Saturday was Alivia's 3rd birthday! We celebrated on Friday with Livi's first fireworks outing. She thought riding the train (the elevated railway that runs around downtown Jacksonville) was the best thing she'd ever done. It was all she could talk about the rest of the night... She enjoyed the fireworks, as well, but the train was the best!
Saturday we both slept in and then spent the late morning and early afternoon running around town looking for Blue's Clues items for her birthday celebration. The Party City near us has quit carrying them, and we had to go to two other stores before we found any. Fortunately they did have the main thing I wanted--handy, dandy notebooks! We also got a bobble-head blue for her cake topper. After we finished our shopping we went the long way home and stopped at a park we had passed on our way to one of the shops. I wish I'd had my camera there--it's a great park and Livi had a blast. The whole thing is castle-themed--you enter through the castle gates and it's divided into several courtyard areas--each with swings, slides, climbing equipment, etc. There were several families there, but it felt like we had the place to ourselves the way everything was arranged. Really cool!
After Livi's nap we headed over to Gran's and Papa's house for her birthday celebration. We cooked hot dogs on the grill and had ice cream cake. Livi really liked her new car--although she kept trying to drive it Fred Flintstone style instead of using the pedals. Too cute! She also loved the card Gran gave her--a musical one that played "Dancing in the Streets." She played it over and over again.
Overall, a nice birthday weekend for my little girl!
~ Jeana
Alivia and I made it home late this afternoon after a long and exciting weekend in St. Louis with our friends Christy, Cindy, Katie, Kelly and Grace. We had a fantastic time and I've got a lot of pictures to upload, but I'm going to have to do a quick drive by post now with just a few and catch up with details and more pics later. I'm exhausted! So... please enjoy these few while I recover... 
The one of the three girls all dressed up is from our tea party on Monday. The other two are at the CHI picnic when Livi and Grace couldn't resist joining in with the dancers. Too cute! Enjoy!
