fwee!

3 has been a prominent number the last couple of weeks [not in the number of pictures in this post. be warned, it's a long one]. on the 3rd, grant turned 30 [heeheehee! i teased him a lot. 27 doesn't feel so old when i think of him]. i think he had a good day. i tried to make it nice. he got to sleep in until 9 am rather than get up with hazel at 7, when she crawled into bed with us. we went to memorial park and ran. i made this cake from bakerella's website. i made it just like the recipe, but instead of putting more chocolate between the layers of the cake, i put whipped cream in there to take off some of the chocolate-peanut-buttery edge. yes, those are peanut butter cups all around the edges. luckily, our friends, matt and amanda came over to help eat it.
and of course, hazel helped with the candles:

[notice grant's birthday badge? i made him wear it, just when we were inside though, because i'm nice like that] lucy took it all in from her corner:

then yesterday, my little hazel-bug turned 3! i wrote all about the preparations for her party on my crafty/cooking blog. there were lots of delicious cupcakes:

hazel's cake was kind of slopped together, if you can't tell:

i decorated with balloons and streamers that we picked up at the grocery store. [hazel had a blast running down each isle with half a dozen balloons tied to her wrist. eventually, after bumping the balloons into a few people(luckily they all thought she was cute), she learned to squeal, 'excuse me!' as she barreled past.]

grant and i posed with the birthday girl before the party started:

hazel wasn't excited at all:she kept making silly faces when i asked her to smile for pictures:

here's the food, cupcakes, fruit and dip with the tinkerbell plates hazel picked out [she picked spiderman plates first, but we talked her out of them]:

here's hazel the ham modeling the napkins and lucy finishing up dinner in the background:

then the fellow partiers arrived. hazel kept calling them her 'new friends', even though she's known them all for at least a year:

from left to right: amanda, matt, kandice, kelsy and brad. we all sang while hazel critiqued: she blew out her candles (because my camera is lame and old, i didn't get a blowing-out-the-candles picture, sigh). then, finally! it was time to dig in. hazel had been asking for her 'specioo cupcakes' all day:

and she liked them:lucy enjoyed her's too: next, presents. hazel went round asking for help. she stopped at kelsy:

and daddy:

then kandice helped her model her new clothes:

yes, that is the cutest poncho ever, complete with matching headband. then it was brad's turn to help with the presents:

she recieved many wonderful gifts; toy story action figures [when she opened those, she said, 'my buzz! my woody!'], several pairs of pants, her poncho, movies [backyardigans, pinocchio, and toy story 1 & 2 (we ordered them too late so she doesn't have them yet, but soon)], cards from nanny, granddad & co., great nanny & granddad, grandma and mommy, dad & lucy, a jesse the cowgirl costume for halloween (on it's way too) and we can't forget her stroller and baby.

there she is playing with her new toys and telling grandma all about her birthday. i hope she enjoyed it. we love having her. she is so smart and precious.