Anna's Birthday

I think I look forward to my kid's birthdays more than they do.  Although I am not ever going to be one of those moms with the designer birthday parties featured on Pintrest, I do love to make birthday cakes and create fun birthday parties.  Heck, I just love celebrations and birthday parties are the best kind of celebration. So Anna and I had been discussing her 4th birthday party practically since her 3rd birthday party.  Anna decided that she wanted an "Ariel under the sea" birthday party.

I found this great wall cover.  Why reinvent the wheel?

For the second year in a row, it was cold and overcast for Anna's birthday party.  Who would have thought that July 28th would be such trouble?  Only in Seattle.  Well, while we did not use the two kiddie pools we had set up for the game "princess and mermaid" in which you jump in and out of the pool depending on when the music is playing.  But we did have a very successful treasure hunt.  Each child decorated their own sand bucket with stickers and then used the bucket to gather up gold coins in our backyard. Later on, the kids were able to exchange their gold coins for salt water taffy and swedish fish.  And that was their party favor.

I was actually particularly proud of my outdoor decorations.  I wanted to create an aquarium feel.  It is amazing what you can do with crepe paper.

For lunch the kids had peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches, cut up cheese (sharks teeth), goldfish crackers, and watermelon :)

Anna had about 8 friends over.  This is a picture of all the pink girls who were present.

And I loved making this cake.  It was easy and fun.  Not too time consuming and Anna loved it.  Success!

Anna's real birthday was the next day.  We had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast. 

Anna got a real tea set for her birthday that  I had found at Goodwill in February.  She loves to have tea and I thought that she and I could spend many an afternoon (and we have) having real tea parties and discussing the day!

Anna also got her first bike for her birthday-- also second hand.  

Last year Anna wanted to go to Costco and eat a hotdog for her birthday.  This year she wanted McDonalds.  Is that a step in the right direction or are we descending?

We made cupcakes and she got to blow out the candle.  If I were to guess her wish, it would probably be to go to Disneyland.

She is already talking about her next birthday party, which at this point would be a "my little pony" party.

Here is what Anna is up to as a 4 year old:

1) She loves books more than any other toy.  She goes to bed with books.  The accompany her on every trip.  She doesn't have a favorite stuffed animal, but she has her favorite books.  She loves fairy tales in all their forms and all Fancy Nancy books.
2) Her second most used "toy" is her dress up box.  She has collected an odd assortment of princess gowns, dance wear, capes, shoes, scarves, and hats and uses them almost every day.  Her imagination is really blossoming and she loves to dress the part.
3) She still screams every time the sleeping beauty castle appears at the beginning of a disney movie.
4) When eating a cupcake, the only important part is the frosting.
5) She is equal parts tomboy and princess girl.  This summer she helped me in the garden by collecting a commune of worms.  She loves dirt and puddles and running and jumping and cars and is fascinated by all insects and creepy crawly things.  But she also loves jewelry and shoes and anything "fancy"  She wears one of her princess dresses almost every day for some period of time, and she dances and sings everywhere we go.
6) She has developed a strange and irrational fear of dogs and cats.  She will stay inside the house if there is a mention of a cat outside.  I have to check for dogs and cats before she will go outside.
7) She is around 45 lbs of solid muscle
8)  She loves to help me cook.  She knows that she is my sous chef and she has a pink stool that she has to bring into the kitchen.  In fact, she has me "freeze" what  I am doing until she has a chance to go back and get her stool so she can help me.  Sometimes when I am making dinner, she will put a large soup pot in the sink and pretend to make soup with all the extra ingredients I don't use.  She always licks the bowl, and the spoon, and dips her fingers into the batter and tries to eat the sugar plain unless I am physically there preventing her hand from sneaking in.
9)  She will now say prayers regularly on her own.  Sometimes she sings them and other times she whispers them so softly that you can barely hear them.
10)  She loves her little brother. She likes to help feed him his breakfast and lunch.  When she does, she likes to add a magnet to her chore chart for "sharing."
11) she loves "ganoler bars"
12) she associates riding in the car with eating snacks.  She demands a snack every time we are driving everywhere, even if she has just had a big meal
13) She has recently shown some ability to delay gratification.  She can wait to eat chocolate chips and will save a particularly good treat for later.  It might be time to try the marshmallow experiment again.