Birthday Princess!

3 going on 13! This little firecracker definitely seems older than she is-her language continues to be quite advanced and she is as busy as can be trying to keep up with her brothers. Heidi gets quite offended if the word little is ever used to refer to her such as "little princess" or "little miss" and she constantly insists that she is big. We have been looking forward to her birthday for quite awhile now and mom may have overcompensated a bit in an attempt to make up for last year's super lame birthday when we had to get our Canadian drivers licenses and I ended up lying on the living room floor with a mild case of mastitis. This birthday was much better!

As is our tradition, we started the day with chocolate waffles, whipped cream, and strawberries.

Heidi got lots of presents from her brothers, parents, grandparents, and cousins. My mom made her a gorgeous, colorful quilt with woodland animals pieced together, and Austin went as far as getting her a big interactive pony that sings and talks to her, but of all the presents, she later told me that he favorite was two tiny hatchimals (little plastic animals that come in an egg) that her cousins gave her :)

Here she is with most of her presents, although some are missing because Austin let her open one a day in the days leading up to her birthday, just to prolong the magic and let her enjoy them more than if everything had been opened all at once. From the presents that she opened early, she got a little puppy in a carrier with vet supplies to pretend she is a "pet doctor" from my dad, a sleeping bag from Austin's parents (very useful for our planned camping trips this summer!), and some my little pony gifts from my sister.

The cake is a little lopsided, but I am super proud of it! It is definitely the most complicated cake I've made (I'm not a big cake person), but it was so good and turned out really pretty too. Heidi and I have been planning this cake for months since we saw a white version on Pinterest. Of course she had to have pink though, which was an easy switch. Her favorite part was licking the cake batter off the beaters. Unfortunately she was napping when I made the frosting, and Asher got both beaters before anyone else could get to them.

Here she is just before we opened presents. Austin didn't get any good pictures of her opening them, but it was better just to enjoy the fun than be too worried about capturing the moment.

We went out to dinner on her birthday, partly because all the chocolate waffle and cake making wore me out, and partly because it was one of the last evenings my mom would be with us. The staff were very accommodating with our balloons and cake, and Heidi got to help a lot when a magician did some tricks and let her keep the fork he had bent all up with magic.

What Heidi really wanted for her birthday was to have cake at a park with all her friends, but most of the day was rainy so I didn't invite anyone. It cleared up after dinner so we wanted to take a walk, but decided to drop off half of the giant cake to a family we go to church with that lives close to us. They decided to go on a walk with us and we ended up at the little park near our house and Heidi got her wish to play at a park with her friends, although the only picture I took was of Trevor going down the slide over and over again (this picture makes it look like Leif was helping, but Trevor was really doing it all on his own).

Happy Birthday little Heidi! We love you so much!

Here is Heidi's birthday interview, which she was so excited to do, but ended up just trying to get away to go play something else :)

Who is your favorite person? Leif (This is a strange answer since of all her brothers, she and Leif have the hardest time getting along)

What is your favorite color? Pink

 What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Big Hero 6 or Beauty and the Beast 

What is your favorite outfit? anything pink 

What song do you like the best? I Am a Child of God 

What is your favorite cereal? Chocolate Waffles (not a cereal, but at least its a breakfast food) 

Who is your best friend? Mom 

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be a doctor for people and pets 

What is your favorite book? The Wild Swans (she just got this book from my Grandma for her birthday and we haven't even read it yet) 

What are you really good at? Reading books 

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? McDonalds 

What would you buy is you had a lot of money? a pony, a butterfly, toy cars . . . and a bunch of gibberish 

What is your favorite dinner? Pot pie 

If you could have a wish, what would it be? A purple car 

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Purple and pink ice cream 

Who do you want to be like? The Garcias (This is the family that went to the park with us and they have three daughters all older than Heidi)

What do you like to do with your friends? Play at the park 

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Take care of a baby bunny 

What is your favorite thing to do? Play tag with my brothers 

What are you proud of? Being a big girl 

What are you afraid of? spiders 

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Eat cereal 

How strong is Dad? Really strong 

What does Dad do best? Play with me 

What does Mom do best? Just jump, jump, jump (I have no idea what she is referring to-maybe when I exercise inside on my yoga mat?) 

What do you like best about Dad? Snuggling with him 

What do you like best about Mom? When she sings to me at night