Happy Birthday E!

I have this big hang-up that what I do for one child I should try to do for the others. Of course it doesn't always work out that way and children need to understand that life's not fair and not everything can be perfectly equal, but if I blog about one child's birthday I definitely need to blog about the other two!

Therefore, this really should be post-dated, but on November 17th E celebrated her big 4 year old birthday. She is my wonderfully strong-willed middle child. She was that way literally before birth- refusing to come on her due date but instead waited a little over a week. When the doctor decided to have me induced and sent me to the hospital, she came before he was able to start the induction- all on her own terms. That's the way it's been ever since, and I wouldn't change a thing.

For her birthday we did a combined party with her brother at the zoo since their birthdays are two weeks apart, and I certainly wasn't going to plan two separate parties with all the craziness that was going on. It was a big hit. They had a little animal show- totally up E's alley since she is the animal lover of the family (rode a full-sized horse with no fear when she was 18 months old.) Her favorite animal was the snake (that's her in the picture with the boa), and she spent the most time petting it. A few weeks later I was at her classroom Thanksgiving party and when I went to retrieve her backpack, much to my surprise there was our stuffed animal snake in there (big thing- about 3 feet long). I was surprised she had left the house with that in tow and my not noticing it. However, her teacher informed me that E had been telling everyone in class she would be bringing a snake to school that week. She really did. At least it wasn't a live one, but I wouldn't put it past her...