Raina's 3rd birthday!

It's hard to believe that nearly two months have passed since Raina turned three. Her birthday celebration this year was a big improvement over last year - tailgating in a gravel pullout 10 miles down some Big Lake backroad, a cinnamon roll in a to-go box with two candles stuck in it substituting for a proper cake (a story in itself, too long to tell here). This year, most of my family was in Homer for the week, celebrating my parents 40th wedding anniversary, which happens to be July 2, the same day as Raina was born (I don't think I'll ever be able to top that anniversary gift ha).

We hosted the party at our property, right in the garden with a fire in the old wheelbarrow-turned-firepit and foil packet dinners with blueberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream for dessert. I loved having everyone in the space I had worked on so diligently since the snow had melted, it made the special day seem almost enchanted in some way to me. 

Moana for the tired girls who couldn't hang at the campfire ♥

Raina at three is a whirlwind of energy and emotions and pure joy; our girl is a sassy little spitfire to be sure. She's still on the tiny side, but she makes up for it with her big personality. She loves horses and cheese and kombucha, dancing and singing too. She loved to do whatever Riggs is doing, and has really taken off on her strider bike lately. We love her so very much and watch with awe as she blossoms and makes her own way through the world.

We celebrated with Steve's family a few days later at Steve's mom house with grilled salmon and root beer floats, which was really fun for the kids. Dotti wanted to start the tradition for Raina's birthday because her own mother always had root beer floats on her birthday on July 5 (Dotti's mom died along with her dad and little brother of carbon monoxide poisoning during a camping trip when Dotti was 16, so I knew this was an extra special tradition to her).