Violet is 3!

Three years ago our lives were forever changed when Violet Marie came into the world. She's an amazing little girl and we are always so proud of her. Three is an interesting age, still very dependent but finding lots of little ways to remind us that is about to change. "I can do it" is something we hear a lot, and the cool thing is she can do it. I'm retraining myself to stand back and let her try things on her own, it's hard for me to watch her frustrated or fail at something, or fall down and bump herself but I know it's my job as her parent to not always swoop in. It's just really hard to do it.

We celebrated Violet's third birthday in a big way! We spent last week in the Florida Keys with the Robillard/Armstrong/Cook families and had a great week watching the cousins play. We celebrated Owen turning 1, Violet turning 3 and Uncle Andy turning 35! We played at the playground, swam in the ocean, visited dolphins, went on a boat ride, ate and ate and ate, went to bed late, slept poorly, and missed a lot of naps.

We returned home Saturday night and Sunday was Violet's actual birthday. We planned to celebrate low-key just us so we could recover from the trip and get ready for the week. In the morning Violet opened her gifts - a purple "Violet Flyer" tricycle and her very own umbrella. Both were a hit. While we were practicing riding her bike all the neighborhood friends joined us and it turned into an impromptu party. I love to have them all here and the girls do too.

For dinner Violet requested letter soup and fish, and purple cupcakes. It was a great day.

Happy birthday Violet (aka "I like purple because I am purple")!