And Then She Was Four (2nd time around)

The birthday girl with her cake.

Well I'm a few months late, but better late than never. December and January are always crazy for us, anyways, and this year we took a trip to the States for the month of February. So I'm just now getting back into the swing of things.







The morning of her birthday I made birthday pancakes. We skyped with some family members. We opened presents and took her shopping for a couple of presents. Honestly Noel was pretty grumpy that day. Her birthday fell at the very end of my two months of language craziness. Her party had been the night before and all the preparation, combined with the language-learning insanity I had been up to just wiped me out. It did a number on all of us and I really felt like Noel got the short end of the stick this time. She is quite the quality-time kind of a girl and all she wanted to do on her birthday was to play with us. We did our best but we could just tell she was suffering from months of not-enough-time. Thankfully she's much better now, in March, but still. I felt bad for the girl on her
fourth birthday.


I think this is cupcake batter...I decided at the last minute that I needed more cake (I always think I need more cake!) so we made cupcakes, too. And how could I not let the birthday girl participate in the fun?

Noel is one dinosaur-loving girl. She loves them. It's absolutely hilarious to me but she really does love them. I think she requested a dinosaur party sometime around last January. Lane also had wanted a dinosaur party but I told them that if they both wanted the same kind of party that we'd be having one joint party for them somewhere between their birthdays: I was not going to make two dinosaur cakes only six weeks apart. So Lane chose something different but Noel got her dinosaur party!


My first time with marshmallow fondant. It was fun but UGH. Not my preferred way to decorate a cake!

Shannon's mom sent us some cool dinosaur decorations which helped with the ambiance. Our living room was oh-so-busy for a few days. It was awesome but really almost too much. They moved all the dinosaur wall stickers into their room and they're still up, almost three months later.





All in all I think Noel's birthday was a success. She did have some fun and she loved her cake and dinosaur decorations. In fact, she's already said that she wants to have a dinosaur party again when she turns five! So I guess that she had a good time. I think that in the future we will be more careful to guard the time surrounding her birthday. It's hard when you just want your kids to be happy and have fun, and yet you try so hard and they're still not happy. That's the way I felt this year, but I think it had way more to do with the months leading up to her big day than with the day itself.

Either way, just like that our middle girlie is four. She's kind and sweet and silly and loves to play. She also likes books and likes to be read to, but she'd rather play with you than almost anything else. She is usually kind and generous although is working on being kind to Raye. She really doesn't like it when Raye destroys her creations or takes things. But I'm pretty sure that's normal. Noel is also the loudest person I know. She's so loud. We're always working with her on this but, hey, I think it's because she's the middle kid and is trying to speak up and be heard. Literally. She's also super sensitive (in all aspects: light, temperature of food, feelings, etc.) and while with Lane I though the stubbornness might do me in, with Noel it's the tears. I often have to send her to time-out just because I have no idea what to do with all. the. tears. She's a sweet, sweet girl. And I am so, so grateful for four years of her.


Hot chocolate while watching one of the movies she picked out: Walking with the Dinosaurs.

And here are the answers to the 20 questions we ask our kids on their birthdays, beginning with their third birthday. For fun, here are last years' (well, from her third birthday).

1. Your favorite color is yellow.
2. Your favorite toy is your dinosaur toys.
3. Your favorite fruit is bananas.
4. Your favorite TV show is Paw Patrol.
5. Your favorite movie is Walking with the Dinosaurs.
6. Your favorite thing to wear is your long pink dress.
7. Your favorite animal is dinosaurs.
8. Your favorite sons is "Angels We Have Heard on High."
9. Your favorite book is the dinosaur book you got for your birthday. (Mommy's guess here since you won't answer.)
10. You don't know who your best friend is, although "you" (to me) and "myself" both popped out of your mouth followed by lots of giggles.
11. Your favorite snack is cashews.
12. Your favorite drink is juice.
13. Your favorite breakfast is O's.
14. Your favorite lunch is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
15. Your favorite dinner is grilled cheese.
16. Your favorite game is Go Fish. (Mommy's guess here again.)
17. Your favorite thing to play outside is hide and seek.
18. Your favorite holiday is Mother's and Father's Day because "you make us love cards."
19. At night you sleep with Raffie, Bunny, and Blankie.
20. You don't know what you want to be when you grow up.