it's her party.

Our beautiful firstborn turned four on the tenth.

It was a day jam-packed with celebrations.

That morning Chris ran to the store with my direction to get a birthday balloon. Genius man came home with three. If you want some high-quality entertainment, give two 18-month-olds each a helium balloon. They were hilarious.

We hosted a little "rainbow butterfly" birthday party for Carly. We invited some of her little friends and held a treasure hunt, had a pinata, played some games outside, and had lunch and cupcakes. Carly had been wanting a pinata ever since our Cinco de Mayo party, but I wasn't about to fork out the $15 at Target for what is pretty much a piece of garbage. We happened to be at the Dollar Store and I saw a fold-out cardboard pinata. It was the most ghetto contraption you've ever seen, but it was pink and purple and it had butterflies on it. It was fate. And it worked like a charm. Uncle Brady was required to really get the candy flying, but the kids got some good whacks in. 

It was kind of an emotional party. Get 5 3-4 year olds together and that is expected, I suppose. At one point all the exhilaration caught up with Carly and she started throwing a tantrum of massive proportions. I felt bad for her, because I really just wanted her to have fun. Chris took her upstairs to calm down while her friends started lunch. She came down very calm and put together. Birthday princesses just have moments sometimes. It happens.

Speaking of moments, I had winning one of my own. Lets get a round of applause for my rainbow cupcakes, shall we? I used most of white batter on Carly's big cake, but had just enough left to make exactly 5 rainbow cupcakes. This meant I couldn't cut them open until the party, and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. The kids seemed to like them too, even if little R licked off the frosting without ever actually biting into it. But as far as sweeping goes, rainbow crumbs are rather fun.

After her party we were all exhausted, so we had a relaxing baby nap time. That evening we went out to dinner for pancakes, then returned home for more candles, cake, and presents.

Carly had been requesting "a chocolate rainbow butterfly cake with a rainbow number 4 and M&Ms inside!" That is what you get for letting a 4-year-old look at Pinterest with you. It was a messy endeavor, and I was literally packing extra broken cake pieces into the base of the cake to keep it standing, but it turned out. And it was definitely "a chocolate rainbow butterfly cake with a rainbow number 4 and M&Ms inside!"

We had a wonderful day celebrating our girl. It will never cease to amaze me how, as a mother, the days crawl and the years fly. We've already had 4 birthdays with her. It wasn't that long ago I was dreaming of what this first baby of ours would look/sound/be like, and now here she is, grown-up and so good. I am so very grateful I get to be her mom, so very grateful for the strong and brilliant spirit she is.

Happy 4th birthday, Car. 

We're glad you joined us.