How to have an easy princess birthday party

First, ask grandparents to come visit for a couple weeks.

Second, have it outside.

Third, add lots of pink, balloons, princess skirts, snacks, and a birthday cake.  Don't forget the "put your own tattoos on" station and the piñata.  An added bonus: have the husband blow bubbles on the lawn.  Let all the kids leave just before they come down from their sugar high.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our little four year old's princess birthday party.  She dressed as Belle, her favorite Disney princess (even though she has not seen the movie and to my surprise, since her favorite colors do not usually include yellow).

Madison turns 4!

Our little girl got a little bigger.  She turned FOUR this September.  I just can't believe how fast she is growing.  She is our firecracker.  She is still as courageous as ever, but cautious and smart now.  She is strong, never stopping, energetic, and seeks adventure.  She has said it to me before (who knows where she got this), "I do what I want."  With that, as you can imagine, we pray for patience and deal with discipline on a daily basis with this sweet girl.  I think one of my biggest prayers is to teach her well without crushing her God-given spirit.  She is unpredictable and a little all over the board with her emotions at some points.  I attribute that mostly to her age, trying to learn how to regulate her emotions and learn how to control them.  Despite what you'd expect from a girl with her personality, she is very shy.  It has been so fun to watch her grow since having started preschool.  I didn't see her speak to her teachers for the first 3 weeks.  Now, she has good friends and always has a buddy while at school.  I believe she's a natural, quiet leader.  There have been a couple times when she's asked me, "Why do they want to do what I'm doing?" At the same time, in many situations, she is quick to follow others (like if someone at the park isn't wearing a coat or shoes, she quickly throws hers off...or if her class mate is drawing the bear holding lollipops, she draws that too).

Carter's 1st Birthday celebration

We celebrated Carter's birthday just the four of us at home on Carter's actual birthday as well as a celebration while in North Carolina.

We got Carter a new push bike.  We also got Maddie a special gift to celebrate.  Here they are on their new wheels.  They love them!

This is one of my most favorite photos of them.

This picture shows his cute pre-haircut fly aways haha

He wasn't really into eating the cake, but rather just playing with it, squishing it between his fingers and rubbing it all over his face.

When we were at home in the States, we also celebrated with the family.  It was so fun to have all the cousins together.

He had a lot of help opening presents :-)

Carter: 1 year old!

What's new

He can sign "more" and "all done", wave, clap, blow kisses, high five, and understands a lot more than we know.  He knows who we (three) are, he understands things like "do you want to go outside?" or "bathtime" or "eat/drink" or "go get the ball/car."  He can say "uh oh" ("uh uh") when he drops (or intentionally throws) things, he can say "ball" ("bah"), and even though they sound similar, he says "Maddie" and "Thank you" ("dah dee").  He can also say "more" ("moh").

He's pulling up on everything but isn't super steady.  He loves balls-he throws and rolls them.  He loves cars and trucks.  He loves playing in sand.  He loves his bike that we got him for his birthday.  Now at 13 months, he is cruising on everything-walking around holding on to things to keep steady.  He loves his walker toy that Nana and Papa got him for Christmas.  He goes in circles around the family room and kitchen then back again.

He had 5 teeth at 12 months, and now at 13 months,  he has 7 teeth.

He also constantly has bumps, bruises, and scrapes all over.

Madison: 2nd birthday

I didn't really share details about how we celebrated Madison's 2nd birthday.  We celebrated three different times, once with just the four of us on her actual birthday, then in North Carolina with my side of the family, then in West Virginia with Bryce's side of the family.  We found out one thing for sure: Maddie loves to blow out candles.  For weeks, she said "Maddie durday!"

On her actual birthday,

Daddy came home for lunch with a red car that she had been eyeing at the store for a few weeks.

I took her to our favorite park, complete with the big slide, a fun play ground, and farm animals.

We love the baby goats here.  This play ground is just a 5 minute drive from our place.  It's about a mile.  We've walked there before, but I've found that the walk back (after lots of play) is pretty rough for all of us.

That night we shared a chocolate "cupcake" muffin from the store since we were leaving early the next day to get on the plane and head to the USA.

The day after the wedding in NC, we had a family birthday party with the Adams/Beck/Bunker/Brereton gang.

In West Virginia with Mimi, Pops, and the Whited gang, we had a hippo birthday party with pizza and lots of cake.  Even a hippo pinata and party bags!

Just realized that I wore the same outfit for both birthday parties :-)