More About Grace's Birthday

And yes, I am backdating this post so that it at least appears to have taken place in her birthday month.  :)

I forgot to share this poster that her guests colored as they left her party.  You can tell the age of most of the colorers by looking at their coloring techniques.

This is Grace as we found her when we came to get her up on her birthday morning.  We had celebrated my sister's birthday the night before - the same day as Grace's party - so Grace had her hat from Amanda's party.

Here she is, finding her birthday surprise.  Unfortunately, Benjamin saw the bike an instant before she did and told her that her gift was a bike.  She loved the bike anyway.

And yes, these are the Cookie Monster pants we gave Jeff for Christmas.

Grace took her first ride on the sidewalk in her pajamas.  It was hard to get a picture of her as she moved.

She opened a couple more gifts from faraway loved ones before breakfast.

She loved her gifts.

I used her banner for the 5th year in a row.  I had to remove a few squares because my banner-hanging space is smaller in this house.

After church, lunch, and rests, Grace enjoyed a long birthday ride with Jeff.  She feels like such a big kid now.

Doreen couldn't come for the party, but she came by for a nice visit, gifts, and her signature cookies.

Awesome, right?  And delicious.

 Grace had a wonderful party…and real birthday…and she even got one more gift from Ella and Delia yesterday, which will show up on the blog soon.

Singing a Song

Benjamin is our little musical performer these days.  He loves to have his guitar close at hand and often asks to sing me a song, sometimes with clapping included (although pants are optional, as you can see.)  Usually the lyrics of the song are "Get on board this train, God" or "God has done everything."  People comment that he looks a lot like his brother - or his sister - but his personality is all his own!

The Hammock

Jeff has a hammock that he's been carrying around, and mostly storing, for longer than I've known him.  We've used it while camping once or maybe twice, but that's all.  Imagine how excited he was when he realized that we have trees in our yard that are hammock-distance apart.  And now imagine how excited the kids were!  Lying in a hammock while kids are climbing in it is fun for Jeff, so here's that looked like.

As you can also imagine, I'm not very excited to be in a hammock with kids climbing in it, so I was very happy to be the photographer instead.

My Job Is Done.

Well, not done, exactly.  But, when I got all the kids in the car and had to run back inside for something, look what I found when I got back to the car:

Three kids who are not only *not* arguing/pestering (at the moment,) but who have books in their laps and are looking at them!  What more could I ask for?!

Preschool Art Studio

The "youngers" have been enjoying their paints and smocks!  I love watching them let their creative juices flow.  They are so different from each other (and from their big brother,) and each kid has her/own consistent style of painting.  With kindergarten being what it is these days, I'm not sure Grace will get much painting time when she goes to school, so I'm very happy to give it to her at home.  And since I don't have Benjamin enrolled in preschool, I'm happy to provide this experience for him, too.

When Grace paints or colors, she uses large areas of color.

Benjamin uses little dabs.  Always.

He's very proud of his creation.

And so is she!

Four-Year-Old Fashion

Nope, she's not four anymore.  But she was when I took these pictures!

Grace's Birthday Party

As promised…and not even a month late!  :)  Grace had a fun little party.  If you know us well, you know the typical little family party that we throw for birthdays before our kids are in school…and this was no exception.  The little cousins are getting a little older now, so I tried to give them a couple of things to do, but other than that, the routine was pretty much the same, and we enjoyed it.  We also enjoyed inviting our next-door neighbors to join the fun.

Here's the party hat decorating station.

Here's the coloring and tattoo station (seriously!) with party favors in the background.  I found Hello Kitty temporary tattoos on clearance at Hobby Lobby, so how could I resist?

The birthday girl, anxious to get started.  I found these bunny ears in the dollar section at Target a few days ago, and up until her party, she had worn them constantly, including while sleeping.

A hug for Ginny...

and some dancing to the Frozen soundtrack while we waited for our guests.

Deep conversation.

"I'm king of the world!" he says.

Guests!  Time to decorate hats!

And time to eat!

See?  Tattoos.

The hats were a success.

My mom made this cake for Grace.  When I was very little, Mom took a cake decorating class, and she sure has used her skills for us a lot since then!

The birthday girl was thrilled.

She had a little trouble with her aim, so I helped.

You've seen these two pics before, but here they are again in case you missed the other birthday post.

 Happy birthday, precious Grace!