Kirsten is Four

Yesterday our sweet Kirsten Sue turned four. We have looked forward to this weekend for months and months. For Christmas we gave my parents a gas gift card to come down for Kirsten's birthday. Everyday since then Kirsten and I have had a conversation about how it will be her birthday when grandma and grandpa come. Everyday we would talk about her upcoming birthday where she would turn four and grandma would come for her tea party with her friends and she would have pink "happy to you" cupcakes. I have been very excited to have my parents to myself for this weekend. Coming from a family of nine kid it is rare to have one on one time with them. Every week my mom and I would talk and plan the different things we wanted to do this weekend. I was so excited to have family to share Kirsten's birthday with that I went a little partying planning crazy. Thanks to pinterest I have been crafting up decorations and party favors for a couple weeks. Needless to say this weekend/birthday party had high expectations. And let me tell you it did not disappoint, no not in the slightest!
My parents arrived on Thursday afternoon. I woke up that morning feeling sick and after a crazy week my house was not in order for company. But that is the great thing about having parents come, my mom walked into my house after a six hour drive and helped me clean not only my bathrooms but my kitchen too! We spent the evening visiting and hanging birthday party decorations.
Friday morning we made cupcakes, and got the house ready for a party. My parents were so much help. I would have been a stressed basket case without them! The party turned out as cute as I had hoped.

Five little girls from our ward came dressed up for a tea party.

We made little cupcake name cards out of foam (they were little sets I got on clearance at the party section of target). We played pin the jewel on the crown. We had our snack of fruit, cheese, crackers, and lil smokies (all of which were on toothpicks, um except the crackers of course). The girls loved it!

They played in the playroom for a few minutes (amazing what 7 little girls can do to a playroom in 10 minutes!). We then opened presents. I had all the little guests grab their gift and sit on the couch and tried to have Kirst sit on a little pink chair. But she was so heartbroken that she didnt get to grab a present when everyone else did that she spent a good five minutes crying while her friends watched patiently for her to get over it. It was her party and dang it she was going to cry if she wanted to.

 

She received really cute gifts, everyone was very generous. Although her favorite was the umbrella Audrey gave her, a sister always knows best!

We then dressed the girls up in wings, princess tiaras, gave them wands, and put lipstick and blush on them. They danced around the room like that for awhile. It was so darling, is there anything cuter than little girls dancing? I think not.

 

 

When everyone settled down we had them go back to the little table for cupcakes and a "tea" party. Of course they all only took a bite or two of those made from scratch cupcakes, ha ha!

It was an adorable party and the girls were so cute and had so much fun. Kirsten is really starting to come out of her shell and be more social so this party was the perfect way to start out a hopefully very social year for her.

 After the party (and a nice hour of kicking our feet up and relaxing) my mom and I headed out to go shopping. We hit up Michaels, Best Buy, and Target. It was so much fun to shop with my mom without little people demanding to go "potty". We arrived home just as Kirk and my dad were putting dinner on the table, now that is what I call good timing and good husbands! That evening as we relaxed after dinner Kirsten ran around taking pictures of each of us holding the umbrella making a silly face. She was so particular about the way we held the umbrella and the face we made, it was quite funny. Audrey cuddled up on grandpas lap the entire time reading books. A perfect evening with grandparents here.

Each evening after the girls were in bed we would play hand and foot (a card game my friend Katie taught me). My dad loves the game and is very competitive. We sure had fun playing together, even if my parents got so good that they eventually beat Kirk and I every time we played!
Saturday we took my parents up to Spring Mountain Ranch. We had never been there before but had heard good things. It was so much fun!

 

 

We hiked, sat by the pond(I called it a lake but my dad said it was a pond), and mostly just enjoyed the sunshine.

 

 

 

It was so much fun! It felt so much like spring, I wished we had brought a kite, Easter eggs, and hot dogs! We spent enough time in the sun that we all came home a little sunburnt. Yay! First sunburn of the year, bring on summer! We enjoyed a yummy lunch at Jason's deli before coming home and taking naps. I'm not sure if it's this four year old independence thing or what but Kirsten absolutely refuses to take a nap anymore, sigh. She has been quite grumpy and exhausted all weekend but absolutely refuses to close her eyes unless it is dark outside. I have a feeling it's going to be a long month. I say this here because my parents and Audrey took a nice three hour nap while Kirsten laid in my lap with her eyes half closed for an hour! Luckily she went to bed early that night (we were eating dinner at the table when she announced that she was simply too tired and demanded to be taken to bed). So we had plenty of time to put together and wrap her birthday gifts. Audrey loved to help wrap the gifts and even found a few extra treasures to wrap for Kirsten when the gifts ran out. :)
Sunday morning (Kirsten's actual birthday) we woke up and let Kirsten open her gifts (she refused to open any gifts until we sang to her, ha ha) We gave her a water table (that will hopefully be loved this summer), a barbie car, princess dolls, and a helmet (oh and Audrey's wrapped bunny).

