build-A-Bear in the mall and it was the easiest party I've ever thrown. The kids all seemed to enjoy making their bears and dressing them up and afterward we went to the food court and had cookie cake (yum!) and they rode the carousel.


Two months later, yet still not on her actual birthday, we're celebrating some more! Matt's parents came in this weekend to give Juliette some birthday loving. We ate at Landry's Seafood Saturday night and since we told them Juliette was celebrating a birthday, she got a free dessert of her choice, which was a big ol' piece of chocolate cake! Then Sunday after lunch, we had cake and ice cream and Juliette got to open presents from Matt's parents.


Today we will celebrate Juliette's 3rd birthday for the final time with dinner at where else but Chuck-E-Cheese!!

Every year, I sit down near Juliette's birthday and write her a letter that pretty much serves as a recap of the last year. I haven't written the one for this year yet, but in that letter, I always tell her what she likes to eat and play and do at that particular age, so I thought I'd share some of her favorite things to do and eat at the new age of 3:

Favorite foods and drinks right now: Cheerios, cheese (but not sliced; she wants the little individually wrapped squares), grits, Goldfish, chips and salsa (of yeah, she will eat it up...doesn't matter how hot it is!), chicken, strawberries, bananas, peaches (begged for one the other day and practically inhaled it when we got home...fresh peaches ARE tastey, though!), bread (just like her mom and dad!), chocolate in any form, mocha frappicinos (Yes, I just said that my 3-year-old loves a drink with coffee! Don't worry, she's never drank more than half of one!), ICEEs, sweet tea, still loves her white milk, fish sticks and tator tots (if I let her, this is what she would eat everyday for lunch!), oh and how could I forget popcorn...we have to get it every time we go to Target!

Favorite things to do: work puzzles (she's up to 40 pieces now without any help), watch movies (currently addicted to TOY STORY), ride her tricycle around the block (with us in tow of course), play outside, especially at playgrounds, color/paint/cut paper, take Zoe on walks, jump on the bed, play Rock Band with Matt (usually she's the drummer, sometimes the singer), sing, dance, swim or just get wet, go to Chuck-E-Cheese, take bubble baths, go to the library or books store, "drive" the car buggies at Albertson's or the car buggies at the mall, and she even enjoys just playing by herself in her room!

Dislikes: Thunderstorms, being told "no" and not getting her way (which is probably every toddler), taking naps or going to bed (when we moved, our good napper and easy-to-get-to-bed kid disappeared), most vegetables (but at least now she understands us when we tell her she has to take so many bites before she can get down from the table), someone not letting her do something she can do herself (such as get the milk carton out of the fridge).

This is what happens when we have thunderstorms, which has been going on a lot the past few weeks. Zoe hates them and will go get in her kennel and Juliette, on this particular day, got in with her! This isn't the first time she's done this!

We are looking forward to a new year for Juliette and are excited for her to start preschool next Monday and grow and learn over this next year. It saddens me for her to turn a year older, but she is really so much fun that I enjoy every bit of it, so it's hard to stay sad.

Happy Birthday, Juliette!!