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Mimi turned three years old yesterday. Today, we went to visit a Montessori school where she may attend preschool next fall. The years go by so quickly; she’ll be in college before I know it.

Her party was attended by her grandparents, who drove all the way from St. Louis to spend the weekend with us. Mimi was thrilled and so was I. It was a small party, with just her grandparents and parents. Dinner consisted of Mimi’s favorite meal: pasta with pesto (and steak, left over from Saturday night).

Mimi chose the cake this year since she now has a very refined sense of taste. She made a classic choice, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, which I made using a barely-adapted recipe from Fine Cooking. I decorated the cake with strips of candied orange peel and little ladybug truffles filled with Valrhona chocolate, a favorite of Mimi’s from way back.

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The ladybugs come from John and Kira’s, one of my favorite sources for chocolate gifts.

Jim carried in the cake.

Mimi blew out the candle as soon as he put the cake in front of her. We didn’t even have time to finish singing the requisite “Happy Birthday to You,” so we relit, sang, sliced, and then fell upon our pieces of cake. It was delicious! Good choice, Mimi!

We finished the evening with a rousing game of “Noise Maker Chicken.”

The object of the game seemed to be to make enough noise to blow the paint off the walls.

I think Da won.