Elin is 3!

Somebody little here had a birthday!



 Elin woke up a couple of weeks ago to a pile of presents.  Birthday!!

Cheese omelets for breakfast.
I forgot to buy juice (sorry, third-born child - hey, I was planning a trip up to the lake at the same time) . . . so I made blueberry herbal tea, added a significant amount of sugar and tried to pass it off as "blueberry juice."  She wasn't buying it . . . but the strawberries more than made up for lack of exciting birthday beverage.

 We let Elin open the really big stuff right away in the morning.

 What could it be?

 Could it be - ?

A pink and orange plasma car!
Viggo and Svea love their plasma cars.
Elin loves Viggo and Svea's plasma cars.
Nate and I had to do something about that.

 Then another big present from Grandpa and Grandma Daisy.

 Oyf.  It was heavy.

 A pink seat!

It's a Skuut.
We've never had a Skuut bike before, but we are excited to see Elin have fun with it.
Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma!

 Then we went up to the lake.

Elin loved climbing up and down the pontoon ladder.

In and out of the tire, up and down the ladder.
Ten thousand times.

Svea was having so much fun swimming around.  She is getting to be quite the fish.

Viggo had already been up at the lake for three weeks when the rest of us came up on Elin's birthday.  And he had some new skills to show off.

It was so nice to see him again!!  I missed my guy.

Tire-stacking and crazy jumping.

So much fun.
I'm so glad Elin has a summer birthday.

Time for dinner.

Elin wanted hot dogs and fruit salad.
I love that she's so easy to please :)

Then Elin watched Grandpa Zeke whip up a pineapple upside-down cake.

And she watered the garden.

Getting ready to bake the cake in the Dutch oven.

While the cake was baking, time for presents.

Gummi bears!
Imported - from Fleet Farm. (We buy all our gourmet food there.)

 At long last, Elin has her very own name plate.  And it's orange!
Birthdays don't get much better than this.

Well, yes they do - pink cowgirl boots from Grandpa and Grandma Zeke!
They're the real deal.  And it has been so fun watching Elin walking around in those things.  She quickly became efficient at navigating the tall heel on them.

After gifts, Viggo impressed us all with the ceremonial blowing of the Swedish birthday bugle.

 Cake is done and flipped over!

Elin loved it.  I think the cherries were her favorite part.

Three already?  I still call her my baby.  Although I wouldn't recommend that - she gets a little irate if she's called a baby.  She always corrects me right away and lets me know that she is not a baby.

 Elin modeled her boots, complete with cowgirl hat with feathery pink trim and her new fairy wings and tutu.  This was a standard outfit for a few days.

After Elin went to bed, Viggo and Grandpa assembled Elin's new playmobil Noah's ark so she could play with it right away in the morning.

I love birthdays.
Especially Elin's.

When we were expecting her, during a routine ultrasound there was a dark spot found on her heart.
It could have meant Down's, or some unknowable fate, and the doctors didn't tell us much.  Then three weeks later, we went back in for another ultrasound and the spot was gone.  I am pretty sure those were the three longest weeks of our lives.  We even had to sit through a painful genetic counseling meeting, where we were informed there were "options."  And then she was born, and she was perfect all over.  I feel amazingly blessed . . . many parents don't end up with a happy ending like we did - and we are grateful for God's grace in Elin's life at so early an age.

So every time Elin's birthday rolls around, I think the angels celebrate with a little extra gusto.  I know I sure do.

We love you, Elin, and we are so thankful for you!  May God bless you with an exciting year of being 3!