Happy Birthday Esmé!

When I asked Esmé what she wanted to do for her birthday this year, she had only three requests.  Friends, balloons, and chocolate cake with sprinkles.  Done.

She is such a socialite (whose daughter is she anyway??) and loves playing with friends so much that I bet she'd even choose a playdate over Disneyland.  So having her friends come over to eat chocolate cake and play with balloons was pretty much her dream party.  She was absolutely ecstatic the whole day.  Happy Birthday to our little 3 year old!

Banff

Kyle and I took a very lovely vacation last month to Banff.  We dropped off Esmé at Grandma and Grandpa's in Vernon (thank you Anne and Rick!!) for her very first sleepover, where she spent 5 days away from home and from us!  She had a great time at Grandma's house, frequenting the ponds and playgrounds, the apple orchard, visiting cousins, and of course, Starbucks.  Mostly just getting plenty of love and more attention I'm sure than she ever gets!

I don't think that she realized that she missed us until we got back.  As soon as she saw us she made strange half laugh, half cry sounds while clinging to me with all four of her limbs.  And as expected we had a week of adjustment when we got home, some days harder than others!

But overall, we were so thankful for our time away as a real adult married couple.  Like our friend Tracy said, "We realized that we are actually still fun people!"  We filled our days with some beautiful hikes, signed up for a week of yoga, treated ourselves to massages, lounged in coffee shops, and enjoyed the beauty of the Rockies.  It was a perfect retreat as we prepare for this next phase of our life.

Halloween

Little Red Riding Hood, Drag Grandmother, and the Big Bad Pregnant Wolf

(Esmé assigned the roles.)