Bethany turns 3!

Our sweet Bethany turned three this past weekend on November 8th.

Here's one last picture of her as a 2 year old, from the day before her birthday. (She wore this Superwoman costume for Halloween, and loved it so much that she has asked to wear it everyday since (and only grudgingly takes it off for meals and bath :) )). I have asked her many times this past year if she would promise me to stay two forever, since I wanted to keep her as sweet and pure and innocent as she is now. But, grow she must, and we're looking forward to getting to know Bethany as a 3 year old too. :)

 

 

Since Bethany loves superheros and princesses right now, we decided to throw her a Princess party.
Here was the schedule for the day (filled with all of her favorite things), and she "checked" them off with stickers as we did them. She was SO excited to get to do all of her favorite things, and it melted my heart.

She woke up early and came into my bed, and I savored snuggling her sweetly for several minutes. Then we started her birthday...with balloons! Balloons are one of Grace and Bethany's favorite things about birthdays, and they had a lot of fun playing with them before breakfast.

Kaylee and Cambree weren't entirely sure what to think of the balloons at first, but they came around. :) (Kaylee here)

Bethany was SO excited for her birthday breakfast of "birthday cake" (coffee cake), and excitedly dug into it. :)

After breakfast, we played hide and go seek, then got dressed and did princess manicures, makeup, and tattoos.
This shirt is so perfect for her! She loves dogs and is obsessed with sunglasses right now, so a dog wearing sunglasses? Perfection!

Travis was sweet and did Grace's nails:

Makeup time:

 

She loved looking at herself in the mirrors:

 

One of Bethany's favorite games is Elefun, so that was up next:

Then we had a quick princess tea party:

 

After playing, we had lunch, and Travis and Grace had a date here while I took Bethany out for her birthday date. She and I went and played at Toys R Us (where we got the traditional birthday balloon and bouncy ball), then we went to Burger King (one of her favorite places to play) for some fries and time in the play place.

After that, we came home and hung out for a bit before our pizza movie party.

Bethany wanted to share her birthday cake with my parents but they were at a youth temple trip, so we decided to do a cookie cake on her birthday and have her real birthday cake the next day when my parents could be there.

She and Grace were very excited about the big cookie. :)

And she loved blowing out so many candles.

Then it was present time! Grace used some of the money she's earned from doing chores to buy a gift for Bethany. Here they are opening it together:

 

The traditional Holloway "heavy heavy hangs":

A new "princess" outfit from me and Travis:

This outfit was so perfect--so princess and ballerina-y, and purple, which is her favorite color right now.

And of course, a new princess tiara:

She had LOVED this when we saw this at the store a couple months ago, so I knew I had to get it for her birthday.

 

Grace's party favor was a new crown too:

And the big gift--a Little People princess castle:

It was a definite hit! Grace and Bethany played with it non-stop until bedtime, listening to all of the princess phrases and songs. :)

 

The celebration continued to the next day.

The girls in their new princess skirts and crowns for church:

I thought they looked SO cute!

 
That night, it was cake and present time with Grammy and Poppy.

She LOVED the cake, and exclaimed "Yum, yum!"

(A scene from making the cake the night before)

(I thought a rainbow cake would be fun since she loves colors, and it tasted just like the rainbow cookies from Giant Eagle which she loves as well. And we of course had to add her beloved m'n'ms and sprinkles. :) )

 

Bethany, as a new 3 year old, you are sweet, thoughtful, kind, sensitive, a GREAT big sister, fun, silly, and more. You love princesses and super hero stuff, Wonderpets, Curious George, and Elmo, playing with Little People Princesses, dancing, ballerina books, and doing what Grace does. You like to eat cinnamon toast (current fave), mac n cheese, pizza, oatmeal, chicken nuggets, cereal, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, apples, canned fruit, cheese sticks, and gogurt (and of course cookies, chips, and candy). You are our baby angel and we are SO glad you are a part of our family. We love you big girl, and loved celebrating you on your birthday!