Happy Pioneer Day

We have been on the east coast for 6 years now and have never had the opportunity to celebrate Pioneer Day. We decided to do our own celebration, which included having Olivia dress up as a pioneer to church.

Olivia enjoyed wearing her pioneer outfit and was anxious to hear pioneer stories and look at pioneer pictures. On the way home from church she asked me if little pioneer girls helped vacuum. I told her I was pretty sure they didn't.

Candy

Olivia has a very unusual relationship with candy. She talks about it all the time and gets very excited about it, but not in the same way most kids do.
A while ago she went to her friend's birthday party and she was given a sucker. She had a little bit of the sucker and than asked me to save it in my purse. About an hour later on the way home she all of a sudden shouted in a voice of great distress, "Mom why did I lick that sucker, now I'm going to get a cavity."

The most interesting aspect of her relationship with candy is that she's far more excited to make what she calls "candy soup," than eat the candy.
When making candy soup she follows a very specific process. She unwraps and collects the candy in a tupperware, then breaks it up into tiny pieces, and then heads to the sink to wash the candy and make candy soup.
The same process is followed each time, she takes it all quite seriously it is quite humerous to watch.

Olivia is 3!

These are a few things that characterize our little girl as she begins life as a 3 year old.

1. Olivia loves to be silly, play tricks on people and make people laugh. It is very important to her to make people laugh. When she is with her friends she puts on a one man comedy routine. She falls to the ground, runs into walls and makes up crazy languages all in an effort to get her friends to laugh, and she is usually very successful.

2. As a result of loving to read, Olivia has an extensive vocabulary. I frequently hear things like this:

- "I saw a dog go to the bathroom on the sidewalk, he was victorious!"

- After waking up one morning she said, "I feel very tired and lackadaisical."

- After walking into a public restroom she immediately stopped and said, "Mom this bathroom is vain and selfless."

3. She is fascinated by things that are gross and macabre. When we read her Bible stories we can never get past the story of Peter chopping off the soldiers ear, she wants us to read it again and again.

4. Imagination reigns supreme. Olivia can go weeks without touching a toy, she would rather play doll with pretend dolls and play restaurant without her toy pots and pans. Her absolute favorite activity right now is to play "holidays." We don't actually act out the holiday, we act out making decorations for each holiday...her favorites are Christmas and Valentines Day.

5. This little girl is obsessed with dresses. The first thing out of her mouth in the morning is, "Can I put on a dress?" She changes her outfit numerous times a day- each time into a different dress.

6. Olivia happens to be the sweetest little girl. She tries so hard to make us happy and show us her love. There isn't a day that passes that after Olivia is asleep Matt and I will comment to each other, "she tries so hard" and she really does try so hard to be kind and thoughtful.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Olivia had a great birthday, she was lucky enough to have Grandma Mary, Grandpa, Joe and Emily come out for her birthday. Since her birthday was on Sunday this year, we thought we would celebrate on Saturday. Whenever we go to Central Park Olivia always loves to look at the horse and carriages so we thought this would be a fun birthday activity for her.

On the way to the carriages we ran into Elmo and Olivia wanted to say "hi!"




After Central Park we all headed home for a little party. Olivia selected a strawberry cake and lemon frosting for her birthday cake, but she was most excited about the rainbow jello and she wanted to be very involved when it was time to make it.







After the food she opened her presents.




Matt and I got roller skates and a helmet for her birthday. Whenever anyone would ask her what she wanted for her birthday that was always her answer. After opening the skates she put them on immediately. We have since found out she loves to ride her skates inside the apartment, but doesn't love riding them outside.



I'm not sure where she came up with this idea, but since this last winter every time we go down the cereal aisle, Olivia would stop at the Froot Loops box and tell us that was going to be her special birthday cereal. Sunday morning on her birthday she had a big bowl of Froot Loops and loved them.



Olivia enjoyed playing with Joe and Emily. She loved having them here, I don't think she wanted Emily to ever leave her side.



After church we had a birthday dinner. I had asked Olivia what she wanted for her special birthday dinner she requested mashed potatoes and carrots. I added pizza rolls, which I knew she loved, so it would be a little more of a meal.



Olivia absolutely loved having everyone here for her birthday, she was sad to see them leave.