Shasta's 3rd Birthday

Shasta had a great birthday! I was worried she was going to be miserable all day because she went to bed not feeling the greatest. I wasn't feeling very good either and had a ton to do to prep for her birthday, but Nick helped me after he got home from work (at nearly 1am) and we got it all done. I had wanted to decorate with streamers and such, but due to not feeling good I decided to keep things simple. And I'm glad I did because we've all been sick since and all the decor would have just added to the mess that is my greatly neglected house.

She was so excited when she saw her new bike.

She was also so excited to get the movie Frozen.

She loved opening all of her presents!

Her cousin, Meili, came over and played all morning from 8am to 2pm. Shasta loved it! It was the perfect way for her to spend her birthday. We had to do all of our birthday celebrating before Nick went to work so I was worried Meili might be upset that Shasta got to open presents and she didn't, but Shasta ended up waking up at 6:30 so she opened all her presents before Meili got there! Then Meili got to show Shasta how to ride her bike (she's 6 months older), but Shasta still needs a lot of practice. Shasta was sad to see Meili go, but she apparently had so much fun that she went straight to her bed and put herself down for a nap. It's possible that her 6:30am wake-up call and cold symptoms settling in may have had something to do with it, but I'm chalking it up to playing hard!

After her nap I asked her if I could take her picture to put on Facebook. This is the pose she gave me. She was being SO stubborn. I may have threatened no pancakes for dinner to get her to cooperate...

Then she gave me this! Pancakes for dinner is a real treat. Her favorite!

Then, mom of the year over here, forgot to make her birthday cake. How is that even possible? I was planning on making it before dinner, but after the girls went down for their naps I started working on final edits to a paper for school that was due that night and worked on it clear up until I had to make dinner while Shasta watched Frozen. And it wasn't until halfway through dinner prep that I realized my mistake. It wouldn't have been a big deal except Nick works swing and if I made the cake for later that night he wouldn't have been able to be there with us.

I felt horrible. Telling Shasta was heartbreaking. She had asked me several times that morning and the day before if we could go to the store and buy her birthday cake. I kept telling her we were going to make it at home, but then once she took her nap I never gave it a second thought. When I told her we would do cake the next day she said in the saddest voice, "but it's my birthday". Ugh. She's only three and already I'm scarring her for life. I know she won't remember (until she reads it here), but it still doesn't make me feel any better knowing this is just one of many times I will screw up as her mom. But Nick talked to her about it during dinner and told her he really wanted to get to have cake with her and asked if it would be okay to do it the next day and she agreed.

We did cake the next day, but I didn't take any pictures. I cut her a piece and put the candles in it so she didn't breathe over the whole cake since she woke up feeling more sick Saturday morning. But I don't hate the idea of always doing it this way since it's kind of gross to first spit all over a cake and then dish it out for everyone to eat! Overall, I think she had a really good birthday and enjoyed getting to be celebrated the next day too! And really, between the April birthday celebration with Nick's family, the Mad Hatter's Tea Party Birthday Celebration with friends, and her actual birthday, I think it's okay that we missed out on doing cake on her actual birthday. She still had plenty of birthday celebrations during the month of April. Or maybe I'm just justifying it to make myself feel better. I guess I'll accept my Mom of the Year award now.