This last week we celebrated Katie's 4th birthday! I can't believe how big my girl is getting. She is such a beautiful, smart little girl! Her favorite colors are pink and purple and green. She loves to play with her baby brother and with Colton when he will let her play with his stuff. Her favorite things right now are princesses, dressing up, reading stories, playing with her friends, going to her friend Belle's house (she has told me before that she wants to live there with them...), dancing, making crafts, swinging, riding her bike, and swimming (in the summer of course). She is very excited for our move coming up because we get to stay in hotels and hotels have pools! [Sidebar: I remember growing up the one big trip my family took was driving across the country to go pick my brother up from basic training in Missouri. We got to stay in hotels on the way there and it was so exciting because they had pools. It's fun to see my kids get excited over the same things :) ]
Princess Party
I like doing parties for my kids. I like throwing parties and I like making them happy! I feel like I'm not always good at the day-to-day fun mom stuff so I like to make holidays and parties special, because I feel like it's one of my few strengths! This year Katie chose a princess slumber party. It was very similar to the year before but she really loved her Sofia slumber party when she turned 3 and wanted to include all the princesses this year. We wanted to invite all of the kids in her church class and that got a little tricky (since a lot of them were boys) but I tried to make the party as boy friendly as possible. For the party, we decorated princess bags, made charm necklaces, played pin the star on the princess crown and duck duck goose, watched the 10 minute Tangled Ever-After short, did a pinata, had princess cake and icecream, and them opened presents! It was lots of fun! Katie got lots of fun presents and loved playing with her friends!
Birthday Sunday
The day after her party was her actual birthday and a Sunday. She was a pretty good sport about getting up for church although she didn't want to wear the frilly church dress I had picked out for her, because it didn't twirl. I had to laugh a little bit to myself when she got upset after sacrament meeting because she didn't think she should have to go to the whole church on her birthday! Haha, sorry kiddo. After church we opened presents from Mom and Dad and the grandparents. She loved her Fancy Nancy books from grandparents Rider and her big Frozen Storybook from grandparents Day! Mom and dad got her the movies Brave and Moana, along with Merida and Moana dolls, and some dollhouse furniture. She was very happy. She picked sloppy joe's for her birthday dinner "because it's my favorite because it comes with chips", and after we had princess ring cupcakes and icecream. I'm pretty sure Jon and I are the only ones who ate the cupcakes and the kids just licked off the frosting. Katie just wanted the rings. I think next time I'll just ask them if they can throw the rings on top of some tasty donuts or something.
Katie has a lot of personality at 4 years old and is still learning to control it. She can be very emotional and switch emotions pretty quick. She is pretty stubborn but considering both of her parents are stubborn, I guess I can't blame her. Lately she loves pestering her brother by playing the "copycat" game and copying everything he says. It's a pain, haha. She is also pretty shy and doesn't like new people talking to her, unless she initiates contact. She loves to sing and dance but when you try to watch her she will get mad and say (sometimes yell) "Stop looking at me!" She is a funny girl and can be a challenge, but I love the girl more than I could explain. She challenges me and helps me to learn more patience and love! I'm so grateful I get to be her mom! Happy 4th birthday Katie!
