My baby is turning THREE!

Taelyn at about 8 weeks! She was NOT happy about bathtime! She wasn't happy about most of her infancy!

Taelyn last weekend! Almost three and such a happy toddler! Definitely a "girly girl!"

My "baby" turns 3 next week. It's really difficult to wrap my mind around. Last year we did a birthday party at the church and had the bounce house and the Mickey Mouse theme and all of that. And I realized through all of this that Taelyn could have cared less. She just wanted to eat cake!! She didn't really play with any of the other kids. She wouldn't go near the bounce house because she was scared of it. So the 2nd birthday was definitely more for me than it was for her.

This year, being 8 months pregnant, I decided that I didn't really want to go to all of the trouble of a birthday party. I knew that the planning, and decorating, and baking and cooking would be exhausting for me. So Scott and I decided that we would take a trip for Taelyn's birthday this year. The amount of money that you put into a birthday party, even when trying to do it "low scale," is fairly substantial, so we decided to put that money towards something Taelyn would really enjoy and some fun memories that we could make as a family.

We started with New Orleans and planned to do the zoo and aquarium. However, my doctor scared me a little when she said that she was going to give me some numbers for  very specific hospitals and doctors - just in case something crazy happened with my pregnancy while down there. She was pretty adamant that you can't just deliver a baby anywhere in New Orleans!! I haven't had any scares of pre-term labor or any complications whatsoever, but just for the sake of playing it safe, we decided to stay a little closer to home.

A month or so ago, Scott got a coupon on groupon (haha) for a 2 night stay at Yogi Bear Campground in Pelahatchie. We decided that we would just go there for Taelyn's birthday weekend (don't judge) since it is only 30 or 40 minutes away. He called to book it, but groupon sold over 800 of those coupons, so of course, they were booked straight through June when the coupon expires. Except she did find one single cabin available for the weekend before Taelyn's birthday, which is this weekend, so we booked that one. So this weekend we will be heading to Pelahatchie to celebrate the third birthday! And the forecast is calling for 100% chance of rain all day Saturday. Fun times. I'm going to take some games and puzzles and we will just make the most of it and hope Taelyn enjoys her birthday celebration!!

She said she wanted a chocolate cake with white icing and candy all over it for her birthday, so that is exactly what I did. It is a simple cake, but exactly what she wants. I was going to do a candyland theme on the top of it, but decided just to make it easy since no one would be seeing the cake except us (and all of you guys since I am going to post a picture!!!).

I'll let you know how the weekend goes. Maybe the rain will let up a bit on Saturday so we can enjoy some outside time. I'm not getting my hopes up though! One question I do have for those of you that have done birthday parties before the actual birthday - Next week, when her actual birthday is here, how much attention do we give to it? I don't want to confuse her. And - we are doing the cake and presents and everything this weekend, so I don't want her to expect another "celebration" on her actual birthday. But I'm not sure that we should ignore it either. I need your advice, moms!!!