Happy 3rd Birthday Kyra!!!!!

Wow. I can't believe it's been three years. Three years since our lives were changed forever. Three years since I became a mom. Three years since we fell in love with a beautiful little girl named Kyra Jean. Each year seems to pass quicker than the last. And each birthday gets more exciting.

This year daddy was in California (well, technically he has been traveling home from CA most of the day), so I wanted to make today as fun and special as I could. Helping to make this possible were my wonderful Sisters-in-law, Susan and Katie, and Katie's husband Declan (whom Kyra calls "Dunclan"). Not knowing that the weather today was going to be 68 degrees and beautiful, I made plans to spend the day at the crazy huge mall in King of Prussia.

Our first stop was the Build-a-Bear Workshop. It was both Kyra and my first experience there and Kyra was a little overwhelmed. For the most part she gave us the benefit of the doubt and went along with everything. It was obvious she much preferred interacting with the stuffed animals than the employees though. We slowly worked our way along the wall of animals and at the end of the row, Kyra picked a pink unicorn to be her new special friend. I loved how she picked the absolute girliest stuffed animal they had by far. We declined the sound effects, picked a heart, and then watched as the unicorn (that Kyra kept calling a horsey) got filled with stuffing. After the unicorn was all stitched up, we gave her a (brief) bath and then accessorized her with a pair of shiny pink wings. Finally, Kyra named her Cupcake (despite my recommendation for the name Starlight) and we made her a birth certificate. As we left the Workshop, Kyra insisted on carrying Cupcake's box herself. She ended up dragging the box half the way to the car, but she was not about to let her new friend out of her grasp.

Next we headed to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Well, actually for dessert, but since we were there, we ate lunch first. As we waited for our food, Kyra got to open some birthday presents from her Aunt Susie. She got a wooden cake set and a sidewalk chalk "paintbrush". They will provide many hours of enjoyment I'm certain. After our meal, the waitstaff sang Happy Birthday to Kyra and brought her chocolate truffle cake with a candle, whip cream, sprinkles, and Happy Birthday To You spelled out in chocolate syrup on the plate. Kyra and Kylie both enjoyed digging into the sugar mountain!

Next we did a little walking around and shopping. We passed the mall's giant Christmas tree adorned with huge moving toys. We admired it for a while and then suddenly Kyra burst into tears. The reason for those tears? She wanted to take one of the drum playing teddy bears on the tree home with her and of course she could not. There is no stuffed creature that Kyra does not love yet above them all, she LOVES teddy bears. We carried her away from the tree and eventually made our way to the Disney Store. This was a BIG DEAL for Kyra. She is hooked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and has recently showed an affinity for the Princesses as well. She immediately found some rolling sleepover duffles and toted them around the store with her the entire time. One was Mickey Mouse, the other, Disney Princess themed. Naturally. Thankfully, Kyra has a really cool aunt with a Disney Rewards credit card who was willing to secretly buy one for her for Christmas. (Can't wait to see her open it in 40ish days.) It made me feel slightly less terrible as I pried them out of her fingers so we could leave.

Finally, after a day full of excitement, we headed home. But the fun wasn't over just yet. Kyra got to Skype with her GP and Grammy in Oklahoma and open her birthday presents from them while they watched via webcam. She got a pink cash register, a new doll, and a doll playset that included a stroller, pack-n-play, and baby swing/highchair. Kyra is a good little mommy to her dolls and bears and she loves pretending so she was very excited when she opened all her gifts.

Part of me wishes every day could be Kyra (or Kylie's) birthday because it was so much fun for all of us and the day flew by so quickly. Another part of me though is extremely glad birthdays only happen once per year. By the time I got to sit down at the end of the day I realized how trashed the house was from all the opening presents, playing with every new toy at once, and being stuck in a whirlwind of activity all day. I also realized how much my body ached and how tired and hungry I was (I forgot to eat dinner). But it was a great day. A really happy, exciting, adventurous, great day.