Happy Birthday Alexandra!!!

So, this post is dedicated to Alexandra - because she turned 4 on May 13th!!! On the morning of her birthday, I surprised her by taking her to Build-a-Bear to create a new little friend. This is the bear she picked.

This bear fits her personality exactly! It's very colorful with rainbow hearts all over it. I wasn't surprised that she went for this one.

Alex got to stand on the pedal to help the fluff go into her bear. She also enjoyed telling everyone how old she is. See her holding up her fingers? :)

After her bear was fluffy enough, Alexandra picked out a heart, gave it a kiss, and gave her bear the heart.

Nathan has afternoon kindergarten so he came with us to Build-a-Bear in the morning. We let him bring along his turtle and join in the fun. After fluffing up the bear, it was time to clean the bear. Here is Alexandra at the bathing station. She puts her foot on the pedal and the lamps blow air to help fluff up the outside of the animal.

Turtle also got a bath! Nathan was so cute about bathing his turtle. He carefully removed turtle's shell and then gently brushed and cleaned every inch of his turtle. I have never seen him be so gentle and loving! I enjoyed watching him! :)

Moving on - time to dress the bear! Alex knew exactly what her bear should wear and she went right to work shopping for the perfect outfit. She went right to the "kissing dresses" (wedding dresses), found the one she thought was the most beautiful, then marched on over to the accessories and busied herself matching this and that. She is quite the little shopper!

Finally, after the bear was bathed, dressed, named, had a birth certificate, and lots of little extra bows, we made it out of the store. Here is the finished product. TA DA!!!  Alex named her bear "Kissy" and ever since her birthday, Kissy has barely been out of Alexandra's sight.

For the afternoon on Alex's birthday, Nathan had "show and teach" at his school, so we went and spent the afternoon in his kindergarten class watching him teach his class. :)

I decided to give Alexandra a birthday party with her friends the next day, so after school I got to work on her cake. She picked to have a Tangled birthday party and birthday cake, so guess who gets to come up with something special . . . ME!!

I made her a special cake and it really didn't take as long as I thought it would to decorate it. I used ice cream cones to make a tower for Rapunzel and then just had to frost the tower, grass, and bushes. Easy enough. As I was putting together the tower, it kept leaning and leaning. I put toothpicks in at the bottom and attached the cones together with melted chocolate, but I wasn't sure it would make it through the night to the party the next morning. I left the cake here on the counter overnight and was worried about how it would look when I woke up. When morning came, Jeremy went out and checked the cake and came and told me ,"Well, your tower is still standing." Thank goodness!

 After I finished her cake in the evening, we had birthday dinner and let Alex open her presents from us and Grandmas and Grandpas. She was already in her pajamas, but I noticed that she transferred her birthday sticker from Build-a-Bear from her t-shirt to her pajamas. Cute!

I love the look of anticipation on Nathan's face!

 Ok. Next day. So, Saturday morning was the party. Notice my tower still standing? Woo hoo! It is leaning a bit, but still up! That's what counts. I added a couple little Rapunzel touches and Whalaa!

For the party we watched Tangled, painted fingernails and toenails, blew bubbles, opened presents, and ate cake and ice cream. This is the present portion of the party. It's funny because kids this age don't really understand the whole - I'm giving you a present because it's your birthday and you get to keep what I brought - concept. We had to explain this a few times throughout the session. Poor little traumatized girls.

Alex did love everything she received and I'm glad she got to have the experience of a party with her friends.

I had to include this picture because it made me laugh! We look so dumb!!! It was really bright outside. My 2 sisters, Lisa and Teresa, stayed at the party and helped out. I loved having them stay! It was fun to have a little extra help and some adult conversation. :)

Last but not least, we sang Happy Birthday and all enjoyed some cake and ice cream. For some odd reason, Alexandra wouldn't blow out her candles. We tried a few times to get her to do it, but she wouldn't, so I had to blow them out. I hope my wish comes true.

I did my best to make her birthday special for her and I think she had a wonderful time! :)