Anna's Fourth Birthday

The birthday princess is sound asleep right now, so it's safe to say her birthday is officially over :) We had a very nice day today keeping her birthday low-key. I know she wanted a big party, but Mommy doesn't do more than one a month!

We celebrated her birthday with the family-at-large at the beginning of the month, so today was all about the five of us. After Mommy got up, Anna got her present from the brothers. She really wanted a mermaid Ariel doll, but those things are not dressed modestly and I don't want her playing with something dressed in a way we won't let her dress. So, we found a compromise. Ben and I found a mermaid outfit for an Ariel doll and Anna can put it on her Ariel ballerina doll, which has a painted-on one-piece suit. Perfect! She was so happy to finally have her mermaid :)

She had to wait for Daddy to wake up to get her big gift, but she didn't end up waiting long b/c Rob couldn't sleep. He took her up to the attic where she found a box containing a large dollhouse, perfect to play with all of her Disney Princess dolls. It even came with some furniture. Rob spent a good part of the morning putting it together and it is so cute!

I always let the birthday child choose the menu for the day, so we had sausage and pancakes for breakfast. I had to pop online to find a gluten-free pancake recipe and finally found one that everyone likes. Rob threw in some chocolate chips as a special treat.

For lunch, Anna chose a picnic at the park. Really, when have we EVER been able to have a picnic on her birthday?? So I packed up lunches and we all trooped to the park. We were even able to feed the ducks, who were competing fiercely for the food.

We came home and had Anna's birthday cake. I tried out a new gluten-free cake mix and it was okay, but I think they would have been better will smaller pieces. Then the kids played while the adults crashed :)

For supper, Miss Anna chose homemade mac 'n cheese, which is easy to convert to gluten-free: all we have to use it brown rice noodles and a gluten-free flour mix. She kept saying over and over again how much she loved her birthday! Oh, she did get the traditional phone call from my parents, who sang to her, and a call from Aunt Mandy and her cousins who also sang to her. She kept saying she just wanted her cousin Kenzie to come and play.

Tonight at church, she moved up a class and was SOOOO excited to go! She didn't even fuss about her Tiny Tracker shirt.

So I no longer have a baby in the house, even though she'll always be my baby. And I'm okay with that :)