Happy Birthday Alli!

How could 4 years have passed so quickly?!? Aren't you still my little baby girl that we brought home from the hospital 3 years and 363 days ago? In that post all those years ago, I ended by saying "I wonder what adventures will be in store for us next." I couldn't have imagined all the amazing things we've done together. And it's been really fun seeing you go from infant, to toddler, to little girl who's in to playing dress-up and pretend. And is also super brave on big roller coasters!
Let's get this party started!

For our gift, T has the great idea of redoing the kids' play area. Gone are the little kid table and chairs and toys everywhere. This area is now a maker-space. Both kids are totally into cutting up scraps of paper, coloring, gluing and glittering, and most important of all, taping.

To start, there's a bunch of materials they can use. From stickers, yarn, pipe cleaners, play doh, paper tubes, and all the paper they can go through.

And instead of their tiny Mickey Mouse table, both Ian and Alli have a great big work space, with lots of markers, crayons, scissors, glues, and more. T and I worked on it all the night before.

So that when the kids woke up the next morning it would be there waiting for them. Ian's birthday is in a month, so it's an early present for him.
Ian got ready for school and Alli was a little shocked. "You have to go to school? On my birthday?" I wish we could stay home all day and celebrate with you Alli.

In the weeks leading up to her birthday, Alli had two things she wanted us to do. Eat at Olive Garden and have a Chocolate Bear cake from 85C. Easy peasy.
After work we met up with Jacob at Olive Garden.

Ready for some tasty food.

Alli gobbles down the soup. And both her and Ian love the white noodle pasta too. After a filling dinner, it was time to go home for cake.

Adorable isn't it? Whenever we go to 85C both kids make a point to look for this in the display case. Today they finally get to eat one!

Birthday songs were sung.

Happy Birthday Alli!

She wanted the nose.

It was a tasty cake. Good choice Alli.

Time for presents! Even Ian's school teacher thought of her, giving her a special birthday crown and large birthday sticker.

She had fun opening her presents. And she's definitely my little photogenic kid. Towards the end she'd say "Thank You" and grab both hands, put them by her head and say "Pose for the camera!"

That's a lot of outfits for Shellie May. And when you've only got 2 Shellie Mays, something your brother's Duffy bears get to play dress-up too.

Just a little bit of time in their maker space before bedtime.

Ooh, that's a lot of bright bath bombs to choose from!

What other book could we read than the Dr. Seuss Happy Birthday book?

Happy Birthday Alli!