All about Elle

So, I'm behind on blogging - what's new? In an attempt to catch up a bit, I'm making this post all about Eleanor. She turned 3 last month and has become quite the social, independent, fun, sweet, smart, and antagonizing little lady. About what you'd expect for a 3 year old girl with 2 brothers, right? She has really blossomed at school the last few months. She's writing her name and many other letters quite well. She's singing, drawing, tracing, cutting with scissors - all kinds of fun things. Despite my best efforts, she has fully embraced princesses. She loves Tinkerbell. She prefers to have her nails painted, hair done, "lip glosh" on,  and jewelry with most outfits. While I, too, love to accessorize, she's 3! My challenge now is to fight against the princess mentality. So far, so good. She has a great imagination, is interested in her school work, loves to play outside and can hold her own with her big brother. In fact, she more often than not is the one instigating the trouble. She knows how to push buttons -- and her daddy's seem to be her favorite to push. A lot of her emotional breakdowns and perceived defiance are typical for 3 year olds exerting independence. It just drives her dad (ok, both of us) a little crazy sometimes.

 One of the greatest surprises to come with the addition of Patrick is how close Will & Ellie Kate have become. Much of it is because they are at school together now, but they play together so much more now and have a really good time. Just lately we've had to institute the "you may not touch each other for the rest of the night" rule due to some unsafe wrestling. But for the most part, they do really well together. And Ellie Kate has come to love her baby brother, too. She is the first to let us know if he's crying, wants to see and play with him, and can do spot on imitations of the sounds he makes. It's incredible, really.

a little after-school chat

Ellie Kate's 3rd birthday party was a great time. She loved getting to play with her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. She asked for "a princess cake". Thank goodness for Aunt Casie! She made this awesome cake and all of the princesses you see around it. Pretty amazing, huh?

And she was spoiled as usual.

Since her party was the weekend before, she got to open her present from us on her actual birthday. She LOVES her new doll house.

And the weather was so nice that we got to eat her birthday dinner (complete with neon-frosted cupcakes) out on the deck. FYI, we headed straight to the bathtub after dinner!

We love love love our little Ellie Kate!