Annie's 4th birthday

Annie turned 4 on October 29th. She wanted to have friends over for a My Little Pony Party. Being 4, she had an opinion about how everything should go, and who all needed to come. Her list of guests included pretty much all of her preschool class AND her sunbeam class at church. There was some overlap, but if we invited them all that would be 20 kids, plus their siblings that weren't at school, plus parents (I wasn't about to try to handle any number of 3- and 4-year-olds without extra adult help). We settled on just preschool friends and family. And Jacob ended up staying home from work to join in the fun.

I attempted a homemade pinata a bit fancier than I had made before. The extent of my pinata making in the past was a single balloon. Annie wanted a pony, so I made one. Then adjusted a little and it became a hippo. Which is a waterhorse, so close enough. Here's Pinkie Pie, the hippo:

On the morning of the party Ryan had a fever. Rather than cancel the whole thing I texted everyone that we would just stay outside and the sickie would stay upstairs. He was so wiped out he didn't move from my bed the whole time, with a little help from pbskids.org, Super Why, and Daniel Tiger.

The only activity we did was decorating their own pony (or a regular horse for the boys), then some did pony races.

We had unicorn horns available to wear. Annie tells me often that Lizzy is her best friend. And of course her cousins are her other favorite people.

While the kids were playing Annie apparently went around to each of the kids asking, "Did you bring me a present? Did you bring me a present?" Gotta check out who your real friends are, I guess. ;)

Annie's pony cake:

After the cupcakes were all consumed it was present time. The presents had all been placed under the table when guests arrived, and we didn't think to move them, so before we could do much about it the presents were being opened half under the table.

She raked in the pony toys and was in My Little Pony heaven. She kept exclaiming "This is just what I always wanted!!"

After presents it was time to break the hippo Pony open. Everyone got a turn, and on Annie's second turn she managed to knock the head off the thing.

Her real birthday wasn't until Wednesday (we had the party on Monday), and we were planning to do a family party that evening that consisted of pizza (Annie's request), cakes, and presents. But that Morning Annie had gymnastics and her teacher had said they could wear their Halloween costumes to gymnastics if they wanted to, so we let her open one present that morning so she would have her Halloween costume. She got a Frozen dress up box with an Anna and an Elsa dress. When she tried on the Elsa dress, however, it was too scratchy, and even after she put a shirt on under it she was in a bad mood and it was "too poofy" which is never a problem for her when princess dresses are involved.

She decided she wasn't wearing it to gymnastics, so I let her open one other present that had her new gymnastics leotard, and that one was a big hit. She was an Olympic gymnast for her costume at gymnastics. :)

That evening we had our planned pizza, presents, and cake.

I love the look on the girls' faces here:

50 glow sticks from G&G Campbell!

And a My Little Pony puzzle! She was also very excited about the cash box with a combo lock that G&G Knight got her, filled with little treasures, including lots of coins!

Annie is a joy to have in our family. She's quite the jokester and likes to make people laugh, though her favorite punchlines involve potty humor more often than we like. She and Ryan are still the best of frenemies. They can be playing happily one second, then the next be screaming and punching each other. They both like to taunt each other and push their favorite buttons. Annie still absolutely adores Megan and when she sees Megan will most often run over to her and grab her hand and shake it back and forth. Megan loves watching Annie, but sometimes does not appreciate the hand shaking so we say a little too often, "Annie, leave her hand alone."
Annie is starting to learn how to read and can sound out words pretty well. She can read a lot of Bob Books without help, and we're working on sight words now to get her reading moving along a little. Annie loves preschool and loves her friends. She knows her numbers pretty well and can count up to 15 easily. She loves gymnastics and running around. Annie also has a TV addiction, mostly related to My Little Pony. She asks repeatedly throughout the day if she can watch a show. I do get an hour or two where she isn't pestering me about it when she gets to watch a show while Ryan is napping, and then for the hour or two after that is done she is satisfied with playing elsewhere.
Some of her favorite things to do besides TV are painting, playing with play dough, and putting together puzzles. She can do a 60 piece puzzle all by herself and frequently will do puzzles by herself at the table for 30 or more minutes at a time.
We love Annie and are happy to have her in our family. Happy birthday, big 4-year-old!