 

 

My parents gave her a cute puppet, necklace, and a book.

 

Building the bird house from Nana

My sweet sister Kristy sent down a cute gift which to Kirstens delight included lip gloss.

She was in heaven and so happy, although tired and grumpy too. She made this face all morning.

Ha ha, she has made that face since she was little, some things never change. We had a nice relaxing Sunday. It was so wonderful to have my parents at church with us. I loved introducing them to my friends and letting them see why we are so happy here.

 

 

 After church Audrey went down for a nap, Kirsten was running around playing with her new toys, my mom and I were sitting inside visiting, and Kirk and my dad were sitting outside in the backyard visiting. Now Kirsten's new bike, from Kirks parents, was behind the house waiting to be given to her later. Well suddenly she runs into the house from the backyard "mom! My princes bike! I found it!" and she ran off to find her helmet. Ooops! She was so ecstatic to have a bike.

We took it out to the front yard where she rode it for an hour, up and down the street.

 

 

When I ask her her favorite part of her birthday she always replies that it is her bike. She really loves it and is quite good at riding it. That evening she blew out all of her candles on her princess cake.

 

 

 

 

We drove through Vegas afterwards showing my parents Kirstens school, Kirks work, and all of our favorite places. It was so kind of them to humor us and care about all the places we live our day to day lives. We enjoyed a few more games of hand and foot before letting them get to bed so they could make the long drive home today. We were so sad to see them go early this morning. I loved having them here and hope that we can make a visit to Vegas for Kirsten's birthday an annual thing for them. We had such a fabulous time!

I can't believe our sweet Kirsten is already four. And yet it's hard to remember life without her. She is such a joy. She is kind, patient, easy going, helpful, obedient, and very sweet. She is doing so well in school. She is talking in sentences and doing really great with communication. Last year she was speaking in two maybe three word phrases and now she knows most of the alphabet, how to spell her name, counts to 20, and knows all of her shapes and colors. We are so proud of her, she works really hard! She loves to ride the bus, go to school, go to primary, play at the park, go hiking, ride her bike, dance, paint, color, write her alphabet, do puzzles, play with little princesses and Polly pockets, watch cartoons (especially pink panther and other old school ones), help cook, play dress up, and play outside. She likes to eat oatmeal, cereal, muffins, bread (especially the crust and bread dough), strawberries, blueberries, parfaits, applesauce, noodles, and ham. She proudly declares "I like it!" when she eats something she likes. She gives fantastic hugs and kisses. Whenever she can't do something I ask her too she always says "I can't do it, sorry!", it's so sweet. She has a fantastic imagination and even has an imaginary friend, a little Barbie who sits on her right arm. They have entire conversations of which Kirsten does both sides and says out loud. She is really an easy mellow child who loves to play. She loves Audrey and does everything with her. They play together so well. Lately Kirst has been afraid of the scary alligators, spider webs, and ghosts in our house and refuses to go anywhere alone so her and Audrey are almost always together watching out for all things "scary."
Kirsten really is such a joy to have in our family. I think back to the long day I was in labor with her, wondering if she would ever actually come out. Wondering what she would look and act like. Wondering if I would be a good mother to her. I wish I could have caught a glimpse of our life today. Of the beautiful, intelligent, kind person she is. It would have made me smile and relax knowing that I was about to be receiving such an honor to be her mother. I love her so dearly and am eternally grateful to be her mother.

A few party details.

 

I made this cake and frosting! They were delicious, especially the frosting...it was the yummiest frosting I have ever had!

 I learned to make pom poms here.

 The create paper backdrop from here.

The cute tiara and wand party favors from here.

 

The balloons hanging from the ceiling from here. I put the marble in them and when they hit the tile the marble made a small hole that leaked out for a couple of days. If I did it again I wouldnt do the marble unless there was a strong breeze like from the air conditioner. Also I did them kind of short so Kirk could walk under them but I think they would be prettier longer.

I cut the giant K out of cardboard then covered it in glitter, it was my favorite decor of the party.

I also cut the giant four out of cardboard and then covered it in create paper, it turned out very cute but left some of our neighbors wondering why we were so anxious for April, ha ha.

I also cut out Kirsten's name and the number fours and then covered them in glitter.

 

It really did turn out to be a perfect party.