Kate Lily Splechta.

Born November 7th. The year of the dragon.

Kate is my free spirited, wild child. She loves to run barefoot through dirt and chase boys. She loves super heroes, defeating bad guys, being a princess and rescuing other princesses. She is kind to babies, animals and considerate of all peoples feelings and gets worried when someone is hurt or sad. She is lost in her own world most of the time. She loves dressing up and she loves running around naked. She is the definition of happiness and freedom. She made me a mother and changed my life, and I adore her. She's my best friend.

We did that one REALLY BIG 1st Birthday party for our first daughter when she turned one, you know: booked pavilion, custom birthday cake, birthday outfit from Gymboree, hand made invites, all that jazz! It was FUN! and sweet and we love all the memories we made. But my goodness, it was exhausting! We spent her 2nd birthday just the 3 of us at Magic Kingdom.

This year, for Kate's 3rd birthday, we wanted to make sure Kate still felt special and excited despite us having a new baby and being pretty tired, and still trying to find out way into a family of 4. We wanted to keep it low key, and we thought hanging out with her best buddies at the park would be just as great as a planned party. The only thing we did plan was to bring a cake!

This low key get together just turned into the best birthday party somehow all the planets aligned and we just went with the flow of the morning/early afternoon. I don't think I've ever seen Kate as happy & excited as she was today. She was excited to see her little buddies, she was so joyful because we literally had no expectations, so it was super laid back and FUN! The baby slept nearly the entire time happily in Mike's arms.

I get joyful tears! I'd love every weekend to be exactly like today was. Hanging out with great friends in good weather, watching our kids having the time of their lives, without a single care in the world. Even some women riding their horses stopped by the edge of the playground to let the kids pet the horses.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate the life of this amazing little person who made us parents.