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Or "three" if you speak non-Daniel. Yup, my kids birthdays are pretty close together, but that just means, you, my faithful readers (and there are more of you than I expected!) get another post! Daniel is a very inquisitive, imaginative, and independent (in the stinker type way) little three year old. It's been a few months now that he has left the two year old stage and gone into three. He is a talker and I love it. He likes to figure out how things work, though gets impatient pretty quickly if something takes a little while. He loves puzzles. He likes things in order- from his daily routine, to lining up blocks, to the order of the bedtime ritual (scriptures, prayer, stories, then songs)-- the boy is very precise. He loves stories. I can offer to read him a book and he immediately stops what he his doing, sits on my lap and listens to the whole thing. When we put him to sleep we tell him Daniel and "Nenna" stories- usually about things he has done but often involving flying or transporting to the jungle or something magica. You can see his little smile while he's lying on his pillow when he recognizes things from his day or if he is especially excited about that part of a story. It makes the 20 minutes of bedtime worth it. Sometimes we can get him to tell us a Daniel and Lenna story, though usually it is hard to understand but is still absolutely adorable. He can have a hard time sharing, but is generally a very sweet, enthusiastic kid. I love to share his enthusiasm and excitement with him when he sees something he likes- he is my best little bud. I love you handsome boy!

His actual birthday was April 4. We flew back from D.C. that day (such a fun trip!) but got home by 4:30 so we were able to spend the evening with him. The Disney Junior website will make a cute little birthday clip from Mickey Mouse to your kid for their birthday, so we did it for Daniel and he absolutely loved it. Even now, he asks to watch it again and when we bring it up he gets a huge grin and starts doing his happy dance.

Opening presents.
A dinosaur we brought back from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
Just throwing in a cute shot of the ladybug.
Daniel frosting bits of his own cake. The following Saturday we had his birthday party. I made his birthday cake this year and did not want his cute little fingers anywhere near it, so he had some small little pieces to frost. Note the frosting goatee.
He was quite the happy boy the entire day.

The cake. I must say I am quite proud of it.
So proud I even took a picture with it. (dork)
"Blowing" out his candles. They never actually stayed lit, but Daniel didn't notice.
He wanted to eat Lightning McQueen's mouth and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Frosting faces! (a drawback to black frosting- which if you've ever had to do black frosting you know it's not easy. Luckily I had good dye).
Cute cousins.
Opening more presents!
Playing with presents!
It was a really fun day and I think Daniel had a great time. He kept talking about his birfday party for several days and asks when it will be his birthday again.

Now for some Easter pictures. I am trying to think of a good segway between those two things, but I can't, so we're just going to jump right in.

Decorating eggs.

I had to color a ladybug on one of them.
Seeing their Easter baskets. We forgot to get them ready the night before, so they were a post bath gift.

Easter dress! She really did look beautiful in it. There was a little a pink sweater for it with cute buttons and she looked so done up.
That evening we went to Gr and Grp Ripp's for dinner and egg hunt. The kids got a little bit of candy before the hung even started (luckies!). Yes, that is green candy drool.
The flowers and greenery behind her were so perfect, I took like 15 pictures of her. This one is my favorite.
The Easter egg hunt! We had tons of eggs- but Daniel never lost interest.
Lenna found maybe one egg on her own and then just wanted to explore or eat more candy.
Daniel was the most enthusiastic of the hunters.
Grandpa Ripp wanted to weed.
Resting from all her hard searching. ;)
Enjoying the fruits of their labors.
Family shot.

Grandma and Grandma Ripp!

Booger nose!

Alright, now for some random pictures.

So cute. Curse you red eye! (and curse me for not just getting real photo software- our camera is just not good enough).
One of Daniel's birthday gifts was a play bbq. I bought this thinking there was additional food items, but it was just the hat and apron. Luckily they are adorable (though the hat is too small for his ginormo head).
While Daniel and I were weeding, this random woman stopped in her car and asked if I wanted her to take our picture. (kind of weird, I know) So, I ran inside (taking Daniel with me of course- I wasn't taking any chances this lady was a creepo though she didn't give that vibe, but you can never be too careful). Not a good picture, but good for blogging and yearly photo books.
Lenna cuddling with Pooh. My goal is to get pictures of all the many things she hugs. It is proving to be difficult because she is always on the move.
Do you ever look at your kids and wonder how you get to be so lucky? I do.