Our Rose is FOUR!

Yesterday was B's fourth birthday. In some ways it is so startling that she's already four, but in other ways it is hard to remember a time before she was in our lives. She is such an amazing, smart, sassy, stylish, caring and funny being and we are so blessed to belong to her.

This is the first year we've had a full fledged party to celebrate her birthday and we did it up right! She asked to have it at a museum and she chose Hello Kitty as a theme. Since she also wanted it on her actual birthday (can't blame her there) that ruled out the Exploritorium and so we were so thrilled to be able to book it at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. The staff there was so helpful and friendly, definitely a wonderful place to have a party. We were so happy to have wonderful friends to share the day with (13 children and their parents). We ate yummy cake and ran and jumped and played and did art and crafts and played with giant train sets and climbed trees and hunted dinosaurs and sunken treasure and manned a ship...it was a very good day! And fortunately for us the clouds are also in love with B and decided to keep us dry for the day. (Rain and thunder were the prediction!)

She got many, many fabulous gifts. This is one lucky and loved little lady for sure! From us she got a bike, which we gave to her on Saturday so she could play with it all day (or the parts of the day when it wasn't raining). We also gave her a big, complicated floor puzzle (with lots of princesses, fairies, castles, birds, kites, etc.), a new Culture Kids doll (Anu from India), a big scribbles book, colored pencils, a book of fairy tales, some fairy threading cards (to practice stitching), a ballerina doll, and the crowning jewel...Princess Celestia. Oh, and how could we forget? We also gave her a new PBK Anywhere Chair (since she has gotten so very big and outgrown the pink one she got for her first birthday), this one is purple and has white polka dots. It was a huge hit. C has already put in a request for a blue one on his next birthday. Speaking of C, he picked out the sweetest gift for B completely on his own, a charm bracelet from Gap Kids; he even picked out each individual charm: an ice cream cone, a treasure chest with jewels in it, and a funky elephant. T added a Hello Kitty one too. She adores it!

As is our custom, B gave C a couple of gifts too: a new train (Scruff) and a pirate doll (which he is afraid of, unfortunately).

Her haul from the party is pretty fabulous too! She got a couple of beading sets, and has been making T necklaces all morning. A tea set, a cool car (which she kindly lets C play with too), some Disney princess book/play sets, a Fancy Nancy book and a Judy B. Moody book ("It doesn't have pictures because I am so big!"), a hand made bunny with her name stitched on it (which she slept with last night), a super fun cupcake play set, and a tote bag that she can decorate with stencils and paint. We let her open her gifts from her grandparents a few days early, so she's been decorating tiaras and using the fashion stencil set all week. She very genuinely was delighted by each and every gift.

Before she fell asleep last night she told J that this was the best birthday ever and that she had such a good day. Music to our hearts.