TATUM turns THREE

That’s right – Tatum is THREE!  We celebrated the day by letting Tatum dress in her Tinker Bell dress and wear a birthday crown.   (No, the photo above is not the Tinker Bell dress, sorry.)  We took a morning walk to the bakery where Tatum was given a special cookie by the baker for her birthday.   Tatum was also given a second cookie by a customer who thought she was adorable and wanted to give her a birthday surprise!  I love stranger kindness!

We then went to Tatum’s preschool where we gave a book to her class in honor of her birthday.  This is a great cake alternative for parents who want to have a classroom celebration but do not want to load fifteen  two to three year-olds up on sugar.  So, we walked in a 10:30am, which is circle time, and I read the book to the class and then gave it to the teachers as a present.  Tatum then put a homemade yellow chocolate dinosaur sucker in each friend’s cubbie for their present.  Yes, I was one proud momma.  Homemade chocolate suckers are super easy once you get the molds and sucker sticks.   If you are local, then Jane’s Cakes and Chocolates here in Montrose can hook you up with everything you need. 

On the way home I got the idea to stop and have Tatum’s nails painted.  Just two weeks ago we went out to dinner and Tatum took her markers and colored in her nails instead of drawing on the paper.  So I realized that she is now 3 and a magical world of “+3” opens up and this includes nail polish.   The first place we tried could not take her – heartbreaking!  But fortunately there was another salon three doors down that was more than happy to paint a three-year-old Tinker Bell’s fingers blue in honor of her birthday.  So happy in fact that the woman would accept payment since the experience became her gift to Tatum.  She too had a daughter who’s birthday was that day and she was so delighted to have had Tatum come in for her nails to be done.  Again, loving the stranger kindness.

We happily went home with blue nails for our afternoon nap.  When Tatum woke we heading out to Josalito’s for our favorite Mexican and then to Paradis for our favorite icecream.  All of this within walking distance from our home!  We still feel like we fell into a pot of gold with this house. 

Nicki with the girls

My dear friend from graduate school came into town on Friday night to help prepare for Saturday’s party.  And thank Buddha she did because there is no way I would have been able to do it without Veronique’s help.  We were up until 11pm drinking wine and making purple frosted cupcakes. In the morning Veronique started the task of squeezing lemons to make homemade lemonade for the party.  We threw together a ton of pasta salad and organized the outside for a fun noontime party with friends, flowers, slides, sippy cups, and pizza.  We ordered from the local pizza joint that has the largest pizza – 36”! – seeing is believing, so here it is.

The party was awesome.  Best of all, Tatum was able to share the day with her friends in her house, the clubhouse that is: 

Tatum was showered with love and gifts.  Our friends and family are so generous, and we are so thankful.  Tatum now has everything a princess could possibly want… THANK YOU!