the 4th birthday

Disclaimer: I have accepted my limitations in patience and my thresh hold for self inflicted torture, I did not make the cake. I bought it and was never happier with the results.

Olivia beamed all day long. Big cheeser grin from ear to ear every time someone wished her a happy day. She told me last night before bed, as her little head rested in her daddy's arms, "I had an amazing birthday, Mom. Thank you so much!" And gave me a big squeeze.



The day started with 6 of her friends joining us for a trip to Build A Bear. Last year we took her for her birthday with our family and she saw a birthday party going on. Olivia told me then, that was what she wanted when she turned 4. I can't say that bit of information stayed with me as we moved across a continent, but when I asked her a month ago what kind of party she wanted she answered without hesitating, "A Build A Bear party, me-member."

We had 4 boys and 3 girls all together. None of the boys had ever been here before. They were speechless or grinning madly and captivated by the magic of the place.

Like this guy here!

Our "host" was so good with the kids and made it all seem so real and important to there 4 year old minds. All in all a very, very well behaved group of kids.


Olivia is making a wish on the heart of her pink unicorn. All of her friends made a birthday wish for her and put extra hearts in her unicorn too. SO SWEET!



Of all the cute bears and cuddly rabbits, Olivia chose the ostentatious pink sparkly unicorn and promptly dressed it in a purple evening gown and pink Pegasus wings.

Oh and she named it herself....Fonda.

Which I don't think is because she is a fan of this:

Photo courtesy of this blog

but loves the book:

and got it confused.

Since Build A Bear doesn't have a party room or allow food in the store we ate sack lunches (seriously, I just bought everyone a Build a Bear, we were not buying Happy Meals no one really eats anyway) in the food court but then we didn't know how to do the presents since the tables didn't move and we had kids kind of everywhere.

How about Olivia, you sit in front of the garbage cans and we surround you with the gifts.

Yeah. that works.

A great day.

Happy Birthday sweet heart.

PS- Stay tuned for Ethan's version of the Christmas Story. Yeah he got his tongue stuck to the fence at school because when he tried it UT it didn't work and he didn't believe it ever would. This is after my story of getting stuck to a fire hydrant licking snow of one in kindergarten. He thought I was making things up for dramatic effect and had to see if it was real.

In case you are wondering. It is.