Eliot turns three

The tiny girl turned three on the weekend. She had been asking for a "big dinosaur", that moves, for some time, so her main present was a ride-on triceratops (yeah.. I know..siamo tutti americani oggi). Her first comment: "But I wanted a T-rex, not a triceratops!". I'd decided against that as I suspected she would be more scared than she realized of a moving, roaring T-rex. Maybe not! But they rapidly became friends.

As last year, we combined her birthday with our annual neighbourhood party. It was a beautiful day, food worked out well, and everyone had a lot of fun. 15 or 20 kids, and they all entertained themselves for several hours, with no serious breakages and no injuries. Eliot had ordered an Eve cake (from Wall-E). Maybe a little less carefully pulled off (there was a girl jumping at my elbow), and the crumbs from the cut cake mixing into the frosting do more damage to Eve's would-be smooth exterior.