Rylee Jane's 3rd Birthday

Hi friends :) It's been awhile but this mama has been busy busy this summer with my three little ladybugs! I hope you have had a super fun summer...and I hope you are all staying cool in this dreadful MN heat this week, oofta!!
We had a very special week last week and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Last Wednesday, August 21st, our Rylee Jane turned THREE!!! All I can say is...how in the world do I have a three year old already?! It literally feels like yesterday that I first laid eyes on my beautiful baby girl...she stole my heart the second I saw her and kissed her soft, warm little newborn cheeks! She was in a big hurry to get here and hasn't slowed down since! She has the kindest, most gentle little soul and she just makes our days brighter and better in every way possible! This year was so fun because she's at that age where she really "gets it" and understands what birthdays and holidays mean so she was so excited that mommy and daddy had a fun, very special day planned just for her! On her birthday, we woke up and brought her little sisters to daycare (which Rylee was so concerned about and didn't understand why Maysen and Parker weren't coming with us on our special day...see what I mean you guys, most gentle, kindest little soul!!!) Then we came back home and got ready for the day and asked her what she wanted for breakfast...the girl LOVES anything with sprinkles so off to our favorite little bakery in town, Daubes.

 Then after we finished our delicious breakfast, we headed up to the Como Zoo! Rylee was so excited to go to the "animal fair" as she calls it, lol :) Rylee had so much fun looking at all the animals and she was so patient and waited her turn to get up close to see everything...we thought that being a random Wednesday and middle of the work week that it wouldn't be busy but the place was packed with kids from all different summer camps...when we pulled in and saw bus after bus lined up we knew it was going to be packed but it was still so much fun! We haven't had a "mommy, daddy, buggy day" since the twins joined our family and I seriously can't tell you how special that day was for all of us! After we checked out all the animals (and by the way, the Polar Bear was by far the coolest!! He was outside swimming around playing with a big barrel and he was just so entertaining to watch...it's hard to believe they are such dangerous animals when they look so cute and cuddly behind the glass, lol) we headed over to the amusement park side and Rylee was in heaven checking out all the rides. She kept asking to go on rides but as we walked around, Chris and I noticed that all the rides she was tall enough for, we were too big to join her so we explained to her that we could buy tickets for her to go on the rides but that she was going to have to go by herself and she looked at us and said "it's okay mommy, I'm bigger now and I can go by myself." Talk about holding back tears!!! She went on lots of rides but the swings were by far her favorite...every time she'd swing around, she'd yell "hi mommy, hi daddy" and wave her little heart out. She literally had a perma-grin the entire time! While she was riding the swings for the 3rd time, a slow, kinda sappy song came on over the speakers and next thing I know, I'm crying...in public...and I can't make it stop!!! It just hit me that my little tiny ladybug isn't a baby anymore and although she still needs me for so much in life, she's just so independent and wants to do everything on her own. I'm so proud to be her mommy and I'm so proud of the little person she is becoming...it's just so hard to watch them grow up!!! All I could think was hell, if turning three is this hard on me...what will her first day of kindergarten be like?!!! I seriously love being her and Maysen and Parker's mommy more than life itself and my heart is so full it just feels like it could burst!

After I got it together, we headed out because we were all so hot and tired from our fun day at Como...we hit up a restaurant on the way home and buggy ordered a kiddy cocktail and we all had lunch together...it was so fun! We felt like we were on a date with our daughter and we made memories that day that will last a lifetime!

We weren't even five minutes into our ride home and she was sound asleep!

We got back into Rochester just in time to pick up our other two little ladybugs and they were so excited to see their big sister! We finished out her birthday with the five of us snuggled in and of course had to have some ice cream, her fav! She had a daycare birthday party on Thursday and we had her tea party birthday party on Sunday with family and friends...It was seriously SO FUN and I had a total blast planning and hosting her beautiful little tea party...I'll post a bunch of tea party pictures this week for sure! I can't wait to share that with you too!

xoxo,

Amanda