happy sixth birthday little miss

We celebrated LM's birthday with family back in August. She requested to roast hot dogs and s'mores over a campfire, so I asked my sister Amy if we could throw the party in her backyard set in the beautiful mountains near Park City. There was one purple polka dot balloon tied to the picnic table and the view did the rest. LM and her cousins spent all evening laughing together on the trampoline, exploring the area on a 'secret' hike, and enjoying the farm animals including Pip the pygmy goat. We sang Happy Birthday with six candles stuck haphazardly into a sticky roasted marshmallow for her to blow out, and I don't think a smile left her face all night.

Once the sun went down we all bundled up and watched the Lego Movie on the side of the barn with the stars and a big silvery moon shining above us. It felt like the perfect way to send off summer, and bid farewell to my sweet five year-old. Six is going to be great.

larkie lou turns three!

Lark turned three-years old earlier this month and we celebrated as a family with a simple breakfast birthday party before daddy had to go to work. She blew out her candles on a stack of pancakes that we all shared, and then opened her presents - a little shopping cart and a wooden cash register. This girl is obsessed with the grocery store area at any children's museum, so we knew this would be the perfect gift for her - yep, she loved it!

One of my sisters (thanks, Amy!) had given us that puppet theater/store front piece of play furniture (does it have a name? I'm not sure what to call it, ha) that Lark is pushing the cart next to in the picture above, so the night before we got it all set up as a little grocery store for her to go shopping. We already had all of the play food from the girl's play kitchen. Lark grabbed her doll and set her in the cart, found a little purse to keep her new play money and credit card in, and spent the good part of the day switching off being the shopper or the checker.

After I rang up all of her food once she said, "Thanks for checkering me out, mom!" I love this age.

And now, I present unto you the many faces of Lark...

This is what she does when confronted with a camera. We sure love this spunky little three-year old!

See her first birthday and second birthday. That hair was worth the wait! :)