Elly's 3rd Birthday!

We just got back from a quick trip to Birmingham to celebrate our niece’s 3rd birthday! We had a blast! We picked Shelby up from preschool on Friday afternoon and then hit the road! We had a pretty smooth drive up (as smooth as a long car ride with 2 small children can be!), got checked into our hotel, and then met Lucas, Maleah, Elly, & Leland for dinner at Jason’s Deli. Shelby was so excited to see Elly!!

Hadley & Leland babbled back and forth the entire evening & couldn't
take their eyes off of one another...it was too cute!

On Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to Elly’s birthday party at the McWane Science Center. It was such a cool place!

This was in the party room, and Shelby would have been perfectly
content playing with this all day. She loves these things!

I love this picture of Maleah :)  Elly was feeling shy, so her cousin Mya
blew her cousin Mya blew her candles out for her.

Hadley playing in the party room while I am sneaking some cake...
thanks for catching me red-handed, Derek! ;)

Hadley's first taste of birthday cake!

And here's Hadley trying to get her first taste of birthday cake off of her tongue ;)
Of course our child who eats anything wants nothing to do with the good stuff! Ha!

The birthday girl playing dress up in the party rom

There was a bunch of stuffed numbers in the party room, and for some
reason Shelby loved them! She kept trying to hoard all of them!

Hadley & Leland were happy to see one another again :)

Trying to get a picture of them together..we all think these
two cousins look alike! :)

Leland with SuSu (Lucas's mom)

Pop-Pop with Shelby & Elly

Checking out the touch pools!

Sweet cousins :)

Granddad & Hadley enjoying a conversation :)

BooBoo with Elly & Shelby

After the party, we got some lunch then headed back to our hotel room for naps…all 4 of us slept! We finally had to wake the girls out of a dead sleep at 4:45 to head over to Lucas & Maleah’s for dinner. Traveling & partying makes for tired girls!

The kids' table :)

Our attempt at the cousins' picture with BooBoo & Pop-Pop.
Derek's mom is always diligent about getting this picture taken every time we're
all together. Derek & I were talking last night about how thankful we'll be one day
for these pictures & how much we'll laugh at these pictures of squiriming & crying
kids from the early years!

Elly & Leland did a great job posing for the photo, but our girls were just
not having it. Miss Hadley didn't want anyone other than Mommy or Daddy
holding her all weekend, and this picture was no exception.

Shelby getting a ride on Elly's new birthday present...she loved it! :)

We are so grateful we got to celebrate Elly's 3rd birthday with her & spend the weekend with our family! It's always so fun having everyone together! Looking foward to doing it again for Hadley's birthday party in just 3 weeks! Crazy!!!!