Molly proudly turned three years old today!.

Molly had been looking forward to her “happy birthday” for a few days now, always making sure to point out that my own birthday was next in line (in a month) and that her friend Kamile was also turning three.

On first waking up and coming downstairs, Molly just stood there and admired the giant Sesame Street “Happy Birthday” sign hung up in the living room.  She would eventually discover the dozens of little round cardboard “coins” of Sesame Street characters that came with the party decorations, laying on the glass table in the living room.  She had a special little plastic bag with her name on it to collect them all.  That seemed to be enough to make Molly’s birthday pretty darn good right there.

But that was not all.  We set aside the whole morning for fun with Molly.  We had hoped to take her to a bounce house or trampoline park, but being Sunday, they were closed for the morning.  So we let Molly choose between going to Pease Park to play, staying around the house to play, or going to Mozart’s on the lake to feed the turtles.  After initially leaning towards staying home and playing, Molly chose Mozart’s.

We would end up going to her friend’s birthday party in the afternoon, which was weird timing in a way, but which was also perfect because the party was at the Austin Children’s Museum, which is juts about Molly’s favorite place to go.  I should also mention her presents for posterity.  I may be leaving something out, but Molly ended up with a “Create a Story” magnetic board (which Claire ended up loving even more than Molly), some great books from Toot & Puddle and Dr. Seuse, a puzzle, a Lego Duplo farm set, and a Dora View-Master.

One other note, Molly loves to imitate Claire, and has inadvertently done it again today.  Like Claire on her own third birthday, Molly was sick on her big day too, intermingling moments of joy with moments of grumpiness.

On to the pictures…