Happy Birthday Penny!

Penny, earlier this summer.

Penny, last summer.

Yesterday we celebrated Penny's third birthday!  It really is amazing what a difference a year can make!  In just one year, Penny has transformed from a typical two-year-old to a sweet three-year-old.  It is hard to list all the ways in which she has grown and changed but there have been lots of changes.  Penny is a very big girl that so far LOVES preschool, is potty-trained, and TALKS!  Even though she has quite the vocabulary and has been using complex sentences for a long time now, Penny really only spoke when she needed to.  Now Daddy calls her "chatty Kathy" because at bedtime she loves to tell him all sorts of things about her day.  While she has been opinionated and  headstrong from day one, she has a much easier time expressing herself which leads to far less frustration on her part and on ours.  We love our little conversations with her!

Penny likes to sing and dance and knows the words to many of the songs Mama plays in the car.  She still clings tightly to her "pink baby" most of the day but doesn't need her to attend school like she did last year.  Penny enjoys coloring, playing with play-doh, stickers, playing whatever game Cooper is playing be it trains, trucks and soccer or princesses, fairies, and dolls.  At the beginning of the summer, Penny only wanted to swim for a short period of time.  Now she is the first one in the pool and the last one out.  We are so excited to see what the next year has in store for us and our big girl Penny!

We celebrated Penny's birthday with a small party at home yesterday and cupcakes to school today.  Ma-Mas, Pa-Pa, and Libby joined us for dinner, cake and presents.  Here are a few shots: 

Penny's pink princess castle cake.  After the hours I spent on this cake, both kids had something to say:
Penny: "It's a castle!  I wanted strawberry."
Cooper:  "It's a necklace cake...why does it have cones on it?"

Penny, checking out her cake and waiting for us to sing.

ALL of Penny's gifts were a huge success...with both kids.  Cooper was jealous of all that she received, even after we reminded him his birthday wasn't far way.  Penny has barely taken off the fairy outfit from Ma-Mas and Pa-Pa and has played every chance she could with the play kitchen, play toaster, food and pots and pans.