FOUR!

I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that my sweet girl is four-- that I've been a mom for four years! The four years in high school from freshmen year to senior year seemed to drag at times. And college, well, it went by quickly, but I also graduated in 3.5 years (to avoid an extra semester of student loans, I dropped my Spanish minor and took a couple of semesters of 20 hours to finish up early). But the four years from February 5, 2008 to February 5, 2012? They've FLOWN! You can read the whole birth story by clicking here.

Yesterday, we split the day into two birthday parties for Cate. In the morning, we had brunch with her friends. Busken donuts and blueberry muffins were on the menu. Each kid painted a small tote bag and then picked out a book to take home. Daddy played a mean trick on Cate and got her trick candles. She had a hard time blowing them out. Her friends were so generous-- with gifts of coloring/art books, Tangled toys, a purse, games, and Target gift cards-- our girl is definitely loved by her friends.
I love the picture below of her and her friend, Anna, after the party, totally cracking up over the Talking Tomcat app on my phone. I can already picture similar giggle fits in the future. After everyone left, we took it easy for a few hours before family arrived to celebrate in the evening.
Cate requested a chocolate cake with pink icing, so that's what I made. I was a little bummed to not be able to enjoy it though (more of the same issues-- although I'm having some additional testing done on my gall bladder now-- more on that when I know more). New clothes and a new swimsuit, Playmobil sets, more art stuff, more Tangled toys, and some other princess toys now litter our living room. We were overwhelmed by the amount of love shown to our little girl yesterday.

Today is her actual birthday. She woke up to her presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Brennan. They included...
...a big girl bike (I think the sun came out today just for this because it rained all day yesterday). Of course, there were also some books and a game.
Brennan "gave" Cate the Playmobil music class set to go with the school that she got yesterday.She also got a Barbie in a swimsuit to play with at the pool this summer.
We enjoyed a breakfast of pancakes after opening presents.
I think Cate is a little overwhelmed with so much new stuff. She is certainly a blessed little girl and we feel blessed that she's been a part of our lives for four year.

Happy Birthday, Cate! Let's go get those training wheels rolling!

~Melody :-)