The Third Birthday

Gracie had her party early because--lucky us!--we were going to be at the beach for her birthday! We stayed at a little hotel in Ocean Isle for a few days (all of us in one room--what an adventure that was) so her birthday was spent seaside.

We started with breakfast by the pool (cereal and yogurt were the birthday girl's breakfast of choice I believe).

Then after a quick wardrobe change it was off to the beach for sandcastles, swimming, and seashell picking.

The kids napped in the afternoon, and then we had a birthday dinner of pizza in the hotel room while watching Ni-Hao Ki-Lan (a Nick Jr. show, kind of like Dora but in Chinese) which she loved. Steve ordered her to finish up her pizza quickly because we had to get out the door for....

Birthday ice cream! Gracie chose cotton candy with m&ms.

She was pretty stoked to dig into that thing. (Also, did you notice her sweet princess shirt? Dream come true.)

And Charlie got in on the action, too (minus the actual ice cream).

The after shot. Everything is a little pinker. :)

And then back to the room for present time (we didn't even wipe her face off before we let her start in on the paper-tearing). The hit of the day? An amazing Little Mermaid costume from Tutu and Grandpa Kris. You can see that she stripped her clothes right off and plopped them down so she could get the full effect immediately.

We finished the day looking out at the ocean, right in front of our room. It was a pretty awesome day. :) Happy birthday to our big three year old!