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It was party day today and there was lots of organizing to be done before family arrived even though we were running on vapors of sleep. @smallsteps was indeed up all night ill, and my wife and I took it in shifts to take care of her. 

https://i.imgur.com/elcQlfk.jpg

My wife took responsibility for most of the cooking and made some cupcakes for the guests as well as special ones for our daughter that only contain ingredients that she can eat. While everyone else would likely politely spit them into their napkin with a look of abject disgust... @smallsteps *loves* them as it is pretty much the only treat food she has ever known and this year they had soy cream on them too. 

https://i.imgur.com/frHBr8J.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PMnz5sJ.jpg

And @abh12345 will be happy to know that I didn't screw up the Pavlova and it was actually one of the better ones. I even added some food coloring to the meringue to make it pink - I don't think anyone cared enough to notice.

https://i.imgur.com/RdjdwUf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wWce65Y.jpg

There was a bit of a loose unicorn theme going on as @galenkp has been sending heaps of little unicorn things over the last few months and more for her presents today and she has welcomed them in to her life alongside dinosaurs.

This was the first year she got to blow out the candles on her muffin and she was pretty stoked to have happy birthday sung to her before she blew them out. 

https://i.imgur.com/4bPrMGE.jpg

I am not sure if she made a wish, but if she did it was likely for a second muffin. She will likely get her wish fulfilled on Tuesday, her actual birthday but we won't make much of a deal about it then. We gave her an electric toothbrush because we are boring people, but did hold back a present that we can mark her birthday with, *Connect 4,* that old school board game that I found on sale. She has played a little before and really enjoys it so I figured having one at home is not so bad.

https://i.imgur.com/x6dWbVm.jpg

It is pretty amazing to see how much she has matured over the last few months and it is very noticeable watching people who haven't seen her for a while interact with her. They tend to firstly treat her as much younger than capable and then straighten up when she replies with more complexity than they are expecting. It is a problem because I forget that she is only three myself - well, *three on Tuesday.* 

https://i.imgur.com/yoa3o6d.jpg

She is still quite ill at the moment with a flu and fever, but hopefully she can get some rest tonight and feels better in the morning. I am hoping she will at least sleep through most of it because I am back to work tomorrow after the week off and I am quite sure it is going to be a very long day playing catch up. 

While we keep birthdays pretty simple, it is nice to be able to prepare some food and coffee for people and I know that our daughter felt special having people come here to see just her. It is nice to also hear her thank people for the presents as they leave and after hear her say;

*"Thank you for getting me the balloons, Daddy."* 

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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