Birthday Fun

We had a fairly quiet day for Dani's birthday. The two weekends previous to this we had parties at other kids' houses and so I decided to take it easy for her birthday and didn't invite anyone over. Luckily my Dad was in town so someone did come to celebrate with us.

We started the day by making her cake. One of Dani's favorite activities is cooking with Mom. She loves to add the ingredients after I put them in the measuring cups or spoons and loves to attempt to stir it together. She picked out the recipe (orange) for the cake and the mold (a cottage or "castle").

After making her cake, she really wanted to eat it, but we had to wait until Grandpa came. We went to the zoo while we were waiting. It was too cold for most animals to be out, so we enjoyed the warmth of the indoor aviary. Upon leaving we were excited to see Mr. Rhino come to visit us. He is quite old and normally is not one to move.

Afterwards Dani picked out a stuffed flamingo to buy from the gift store. Every time she says the word Flamingo it changes, (flayng - o - meen is most often used). Grandpa arrived shortly after we got home from the zoo and we opened presents, got pizza at Papa Murphy's and ate cake.

Dani was particularly excited about her new dress up clothes (her beads, "parkle shoes" and fairly wings - from Jess and Grandma & Grandpa) and her new doll house furniture (living room set, child's bedroom, accessories for baby, & dining room).

After opening presents she played doll house with Grandpa and the babies and parents all ate at their new dining room table.

Trent and I bought her quite a few puzzles (12, 24 & 42 piece wooden puzzles) thinking some of them were too advanced for her, but within a month she surprised us and quickly mastered all but the 42 piece one without help.

Lately she has also been really fond of her stuffed Bolt dog. She likes to give him kisses and call him her "sweet puppy" and telling him how "cute" he looks wherever he happens to be sitting. We've also been enjoying dancing to Laurie Berkner band CD and DVD. If I get around to posting it, you will see how obsessed Dani is with dancing in her skirts ("dirts") lately.