I'm taking a pause from our thank you blogs (yes, I'm still doing them even though they're quite a bit backlogged) to celebrate our first born's 3rd birthday. It was quite a whirlwind weekend for us (when Kayleigh is at the center of the activities, she has a way of making us feel that way even if it wasn't the intention) for several reasons. First of all, for the 4th November IN A ROW, we have had a birthday where the family gets sick. The November that Kayleigh was born was the WORST fall for my sinus infections. I had one during labor/delivery (and haven't had one since, PRAISE GOD!). Following labor for me, while we were still amidst the feeding adjustments, etc, Steve came down with a flu bug. On Kayleigh's 1st birthday, the entire family (including poor K) had fevers around 103-104 and were unable to keep down water. For her 2nd birthday, we skated through the event free of illness BUT, beginning at Daddy's birthday dinner (November 30th), the entire family went down with the stomach flu, beginning with baby Ben. This year the birthday girl was the first to present symptoms. On Wednesday, she had a fever of 103 and complete exhaustion. She napped for 4 hours and woke up fine. Steve and I proceeded with caution, and she was fever free for 24 hours. BUT, again, on Thursday at noon ... more fevers, more lethargy ... never any other symptoms. At any rate, this weird fever and no other symptoms spread through the whole family until we discovered (on day 3) the ummm other kind of flu. It passed quickly, and wise or unwise, we kept everything on the agenda. Hopefully, dear family, we haven't spread the joy on to all of you.

Anyway, Kayleigh had 3 birthday "events" for her 3rd birthday celebration. (No, we don't expect this to continue for subsequent birthdays ... it's just how this one worked out). Steve and I have developed a tradition with her (beginning last year) to do dinner alone with the birthday child followed by something "fun." This year it was our plan to take Kayleigh to dinner, follow up with a toy from Meijer (of her choosing), and then come home for movie night (We bought her The Lion King on Blu-Ray). Since she had been so miserable on Wednesday, we did movie night on birthday eve and saved the dinner/toy for Thursday. When we went to pick up Ben after Kayleigh's date, she got a surprise from Michael, Chelsea and Alexa. They had candles in her birthday cupcakes and sang to her (oh was she so happy about that). AND Michael and Chels got her a Minnie Mouse Bow-tique cash register (she still keeps the key hidden and tucked safely away from everyone). She had plenty of moments to feel spoiled and special that day, and all day long kept sighing and saying, "Oh Mommy ... thank you for my birthday." A few times her tenderness and sincerity would catch me off guard and I would whisper quietly to God, "No, thank YOU for this birthday." She's truly a blessing, and we loved spoiling her.

Friday night it was my parents' turn to get in some spoiling. We drove Kayleigh up to Logan's on Alpine (she LOVES peanut restaurants) so she could have a dinner out with Grandpa and Grammy. Then we went back to my parents' place in Walker for presents and Coldstone cupcakes. Kayleigh and Daddy were feeling a little sick, yet, so they didn't enjoy the cupcakes so much (but Ben and Mommy didn't have trouble taking care of their portions). Kayleigh loved her clothes from Grammy (on the way home she commented on how soft her faux fur coat was and how much fun she was going to have getting ready for school with her clothes) and her new music player-book and beads. We still haven't opened the bead set yet ... it'll be a special occasion when we do!

On Saturday I baked a birthday cake (probably one of the worst ones I've attempted ... I need to get the proper tools now that my sis in law is in NH and I can't borrow hers) and we did make-your-own pizzas with the Van Dyk family. Kayleigh was THOROUGHLY spoiled by all of the attention from her two Aunties, Uncle Dan, Grandma and Great Grandpa Van Dyk. She even got to Skype (though she wasn't very attentive) with Grandpa, who couldn't make the party. She had a wonderful time and was thoroughly spoiled with lots of books, games, and clothes. Today we must have played EVERY GAME (except checkers) in the 8-game Princess Game Set ... her favorite is princess BINGO. (Oh, and for the Van Dyk family who read this, we played a TWO ENTIRE FAMILY, yup Benner too, games of Hi-Ho Cherry-O THE PROPER WAY ... and Kayleigh won both times ...)

It was a fun weekend, but as I'm explaining to friends now, here comes the hard part ... Kayleigh needs to understand that her birthday has stopped. We aren't going to keep singing Happy Birthday to her every day, and she can't get candy/toys/balloons/an excuse to not share with Ben indefinitely. This should be a fun week to remind her of all of those rules ;)

Here are some of my favorite photos from this weekend of birthday fun:

[caption id="attachment_1297" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Helping to bake her birthday cake"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1298" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="...with her new Columbia Fleece from Grandpa and Grandma V"][/caption]

oh, and one of Boo Boo too :)

I have no pictures of our Wednesday night movie night (who wants pictures of their sick little girl anyway) and I don't have any of our Friday night dinner with my parents (Mom???). BUT, if I get any updates from that, I'll be sure to edit and re-share. It was a fun weekend, and we are happy to have our princess, Kayleigh!