Ashlyn turns FOUR!

How did my little girl get so big?
She had a birthday and she turned FOUR! Yay!
I have a FEW more pictures for her birthday than I do of Justin's...I hope he doesn't get jealous...

She cracks me up

So we have pictures from her actual birthday, our birthday trip to the zoo, and then her birthday party...Enjoy! (get ready for picture overload)

Of course we had to decorate with pink and purple. She loved it when she woke up, but didn't want her picture taken...

Her purple princess cupcakes

Birthday package from grandma! Yay!

I asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday. We could do anything she wanted. She chose the zoo. So here are pictures at the zoo from her birthday:

Here we go...

Token penguin picture

 

Token Butterfly Bench picture

So for her birthday this year, I could not get away with a small family "party". She knew what birthday parties were, and she wanted a big one with all her friends. So my job was to track down these so called friends (aka sunbeam class at church) and throw her a party.

I didn't plan much, we just invited her sunbeam class to come and play with us at the park. I had some snacks, drinks, a few decorations, presents, bubbles and a little craft the kids could sit and do if they didn't want to play on the playground for a minute. Pretty informal. And it's a good thing too.

I was worried we were going to get rained out since all week it had rained and rained and rained. But that Saturday it stopped raining...but now it was windy.

Getting ready for the party at the park, I tried to set up the tablecloth (plastic), but the wind whipped it right up. Even with good tape taping it to the table, the wind caught it and it flew off the table...taking my cupcakes with it. Luckily they still had the lids on, and they were salvagable...but not nearly the cute snack table I was imagining. So...no streamers, no balloons, no tablecloths, cupcakes were covered, everything stayed covered...and forget about any sort of craft. We hid presents under the table so they wouldn't blow away.

But guess what? The kids played, ate, and had a blast. They didn't know the difference. (but it still would have been cuter if I had been able to do everything I planned, instead of...well, nothing.)

So here are some pictures. We had a great turn-out. I think I counted 10 kids that came...maybe 13, 14 if you count siblings. I couldn't keep track.

Bubble gifts for thank-yous

I made way too many cupcakes. But it was an accident. I didn't know how many the recipe would make, so I doubled it. It did NOT need doubling. But at least we had plenty. I have frozen some for when my birthday comes up at the end of the month.

On the way to the party. She was so excited...who wouldn't be?

The Chubby One is ready to go too!

Ashlyn was a little unsure about all the attention she was getting at first...but she sure warmed up to it just fine. 

The chaos in the wind...

At least the bubble machine worked great!
 (no really, we had a separate bubble machine, not just Ashlyn.)

Having SO much fun!

We couldn't even do candles!

Opening presents.

We had tons of fun! Ashlyn loved it and is already looking forward to her 5th. So Thank-You to her loving grandparents who sent cute packages that she was just thrilled to get and to all our Ohio friends that came to the party and helped make her day a special one!