Weee, she's 3!!!

As of tomorrow, January 20th, 2008, my baby will be 3 years old. I woke up this morning after all the action had ended (we had her party last night), and just thought, "How in the world did this happen so fast? How is she 3?" For her birthday last year, I had a huge party with all our friends, with or without children, because that's who we know. That's who Sage knows. It was great, but Sage gets overwhelmed really easy, and she spent a lot of it either with my mom or clinging to me or Travis.

This year, Sage had been making comments about her birthday saying, "Everyone is going to come." I started to second guess and go, "Well DO I have a huge party?" So I asked her, "Sage who do you want to come to your party?" The answer: "Um, Nonni (of course), Rudolph, Santa Claus, and Clarice." No one but Nonni (my mom) is a real person, so I ended up having my best friend, Chrissie, and her husband, Sean, along with their kids--Harrison and Isacah come over. It ended up being perfect. Sage adores Harrison, and they had a blast together. I couldn't have been more pleased with how much fun they all really had. Happy Birthday, my dear, I love you with all that I am.

The next 2 blogs are a chronological (mostly) picture story of her special day.

When she got home from her school party, the house was, just as I told her, covered in balloons and presents.
She was so ready and excited for her day.
"Get a hat for everyone!" she told me.
These cupcakes were for her school party, which I designed (not MADE, designed). I was 100% pleased with everything from the initial presentation to the overwhelming, rich taste. The cream cheese icing was so thick that I told the teacher to cut them in half for the kids in her class.
Hey, I said "kids" not me. I ate the whole thing and loved every bite!
My girl.
This is for all the haters that think I don't cook. FYI, I cooked everything (help me out with a comment on this, Chrissie) from grilled tilapia, grillled squash/zucchinni, red and yellow peppers, and baked asparagus with parmesean cheese.
Meet Isacah. She is at an adorable age (a few weeks from 2). Sometimes it makes me very bitter to look at her because she still has such a baby look to her where Sage lost her's completely at about 14 months.
Clean plate, folks. See that. CLEAN plate.
This is Harrison. He is a doll, extremely intelligent, and can make your heart melt in a second. He had to get a haircut, per his decision, to come to the party. He chose his own present, which you will see in a bit. He told his mommy, "Sometimes I forget Sage's name, so can I just call her 'Girlfriend?'"
Sage wanted to do everything like Harrison...
including drinking Sprite from the same type of cup. So cute.

Helllooo? I'm trying to eat here! No more pictures.
Present time! Classic Game...another for Travis and I to cheat at and argue over who really won.

It's amazing how excited children get over things like....soap with a duck in it. Isn't that sweet?!

Harrison was helping.
Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer!

All the kids like this.
And this was Harrison's present. He was sooo excited to give this to Sage.
A piggy bank, and not just any piggy bank--a piggy bank with a crown and a tutu! Not only did he give her that, but he put his own money in it to get her started. He was so proud of himself.
How cute is that!
He also got her a doll. He chose that all on his own after shutting down many of his mom's suggestions. "No, no, no, Sage wouldn't want that. She'd like a baby doll, and she wants this one because it has a dog and white hair." That's the deciding factors right there. You can see that Sage really liked it, so he must have known.
"I told you I made the right call."
"How are we going to get the money out?"
Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.
Look how cute they are!
And look how excited she is! She would not do this last year. I think I held her with her face buried in my shoulder. She's growing up!
"Is it time to eat the cake?!"