Liesl's 3rd birthday!

We celebrated Liesl's third birthday on Sunday, with presents, the Children's museum, pizza, cake, and more presents. And then we celebrated some more on Monday, hosting a party with her friends - cupcakes, pumpkin decorating, and more presents.  It was a lot of fun.

It's such a cliche, but I really can't believe my baby girl is three. She is so tall and runs so fast, and she's a fearless little climber. She's imaginative and creative, telling me the most wonderful stories. And best of all, she's just really sweet and grateful and happy. She says thank you, and I love you, "what a lucky girl", and "thank you for the lovely dinner, mommy", and gives hugs and kisses, and is a wonderful little person who dances through her days. I am so lucky.

Liesl's birthday breakfast of choice: cereal. We offered pancakes and french toast and eggs, but no. Cereal.

You wouldn't know it, given his look of surprise, but this is the gift that Sebastian picked out for Liesl at a toy store - he was very adamant that he would buy his own present for her, with his own money, in person. It's a cradle for her babies. :)

A chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream from Baker & Spice. yum.

Our neighbor Zoe (a 4th-grader) brought a present for L and stayed to watch the afternoon session of opening presents.

That was Sunday. Phew. On to Monday!! Birthday party with playgroup friends!

The birthday girl wearing her new dress (from Nilsa) and waiting as patiently as she was able for her friends to arrive.

Black-bottom cupcakes. Delicious, and easy to make. Yum again.

Liesl wanted to take a self-portrait with mommy.

We read a story about birthday monsters, sang our usual playgroup songs and then happy birthday, and then the kids tucked into the cupcakes and fruit.

Pumpkin decorating! In a fit of madness and hope, I brought out glitter glue and sharpies, as well as stickers and googly eyes, and let the kids go crazy. It was awesome.

More presents... lucky girl.

Liesl's first haircut

Halloween party with moms group

Liesl and I went to a Halloween party this morning with our friends from the moms meetup group.

It was super fun to see all of our friends and their costumes, and there were some fun games - fishing for treat bags, beanbag tossing, ring-throwing onto witches hats -

And of course, since it is the candy holiday, there were cupcakes and cider doughnuts, chocolate-dipped marshmallows and rice krispie treats. And bananas and apples and carrots.  We both ate too many treats and crashed hard in the afternoon - she got to nap for a few hours, and I just lapsed into a coma on the couch.

very important life lessons

On Saturday, during our weekly hike into Forest Park, Sebastian learned a very important life lesson: jumping into leaf piles is fun. But you have to jump up and into the leaves, and not let your momentum carry you over the pile entirely. Good thing I was able to capture it on video for posterity:

"Maker Faire" at Forest Park

On Saturday Sebastian's elementary school hosted its first ever mini maker fair, inviting various crafts and engineering outfits to come and present their projects and help the children create them.

We built a rocket out of paper - actually, two, because the first one exploded and didn't make it off the ground and I couldn't bear Seb's disappointment - drove an underwater robot and built a little blinking light spider, a paper origami book, and three buttons of various designs. It was pretty cool and interesting to experiment with various mediums and to see what people were making. Although he was too young to do most of the things independently, Sebastian was definitely interested and has already requested to return next year. I thought that was a great success.

day trip to Cannon Beach

We decided to make the drive to the coast today, to get in one last beach day before the rainy season arrives. The weather forecast for both Portland and Cannon Beach was sunny and 70 degrees - perfect for a day of digging and playing in the water. As it happened, it remained foggy all day and a bit chilly, but we were undaunted. We dug holes, we made driftwood bridges and rock people, we splashed in the waves, we made canals, we twirled, and the children rode their bikes along the hard-packed sand. It was delightful and exhausting. :)