Catie turns FOUR!

Catie turned 4 today! We tend to keep her birthday pretty chill to help her enjoy the day and not get overly stressed out.

My favorite simple birthday tradition is that we decorate her door the night before with balloons and birthday signs. Andrew was an awesome sign maker.

Catie woke up at 7am this morning before anyone else and was absolutely adorable. She kept saying, "thanks for decorating my door mom." She played in her room until everyone else woke up and then we all went to her door and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was all smiles and you could tell she felt so special.

For breakfast we had leftover waffles from last night's dinner because we didn't have enough time to make birthday pancakes. We'll have to do those another day this week. Catie loved having a candle on her waffles although blowing it out was tough for her! She also loved that I decorated the kitchen a bit and had birthday hats for everyone to wear. She made sure to tell me "thanks for decorating for me" several times. Love her!

We let her open a present or two before Andrew and Kevin headed off for the day. She loved the tea set that her Grandma Shari got her and she and Ryan spent the rest of our time at home having pretend hot cocoa together using the new tea set.

The rest of the morning was spent riding bikes in the gym at the church and playing with friends! She even had some thoughtful friends who made her brownies. She shared them with lots of kids and they were gone before we got home.

In the afternoon she played with some new toys during quiet time and then after school she and Andrew played on the trampoline in the rain and got soaked! I think it was the highlight of the day! We also made spin art and paper plate holiday wreaths. Catie opted for the less traditional holiday wreath with purple and pink on it. Can't wait to see what it looks like once the pain dries and she's able to finish it.

For dinner she requested cheesy shell noodles, then we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then we opened the rest of her gifts! She was so appreciative! For every gift she opened she said, "this is just what I wanted!" She has such generous and kind grandparents! She also loved the Frozen underwear and Hello Kitty socks I bought her. Before she went to bed tonight she changed her underwear 3 times because she couldn't decide which pair was her favorite to sleep in.

After present opening we dived into birthday cake! Catie had requested a Tinkerbell cake and I decided to make it myself since I am too cheap to buy one for her. It is a good thing that she doesn't have any expectations yet regarding how good the cake needs to look... because it was hideous and she didn't care one bit since it had Tinkerbell and friends on it. It was delicious though with lots of frosting just the way she likes it!

The night got a little fun when Catie almost scorched her hair off blowing out candles, but we caught her just in time.

We ended the night with cake and ice cream and she did some LEGO building with her new Ariel princess set from G&G Smith (with help from Andrew). She was so wound up it took awhile for her to head to bed! We are so glad she had such a great day! 

Some details about Catie at age 4 are...

• she loves her stuffed rabbit more than anything in the world
• she goes to a local co-op preschool twice a week and then also does a mommy & me co-op preschool once a week... she loves her friends!
• she is addicted to beverages (especially orange juice) and loves yogurt and applesauce too
• she wears size Small clothes (in girls), no more 4/5T shopping for her!
• her favorite foods are shell noodles, chocolate, and ice cream (my girl!)
• her favorite toys are little people princesses, tinkerbell minifigures, magformers, and my little ponies... to name a few (she loves most things, so I don't think she's met a toy she doesn't like)
• she loves shopping for shoes
• she is a super big and little sister and is loved by her brothers!

We are so grateful to have cute Catie in our family! Happy 4th Birthday to our favorite little girl!