Each morning the animals migrated south. Tessa brought them downstairs one by one. She piled them on Nanny and then snuggled with her, for about a minute.
And we had even more birthday presents!
One afternoon we planned special movie time. Daddy and Tessa settled in with popcorn and a drink ready to enjoy the show. Unfortunately, Cars does not have a princess or sweet music so Tessa quickly lost interest. Daddy and Pa were entertained.
We also went to the Children's Museum downtown. It is pretty cool with a pretend grocery store, doctor's office, recording studio, farm and much more. Tessa had a good time putting the candles on the cake in the bakery and planting carrots at the farm.
Her favorite attraction was this climbing thing. Centered under a sunroof, this two story plexiglass playground was quite the challenge. Tessa made it all the way to the top by herself and then reconsidered climbing down alone.
We are so active and busy these days whether it's traveling, heading to some social activity, swimming or just hanging out as a family. Having a three year old is really FUN. .jpg)
We had an ice cream sundae bar, ice cream cupcakes and a cake decorated with an ice cream cone. 
There were ice cream games, ice cream balloons and ice cream aprons so they could get messy with their sundaes.
Ryan scooped out lots of fun. It's hard to tell who liked the ice cream bar better, the kids or the dads. 
We played put the sprinkles on the ice cream cone. The finished product is so cute I plan to display it in the playroom.
Our ice cream pinata was hysterical. It refused to break, even when we brought in the big kid as the ringer. The kids loved hitting the pinata and everyone got to take extra turns. Ryan and I both took a swing at it too before resorting to a utility knife.
Group picture. Might have had better luck getting them to sit still if I had tried this before I pumped them all full of sugar.
Time for cake! We had the cutest little ice cream cone candles but Tessa does not like fire so the candles were quickly removed. I think we scared her with the mini bonfire on Daddy's cake a few months ago.
And then we opened presents. I love that our friends bought princess stuff, Tessa was so excited to see all her favorites.
OK, I will admit that I really like the princess stuff too.
What a party! Thank you to everyone for making it such a special day. 
On the last day, Tessa spotted me in my class while her class was playing at the playground. She usually does very well with separation but once she saw me, she refused to return to her class. So she stayed with me in the storytime room. Here she is sitting like a big girl with my kids. Precious! 
Tessa was very excited to receive this new stuffed animal. Yes, she gets presents for 4th of July and pretty much every other holiday too.
Meet Pongo, the daddy dog from 101 Dalmations. He and Tessa are reading a book together. I just love watching her pretend with her animals.
We are very much a Momma's girl these days. She is always wanting me to carry her, hold her, play with her, dance with her, read to her... I wouldn't want it any other way.
Have I mentioned how much she likes ice cream?
And what's more American than baseball? On Friday night, we went to the Greenville Drive game. Tessa had a good time, as long as the Chick-Fil-A cow stayed away from us. She has developed an intense dislike of this particular mascot. She spent half the game shaking her little head and saying "No Cow!" Funny, since she loves Chick-Fil-A nuggets. Despite the cow, Tessa was happy to stay for the duration of the game. We even hung around for the post game fireworks which were pretty impressive. Happy 4th of July!
