Happy Birthday.

Today is Lillian's 3rd birthday, and the first she's celebrated with us, American-style. She had a wonderful family-and-friends birthday luncheon in Abilene, Kansas, at the Brookville Hotel, a regionally famous chicken restaurant once supplied by her Grandpa's family's hatchery, Austin Fryers. But that was a long time ago, when Grandpa was a kid. This weekend it was all about being a birthday princess. We had 30 people, including 8 kids 4 and under, in an event room. Good thing, too, because once the balloon-punching balls came out of the party favor bags, it was a pretty loud room! (The photo is of Lillian and second-cousin Gavin Austin hugging farewell.)

Last night we made strawberry cupcakes for Lillian's preschool class, wearing our matching aprons Grammie made us. Her class serenaded her with "Happy Birthday" this morning. Tonight, after work and preschool, she gets to open her presents from Mommy and Daddy.

I'm not sure whether she fully comprehends the birthday concept (we've been working on saying "three" instead of "two" when she's asked how old she is, but so far it's just "two, birthday, tee!"), but she is very satisfied with the idea of birthday cakes, birthday sundaes, tiaras, and blowing out candles.

Our ballerina doll

Lillian had a full day yesterday. Her preschool asked if she could come to school on Friday (she usually is just there Monday-Thursday) to celebrate the fall festival. She had a blast in her tie-dyed orange pumpkin T-shirt, which she and the other toddlers had made a couple weeks before. They all got to go "trick or treating" around the building, to each other and all the other classes. Every kid brought 40 treats and shared one with every other kid. She was delighted with her personal haul!

After coming home and getting a good nap in, Lillian got ready to dress up for the evening. We had talked about her dressing as a Chiefs cheerleader (jokingly, we'd said with a paper bag over her head) or an Olympic gymnast. But when the time came to get dressed, she wanted to wear her dress-up tutu with anything, so we improvised and called her a ballerina doll.

Since she'd already done her trick-or-treating for the day, we went out as a family for the evening and did some early Christmas shopping and ate at Winstead's. We left candy in a bowl on our front porch with a sign inviting kids to take 2 each. Amazingly, when we got home, there actually were a few pieces left!

Lillian turns 3 in a couple weeks, and at that time, she'll be moving up to the full-scale preschool room. She loves it when she gets to go up to the bigger kids' classroom now on occasion, as the school prepares her for the transition. Many of her original classmates have already graduated to upstairs. It will be great for her, but I know she will miss spending time with her current teachers.