look who's 4!!!

Olivia has officially turned 4...and it was quite the celebration! It all started on the morning of her birthday. After waking up and putting on her "birthday girl" shirt I immediately spoiled her with a special birthday breakfast. To Olivia a special breakfast consists of a waffle, yogurt and some fruit. Not really that fancy, but you can make anything special but sticking a birthday candle in the middle of it.

Next it was off to school. It was a normal school day aside from the quick little birthday celebration before dismissal. Each child gets their chance to "walk around the sun" on their special day. This is the Montessori way of celebrating a child's birthday. They hold a globe and walk around a candle (representing the sun), one time for each year of their life. The kids really like this because, for this short amount of time the attention is 100% on them. Olivia walked around the sun 4 times with a huge smile on her face!

That evening we had a birthday dinner for Olivia at my Mom's house. She requested spaghetti, which she seems to do every year on her birthday. We were planning on opening presents after dinner, but anticipation was killing her so we decided not to make her wait. To keep her from bursting at the seams we let her open a few before dinner.

The second she swallowed her last bite of spaghetti she was ready to tear through the rest of her gifts. She was most excited about the digital camera she got from her Aunt Sue Sue. She had been asking for a camera for awhile and was thrilled to finally get her very own. She has hardly put it down since. She was also excited about the gift from us...the Leapster Explorer. We thought it was time for her to have her own learning system and we could not have made a better investment. This learning game systems is fantastic for kids and so educational. I cannot even tell you how many skills she is perfecting with this toy.

After the presents were opened it was time for a little dessert! Instead of a big huge cake that we would never eat my Mom made individual cupcakes...yum! Olivia never gets tired of blowing out birthday candles! So much fun!

That weekend was the big birthday party. For months Olivia expressed her desire to have a mermaid theme party. The challenge for me was finding birthday supplies that were not "Ariel" from the Little Mermaid. I wanted cute little cartoonish mermaids, which are quite hard to come by. I did eventually find the mermaids I wanted, but I had to hand make the decorations. Much more work than I anticipated. But it all came together and made for a very cute little party.

Olivia was lucky to be surrounded by lots of friends and family once again this year. She had most of her cousins there and some of her young friends, which made for a very fun night. The highlight of the evening was her mermaid cake. This is the second year in a row that the office manager at Olivia's school has made her cake. Last year she made the "Olivia the Pig" cake, which was amazing! She did not disappoint this year either. The mermaid cake was not only adorable, but it tasted so good! After singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles we all dug in.
Now my original plan for presents was to have Olivia open them later that evening after everyone went home. I wanted to spare everyone having to sit through present opening and allow Olivia to run around and enjoy her guests. I was going to take a picture of Olivia opening each present and include that picture in her thank you card to each guest. My plan foiled and before I knew it she was digging into all of her presents. I still snapped pictures of her with each gift, but she ended up opening them all at her party. She had a great time, which is all that matters.

Overall I think turning 4 was pretty spectacular for Olivia. As her birthday approached I told her that I was not going to allow her to turn 4 because I wanted her to stay 3. She said that she had to turn 4 and I could not stop her from getting old. It is hard for me to believe that my little girl is 4 now. She continues to amaze me each day with how grown up she is. Her maturity is unreal at times, but she still has the innocence of a small child. I am hoping that sticks around for a long time despite getting older. I also hope that Olivia enjoys each birthday as much as she did this one!