Just Another Day With the McCollums: Lucy's 3rd Birthday

I still cannot believe that Lucy is 3 years old now. That means that I officially am past the baby and toddler stage, which I am having mixed feelings about. It is exciting to look forward to this new stage of our life as a family, but I loved the baby stage so much and will miss many parts of it (but not all parts). Lucy is definitely growing up fast. At three years old:
She is very sweet and loving. She is always the first one to run up to me, give me a big hug, and say, "I love you, Mommy." She is also the first one to run up to Isaiah when he gets home from work, saying "Daddy's home!" She also tells Micah and Lily how much she loves them all the time and loves to snuggle on the couch with anyone in our family.
She had the greatest laugh and a way of making me smile, even when I am in a bad mood(which hardly ever happens, right?).
She will do anything to keep up with her older brother and sister, including following them around an copying everything they do and say. This can be especially challenging when one of the older two are doing something they shouldn't and I ask them to stop. After I tell Micah or Lily not to do something, Lucy will have to do the exact same thing just so I will tell her not to do it too.
She is very active. She loves to run and jump(she is getting fast, too). She will jump over anything and loves to jump on the trampoline.
For being the youngest, she sure doesn't let anyone boss her around. She almost always stands up for herself when she doesn't want to do something. Some of her favorite sayings are "No, I will do it myself!", "I don't want to...", and "Leave me lone!"
We are so happy to have little Lucy in our family. She has made our family complete and brought so much joy with her smiling face and happy-go-lucky attitude. Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Lucy shares a birthday with my mom(Grandma Neen) and this year was extra special because Grandma Neen got to be here to celebrate with us. On her birthday, Lucy told everyone we saw that it was her birthday "and Glamma Neen's too!" Since Grandma Neen was sleeping in Lucy's room, I decorated their bedroom door early that morning.

We celebrated the next weekend with a BBQ with family and friends. Lucy has always loved monkeys, so we did a monkey them which turned out pretty cute.

As they arrived, the kids all made paper bag monkeys, which they later used to put their treats in from the pinata.

And this is the pinata I finally tracked down. My original plan was to make a monkey pinata out of paper mache and one of those huge punching balloons. However, I set it outside to dry(this was my first mistake) and sent the kids out to play(this was my second mistake). Lucy knew I was making her a pinata, so when she saw it sitting outside, I guess she thought she would try it out. Needless to say, it did not survive the baseball bat she found to "whack" it with. There wasn't enough time to make another one, so I ended up driving all over town looking for a monkey pinata. I finally found one a couple hours before the party.

Lucy really got into opening her presents this year. Last year, she wasn't very interested in her presents so Micah and Lily had to open them for her.