Evalee Ann turns 3 years old

It was a beautiful day when Eva was born on April 8, 2010, and it was the first real beautiful day around here this year in 2013 as well. We celebrated her birthday as much as we could. We had her zoo themed birthday party over the weekend before. We had so many friends and family stop by to celebrate with us. The weather was warm but very windy, so we couldn't have our weiner roast like we had planned, but Daddy grilled us hot dogs instead and they tasted just as good. Eva got so many cute clothes to wear this spring and summer and lots of Brave and TMNT toys to fill the living room with.

On Monday it was her actual birthday, and Daddy took the day off to take his girls to the Children's Museum in the morning to play. Once Mommy got off work, we opened presents (more Disney princess dolls and a few princes for them to dance with) and then took advantage of the warm weather by going to play at Camden Park. Eva couldn't wait to run and run and run, and that's exactly what she did. She loved going down the slides -- which she is usually hesitant about -- and climbing up the ladders and staircases. She had to go to the bathroom and we found that the bathrooms were locked at the park, but our big girl held it all the way to Happy Joes for her birthday dinner without an accident. Grandma and Papa met us for pizza and birthday ice cream and made the day even more special.

I am amazed by how much our little girl has grown in the last six months. She has really learned to listen and calm down when she is upset, and the terrible two temper tantrums are slowly becoming fewer and farther between. She has very good manners, usually, and always asks with a "please" and "thank you", even if her request is something like, "Ummm four cookies. Please."

What I am most proud of her for is her memory. She has a memory match card game and a few different memory games on the iPad, and she can fly through them at an impressive rate. She only has to listen to a book a few times before she can finish most of the dialogue or important sentences in the entire story, no matter how long its been since we last read it. She loves to use lines from books, TV shows, and movies when she is playing with her Barbies, princesses, or stuffed animals. I often hear, "I'm sorry, but I just don't deserve you!" coming from any number of the princes, delivered exactly as Belle does in Beauty and the Beast, or "This is the best day ever!" as delivered by Rapunzel.

Her hair is getting very long and beautiful, and the natural curl she used to have is even starting to come back this spring. She is even starting to have enough patience to let us comb it well, put it in ponytails, and clip her bangs back without too much of a protest. She still refuses to wear headbands, but we're taking baby steps.

She is a fantastic big sister. She is always trying to make Izzy laugh or offering one of her toys to her so they can play together. She constantly showers her with hugs and kisses and tells her, "I love you baby Izzy." I hope the sisterly love continues as Izzy gets big enough to crawl around and pick her own toys to play with.

She has grown up so much, and I can't wait for all the fun things we'll get to do together once school lets out!