Mercy's Third Birthday & First Sleepover

This past week was quite special: not only was it Mercy's third birthday, it also marked her first sleepover at our house! 

It all started on Thursday August 11th - the day of her birthday (PS I still can't believe she's 3. I still remember holding her at the hospital on her birthday like it was yesterday!) Grandma brought her straight from dance class to our work to have a little birthday lunch. We got her a spiderman balloon because she loves superheroes. To say she was THRILLED to have that balloon is an understatement. She ran around so excitedly with it!

Once we sat down for lunch, she was excited to open her birthday present from us. When she opened it, she immediately yelled "Mickey Mouse legooos!!!!" We then played with the legos all through lunch. Her favorite thing right now is sending her little toys out to "space" (so she will go and hide them somewhere). She has a big imagination!

It was such a treat to have our favorite little visitor come see us at work. Later that day, she had an M&M birthday cake and received a big surprise: a mini-playhouse in the backyard built by grandma and grandpa! And yes, that's a solar panel on the house...

The next night (Friday night) was the big night! We had a BLAST that evening - we walked her to the playground, gave her a bubble bath, and watched Toy Story together. And she clearly had no problems sleeping in our bed with us!  

The next morning, she got up and walked to the window and happily exclaimed, "The sun is out!" She was my little helper as I did laundry and cleaned up the house. We played with her toys, and of course Uncle Derek got some jokes in. Her expressions and giggles are adorable. 

We got ready and stopped at Target before going back to grandma and grandpa's house. Because she was such a good listener when it came to going potty at the store, she got a special toy. She picked her special toy out of a bunch of toys that she wanted. She was so excited about the toy that she insisted on carrying it through the store! 

It's safe to say this little sweet heart has completely stolen MY heart. It's also safe to say there will be many more fun sleepovers in our future!