Abby's 4th Birthday

Yes, my "baby" is four years old. Oh, and after four comes five, as Abby is very quick to point out. Why in the world would my baby want to be five years old? I want her to go back to being able to fit in my little Bjorn where I could just carry her around like a baby doll. But I'm getting off my point.

So, Abby had quite the birthday extravaganza this year. First, was cupcakes at snack time with her preschool class.

This is the poster I made for Abby's class (school tradition). They use it as a teaching tool for the day, basically helping the kids practice telling stories. All the pictures are of important events in their lives. And yes, I got a little scrapbook-y with it.

After that, we just had to have cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday with her little posse of neighborhood friends.

Here is Abby showing off her new galoshes she got as a present, and Lily with her new big girl Dora panties. Both were huge hits.

Friday night (Abby's actual birthday), I declared a new tradition of having a family birthday dinner to celebrate the girls' birthdays. We went to Ruby Tuesdays.

THEN, the birthday party really began. First, pictures of the cupcakes I made for the party.

Saturday morning, we loaded up the car to go to the birthday party. We stopped at Starbucks for a quick breakfast and the girls rocked out to the easy listening jazz. Seriously. They were practically headbanging and break dancing.

Then, (after a quick trip back to the car for an attitude adjustment), Abby's party began!  We had a "Princess Spa" party, where all of her princess friends came and got their fingernails painted at the nail salon. I had some little eye shadows that I put some makeup on them and the girls L-O-V-E-D it. (Painting fingernails is one of the things I bribe Abby with to make her behave. She's super girly girl.)

Some of the "Princess" crew.

Then we quickly ate our cupcakes and snacks, and the girls all headed to the indoor playground upstairs while I did clean up.

(Abby and her cute little friends at the playground.)

So, at the age of four, we're currently dealing "I think I'm thirteen" attitude and the of "learning to obey even when I don't feel like it" issue. Something we'll probably be fighting for quite a while! We've learned that the only thing that works on Abby is bribery and threatening to take away things she loves. Some days it's very easy, and some days we get quite the collection of toys on top of the bookcases. We've started working with a chore chart and that has helped because Abby loves getting stars on her chart. We've also graduated from all pullups this month, even at night. One day she decided that pullups were for babies and she hasn't looked back since!  Woohoo! We're down to one kid in pullups!

Abby is doing great in school and is really progressing well with both her Spanish and English and is extremely verbal (as in she never EVER stops talking). She can already write her name and does simple math in school which just amazes me. Abby's uber social and has about five "best friends" between church, her neighborhood buddies and her class at school. She's never met a stranger. She's also very loving and affectionate and is quick to say things like "Mom, I just love your clothes" when I'm in my rattiest sweats. Gotta keep her around just for that of course!

So that's our update on Abby's 4th  birthday fun!