Fairys, family, friends and fun.....

Well who would have guessed that time could fly by so fast ... it is already Sequoia's 3rd birthday.

In her first three years Sequoia has proven that she will be exactly who she wants to be, regardless of daddy's illusions to the contrary. I am certain that she will still be the most intelligent marine biologist, pro surfer, explorer of parts unknown and discoverer of all of life's secrets...but for now she is a little girl who loves purple and faeries. 

I have to admit that Colleen and I think that is wonderful and fun. Seriously - who couldn't use a little more magic in their lives? 

Anyway, Sequoia was joined by a number of her friends including the two Keiras from her day care class, little Emma from the aquarium (in a round about way) and Brooklyn from the early days.

Nanny Kelli made the most amazing Tinkerbell cake and cupcakes and wielded her paint brush to create whimsical face paint artwork on the little girls and mommies.

They all made pretty faerie houses to encourage their little imaginary friends to move in to our gardens.

There were two actual parties today - an early one for the younger kids and then a later one for the adults and family members. What that boiled down to for Sequoia was that she got to blow out her candles and eat cake twice in one afternoon. Not a bad deal.

The obvious side effect of such a deal is a guaranteed sugar buzz and the associated running and giggling.

Sequoia opened up her presents and enjoyed playing with all of them. She really liked the Tinkerbell Stile'n Salon.

Mamacita was here from North Carolina as was sister Kathleen from Colorado. Local family members included Sherri, Steven, Ryley and Aidan - Brother Brian and Carolyn - and my brother Mark, Gena, Christopher and Will.

So lets crank up the energy and eat more cake......

Sequoia really enjoyed all of her company and had a great time. She really liked seeing her old friend Brooklyn again.

Brooklyn had a few new things to show off...like her little brother Cooper. She also got to experience a few firsts, like getting her face painted.

She is definitely a real cutie.

As is her little brother, although he does not seem to do much yet...sort of a laid back character.

All I can say is that it has been a wonderful and fun ride watching our little girl grow up. she is such a big little girl - so grown up and independent... and in reality not even three yet. It was amazing watching her and Brooklyn interact with full conversations and completely self entertained. I fear I may slowly be becoming obsolete....but that is ok too. As my dad once said - the goal is to make them independent enough to move out.

Just as long as she doesn't do it too soon ...

By the way, Brooklyn managed to make it to the birthday party because the Sneeringers have moved to Maryland and are now less than an hour away. We are very excited about this development as it means one of our favorite blog guest stars may be making more regular appearances again. So Jennifer....you made the background ... it's a start.

Things to do on a rainy weekend....

So the weather is considering making the move from winter to the blustery and rainy days of Spring.

With the change in the weather come new opportunities to explore the world around us through the inquiring eyes of a girl about to turn three. Rainy weekends can be challenging as the energy level stays the same, but the real estate gets harder to find. This weekend we decided to take a trip to the garden center to shop for stuff to make Faerie Houses with, and generally let Sequoia have fun exploring an indoor garden. she loves shopping too....so that was a bonus. She picked out some beautiful flowers.

Sequoia and I also went down to the boat to play on it for a bit. This was her first time on it in the water, and even though we were just at the dock, the boat was bobbing around quite a bit due to the blustery spring winds that were blowing. She loved it and even enjoyed having to wear her life jacket.

Her memory amazes me. The only other time that she was on the boat was last September, for about 5 minutes, when we took a quick look at the boat to decide if we were going to take on a project like this. It was about 110 degrees out and we did not spend any time playing. But we did let Sequoia explore for a few minutes and told her where her bed would be etc...Here it was 6 months later and she remembered every aspect of the boat. She knew where her bunk was, where mommy and daddy's cabin was ... everything. We had a ball playing on the boat. She explored and experimented and told me all about what we would do this summer. The entire family is very excited about having a boat to sail this summer.

When it is raining outside, the inside of the house turns in to one big playground of imagination and creativity.. We were playing hide and seek at one point and Sequoia found this great hiding place....very reminiscent of the scene in the movie ET. She is pretty funny with hide and seek as she normally tells you exactly where to hide or exactly where she is going to hide and the game is to pretend that you cant find the other person. She thinks it is hilarious.

Having fun and being cute....

 

Sequoia spends plenty of time exercising her creative and imaginative side. She is always coming up with new games to play, new stories to tell and new reasons to laugh and smile. 

She is full of energy and strong opinions. Normally that is a wonderful and fun aspect of her character. She is also very quick to pick up on subtle nuances....The other night we were having a pretend picnic in the living room. She was "the mommy" and Colleen and I were the kids.

At one point during the picnic Sequoia decided she needed something from her room, but the light was off and she cannot quite reach that light switch yet. So she came back into the living room telling us that we needed to turn the light on for her. Colleen, staying in the character of being the kid said "But you are the mommy, shouldn't you do it?"

Without missing a beat, just pausing long enough to switch her expression to a devilishly manipulative smile, she said in her motherly tone 

"Would you like to learn how to turn on the light? I'll show you how."

She is a clever little one.