A Tale of Two Birthdays

Gabi just came down the stairs lugging a box full of rocks. She turned 3 today (three!), and her most prized gift is a box of tumbled rocks that my mom's friend gave to her. She takes them all out, looks at each one of them, puts them back in the box, walks to a new spot, and the whole process starts all over again. I love that she can be so entertained by simple things like rocks. And dirt. That girl would dig in the dirt all day long if we'd let her. I LOVE the smell of dirt, so this must be something that I passed on to her. Since she looks exactly like her dad, I'll take what I can get.

It's also Gilberto's birthday today. The year that Gabi was born, he was so preoccupied with her birth that he keeps forgetting that, yes, he did advance a number on the age scale that day. He's been off by a year ever since. It wouldn't be so bad, but he's two years younger than me, and I just can't bare for him to think that I'm a whole three years older when I'm not. He teases me enough about being in my 30s while he's still a young-un in his 20s, and a year can make a big difference when calculating my come backs. I'm not going to let him forget his real age! Which is 29 this year. Only one more year until we're in the same decade again. Though I doubt the teasing will stop.

So it was a big day in our house with two birthdays to celebrate! Starting everything off was Gabi's party yesterday. She had two little neighbor friends over for some Under the Sea fun. For several months Gabi has been saying she wants a pink party, or a blue party, or a white party. About a month ago, my mom said, "You know Gabi, parties can have more than one color. You can have as many colors as you want!" Gabi was amazed- a whole new world of possibilities had been opened up to her. She then decided that she wanted a TWO color party, "black and white, just like Shamu! I want a SHAMU party!" So our Sea theme was born. We found an orca pinata, raided Party City for green and blue supplies (we expanded the color theme a bit), and ordered a plain white sheet cake from Costco so we could ice Shamu on it ourselves. It all turned out pretty darn cute! And everyone had a really great time. Here's a peek.

We made the invitations, and Gabi hand delivered to each of her guests:

Dining Room decorations (notice the Mermaid Dora! Once Gabi set her eyes on this particular balloon, there was no leaving without it. Luckily Dora is a fish, which swim in the sea, so it kind of matches):

My mom is an artist! Shamu cake complete with seaweed, starfish and shells:

The guest gift bags:

This morning my mom took Gabi on a very special excursion. They had a reservation to have breakfast with Shamu! Gabi was enthralled the whole time. What a great way to spend your birthday morning! They then spent the rest of the day at the park.

Gilberto requested take-out Chinese from one of our favorite restaurants for the big birthday dinner tonight, and I brought home a feast! Gabi does great in restaurants now, but we're homebodies, and it's so nice to eat the food you love in the comfort of your own home. After stuffing ourselves, we all gathered in the living room for Gabi and Gilberto to open their presents. That's when Gabi received her box of rocks. She did enjoy opening all of her other gifts, but those rocks absolutley made her day!

I love every second of watching Gabi grow up and learn about the world, but it's all happening so quickly. My precious baby girl is now a little lady. Where has the time gone? I guess all we can do is enjoy the ride, and try to give her wonderful childhood memories in the process. Wonderful memories that will hopefully erase the not so good ones, like me yelling at her because she dropped her stuffed kitty right on top of the cake. And maybe some day she'll have mercy on me when she lovingly remembers that we let her get the Dora Mermaid balloon for her third birthday party, even though it only kind of matched the theme.

Overall, we had a wonderful two days. Oh, and my house is clean! There's nothing like expecting company to get you down on your hands and knees to clean the baseboards.