my girl. she’s four now.

so last week, allie-girl turned four.  i still can’t quite believe it.  i mean, she’s still got those cubby, chubby, baby cheeks that i go in to kiss every night after she’s asleep.  did i lose a year?  how can she be four already?

apparently, i’m still wrapping my brain around it.  it might take a while.

to celebrate her birthday, we threw an art party in the park for her.  i might have mentioned this a time or two, but the girl loooves to draw, and cut, and glue, and tape like nobody’s business.  so i knew she’d love nothing more than to have a whole afternoon doing her favorite things with her favorite friends.  i just hope everyone else had a good time too since we kept it rather low-key and almost classroom-like, now that i think about it.

grandma and grandpa made the long drive down the evening before just to be there for her, too.  she loved that.  and she loved the giant birthday gift bag they brought for her to open.

all ready to dive in to the giant birthday bag!  happily, there were presents for all three kiddos in there.

she opened the card first.  and was thrilled to discover that tinkerbell music played every time she opened it.  and that singing card has quite the battery life too- it’s been playing multiple times a day ever since she got it.  “think of all the joy you’ll find, when you leave the world behind.  and bid your cares goodbye, you can fly, you can fly, you can fly!”  i believe that tune is now indelibly etched into my memory.

but it was very sweet of grandma to get it for her.  allie has an awesome grandma.  🙂

mikey got right to work and built a fort for his army guys with allie’s new blocks.  that’s my dad’s foot in the bottom right hand corner, pointing out for me that mikey also built six cannons to protect the fort.

after a quiet morning, it was time to get ready and head over to the park for the party.  thankfully, it didn’t rain that day and the sun was out.  except that the wind picked up and left me with an allergy attack that lasted for two days afterward.  sheesh.

ok, so as i said before, it was kinda classroom-like with activity centers and stuff.  but it looked like the kiddos were having fun with it, right?

the kids started out in the “apron center” where they each decorated their apron however they wanted.  it was cool to see what the older kids came up with.

here’s mikey with his bejeweled (though still manly- note all the blue and green gems he selected) butterfly.

here come the grandparents to save the day!  they kept lauren with them so that phil and i could tend to the party details.  definitely, a great thing.

in the ‘sun-catcher center’…

ah, this girl.  i love how she gets totally focused on what she’s doing.

i wonder where she gets that from?

must run in the family or something.

k carefully supervising as her mommy did the pouring in the ‘sand art center’.

cool sand beaker!  this was just moments before he started shaking and shaking and shaking it.  just to see what would happen.  boys.

another cool sand beaker.  this little girl goes to the same preschool as allie and is one of her best friends.

there’s something so relaxing about painting, no?

i liked j’s roller-paint-the-wall approach.

allie’s abstract work of art.

lauren and grandpa painting their masterpiece on the other side of the easel.  i was surprised- i don’t think i’ve ever seen my dad draw anything before.  kinda cool.

ok, so on a whim, i picked up this pack of 12 christmas pinwheels on clearance for 2 bucks.  just figured a random extra activity could come in handy.  who knew that they’d be the hit of the party?  the kids rather enjoyed them.  might have had something to do with the wind that day and how they were whipping around pretty fast.  not that you can tell in this picture, as the camera caught it in mid-spin.

“Luez” liked ’em too.  (The foam letters weren’t sticking very well…).

then it was time to eat!  mmm, hawaiian food…

allie picked out this ballerina barbie cake.  i picked out the cake flavor.  it was chocolate.

checking out her pinky-purple cake.  i think she liked it.

this picture makes me laugh.  the kids told allie to lick the icing off.  i love her little friend’s moral support.

heh heh.  icing mustache.

hands down, this was lauren’s favorite part of the day.

after the party, we headed home and allie opened her first few presents.  she loved the tutu.  she also loved the barbie.  and pretty much has been in little girl heaven ever since.

it seems that we’ve entered the barbie phase.  oh boy.

the next day, we got to bring special birthday treats to allie’s class.  though i originally had special plans in mind to make a special treat, they were quickly replaced by the next best thing– king’s hawaiian cupcakes.  a little jacked up.  this mama was too pooped to care.

allie had a wonderful time celebrating with her class and came home with four birthday balloons and a birthday crown.  🙂

and so, my girl is officially four and i’d say she had a wonderful time turning a year older.  whew.  one down, four to go!