Chewbacca

The other morning at breakfast, I said to Ella, "Ella, do you know who you're named after??"
She very quickly and proudly responded with, "CHEWBACCA".

A princess

It was way too quiet one evening... so we just knew the girls were up to no good.

And then..

They were playing so nicely together for so long, and my heart was in a puddle on the floor.

Do you see those princess dresses they are wearing?  They just LOVE wearing tutus and dresses and headbands.  They call fancy shirts or dresses "a princess".  One morning I was wearing a dress and went in their room to wake them up to get them ready for the day.  Sydney said "I want to wear a princess just yike you, Momma!"  The next week, I came home from work and had on a flowy shirt and Sydney said "You're wearing a princess yike me, Momma!  Can you spin????" 

I want to live in this innocent, beautiful world filled with "a princess", the simple joy of just spinning around, and their sweet little voices forever.

Yippee, Ella and Sydney are THREE!

The first year was fast and slow at the same time.  So much sleep deprivation and endless bottles and diapers, it didn't just "fly by", but we did love it.
The second year was definitely much, much faster.... we certainly enjoyed ourselves more.  And the third year... whoa.  Lightening speed.  And it has most certainly been my favorite of all!  I loved age 2, and to be honest, I'm kind of dreading 3 because I've heard such bad things about it.

But to our girls - you are simply amazing.  The happiness and joy you bring to us, and so many other people, is just mind blowing.  Your daddy and I knew we would love being parents, but we never imagined how our hearts would be overflowing with joy, and we would have permanent smiles on our faces.  Of course, parenting brings with it so many challenges and frustration, but I wouldn't dream of having it any other way.

One thing I love so much about this age and our girls is that they get excited about ANYTHING that you make into a big deal.  So we decided it would be fun to get them dressed up in their cupcakes/sprinkles birthday dresses and have them pick out their own cupcake.  We had to record their reactions...

picking out their own cupcakes

hanging out with the Easter bunny

I'm not sure if you've noticed yet or not, but there's nothing I love more than pictures of our beautiful girls!

So we put on our fancy dresses and snapped some pictures :)

spinning!

Ella Grace

Sydney Ann

I just can't get enough. 

When you're almost three, you get to sip on some of Momma's decaf latte!

And then here it is... Ella & Sydney are three!

Daniel and I laid in bed that morning and couldn't stop grinning and talking about how lucky we are.  Hands down, we've had the best three years of our lives.  Not only do we have the sweetest twin girls, but we make such a good team, and we LOVE this life we've made together. 

Since the weather was rainy, we sent the girls to daycare to spend the day with their friends.  We even sent stuff for them to have an Easter Egg hunt at school.  I spent the morning re-reading blog posts from their first few months (I am SOOOO glad I blog... I just forget so much!!), and ran some errands.

getting in some adult time before we deliver these cute balloons to our birthday girls!

When we picked the girls up right after their nap, we had Minnie and Frozen balloons for them and the happiness and laughter coming from their sweet little mouths was so, so fun.

They ate a snack in the car, and we took them to Off the Wall - a fun play place we had never gone to.  It was practically empty, and we had THE BEST time!

this was about as good as I could get of Sydney... she moved way too fast!

So much laughter and fun

<3 <3

For dinner, we went to Cici's, because the girls love picking out their own pizza.  We came home and Kim & Jeff came over and brought gifts and we "had a birthday at the table" (they wanted us to sing to them at the kitchen table like we did for Daniel's birthday).

And then they got to enjoy their cupcakes they had picked out the night before.

E

S

Kylo Ren masks and light sabers from Kim & Jeff

And we ended the night with a glow in the dark easter egg hunt and a glow stick bath.

Such a perfect day for two perfect three year olds!

A week later (because of Easter), we had a big three year old birthday bash!  I decided a while back we would do sprinkles because a) the girls love to sprinkle things (they call it frinkling) and b) I saw easy ideas from Pinterest!

We splurged and had the Fun Bus come - best splurge ever.  The kiddos get to go onto the bus to tumble and have loads of fun, while the parents can socialize and eat without chasing toddlers.

Yippee, we are three!

my main inspiration - that sprinkled "three"

cupcakes!

Best idea ever... sprinkle your own cupcake (at your own house!)

Thank You for sprinkling us with love

I try every year to decorate with things we already have and love.  The bottom shelf is a newborn picture from their room and the monkeys were made for their second Monkey See Monkey Do party by Robin.  The flower bouquet was our Mother's Day 2017 project

Just woke up from a nap, and are excited for their party to start!

not sure if they are high fiving or using The Force on each other

Look what has arrived!

the prettiest little hair bows

Sydney doing a forward roll

Happy girl Ella

Swinging Syd!

Each morning when we are driving onto Base, the girls love for me to put down their windows and they speak to the "po-yice officers".  We arranged for Officer Oscar to come with his car and in uniform as a fun surprise.  He pulled up with his lights on and said "Happy Birthday Ella & Sydney" over his loudspeaker.  It was so cool!

badges for the birthday girls

Officer Sydney driving the car

Officer Ella's turn

We came inside and sang to the girls

And Ella sat at the table for a solid 30 minutes polishing off her cupcake.  That girl was in Heaven.

Ending the night with Star Wars 

We had such a fun party.  The weather was cold and wet, but we made the best of it!  As always, it's a lot of work (no matter how easy I try to make it), but you know... we only have to do it once per year!