Maura's Fourth Birthday

Ya'll know that I couldn't possibly be satisfied by just celebrating Maura's birthday on her party day and letting her actual birthday go uncelebrated!! OF COURSE we made a big deal of it and had fun again! Maura's real birthday was on March 11th and the night before, Brent and I snuck into her room and covered the floor in balloons. She woke up to find herself in balloon paradise and she was so excited about it!! She couldn't believe we'd made such a transformation while she slept!!
The fun didn't stop there! I made Maura pancakes for breakfast, her absolute favorite and I decorated her chair.
She asked for sprinkles on her birthday pancakes and I was happy to oblige. She was so excited about that fact that she's FINALLY four. She's been waiting for months for this big day!
Tristan enjoyed his pancakes too--don't you just love the bedhead?? This little boy is ready for ANOTHER haircut!
I allowed Maura to open one present on the morning of her birthday and she opened the one I'm most excited about. These are tickets to the Disney Princess on Ice. We're going on Saturday and I think I'm more excited about it than Maura!!!
At school, Maura got to wear a crown letting everyone know it was her birthday. The theme of the day was to dress like what you want to be when you grow up, so she's dressed as an artist.
After school, we drove straight to the mall to meet Grammy, Aunt Lorie and Alexandra for lunch. Can you tell that Maura is all keyed up. She LOVED being the center of attention for the day!
Me with my sweet kids. One of these days I'm actually going to take a belly shot so that you can see how big this baby boy is getting!! We really enjoyed our lunch and then moved on for some more entertainment.
Aunt Lorie and Uncle Micah's gift was still to come. Maura couldn't wait to find out when her special secret present was.
A trip to Build a Bear!! Maura has never been near this store before. Lorie couldn't wait to take her and let her construct her very own creation. Maura was almost overwhelmed by the selection...
but of course she was able to find a kitty!!
Maura got to pick out the heart and the Build a Bear employee instructed her to rub it on her forehead so that her cat would always be smart, on her cheek so that she would always give kisses, on her arm so that she would always give hugs and on her heart so that she would always love her. Then Maura gave the heart a kiss and put it in her kitty. So cute! Maura got to pump in the filling and wasn't sure about all that noise!
Tristan and Alexandra, meanwhile, surfed the Internet.
Afterward, Maura gave her kitty a good rubdown and she was ready to go. She picked out some cute pajamas for her kitty to wear(no great surprise since Maura prefers PJ's to all other clothes!). Mittens now shares Maura's bed and goes with us just about everywhere. I'm so glad she has a friend!
What a fun gift! Thanks Aunt Lorie, Uncle Micah and Alex!!
That evening, Grammy, Pappap, Aunt Lorie, and Alexandra came over for dinner and to round out our day of celebration. We ate our spaghetti and meatballs(Maura's favorite) and her choice...
Worms in Dirt. She loved her dirt cake and especially loved the gummy worms and bugs on top!
Getting ready to blow out the candles!
Believe it or not, this child had MORE gifts to open. Brent and I saved most of her gifts to give her on her real birthday, so she couldn't wait!
So excited about her new Pterodactyl toy.
Even more excited about the kitty cat house. This ended up being her favorite present of the birthday. I loved making my girl's day special. She's a special girl and we love her so very much.

A few words about Maura at four. She's such a smart little girl and has a tremendous vocabulary. Just this morning, she told me that she was "concerned" about the fact that the movie wasn't playing in the car. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Maura likes big words--both her mommy and daddy do too. She's saying the cutest things these days. The other day at church, it was baby dedication Sunday. She was watching the slide show with rapt attention and then turned to me and said, "This is a great church. I love this church." I think she meant that she was really enjoying the service, but it was adorable. Many of her thoughts start off like this these days..."Mommy, I love you, but..." What follows has nothing to do with what the sentence started out with. It usually goes like this, "Mommy, I love you, but, why is the sky blue?" She's getting really cuddly and lovey lately, which I loving. She's never been much of a cuddler, but recently she's wanting to crawl up into bed with me and snuggle and give hugs and kisses. I'm loving the love! She's also very excited about the new baby and talks to my belly and gives him kisses. I've yet to be able to allow her to feel the baby move. He tends to move a lot more in the evenings after she's gone to bed.

Maura is doing well with all her physical skills and can jump on one leg and pedal a bike. We're still working on steering, though, because she tends to end up in the grass!! She's quite the artist and loves nothing better than to sit down and color with markers. She made up a story the other day, complete with illustrations. She wants to be an artist when she grows up. Actually, she wants to be a "paintist." I haven't told her yet that it's painter, because it's so cute to hear it said like that. She knows all her letters and can write most of them really well. Only occasionally does she need me to remind her how to write a letter. She likes to have me spell out words so she can write notes. She's working on reading and can recognize a few sight words and sound out others. She can't WAIT to learn to read so she can read to herself. Unfortunately, I haven't been working with her on this as much as I would like because I'm just so tired!! All I want to do while Tristan is napping is to take a nap myself!!

Maura is really into "why." I think it's her favorite word. It's exhausting, though, because no matter how thoroughly I think I answer a question, she always counters with "Why?" I try to be patient, but eventually we get to the point where I finally answer, "Because that's just the way God made it!" She does ask some really great questions, though, and recently we've had discussions about chemistry, physics and biology. She can now explain the molecular structure of water and how it reacts as it goes through it's changes from solid to liquid to gas. No kidding, really! She's so inquisitive and Grammy and Pappap gave her a great set of books for her birthday that will hopefully answer some of those millions of questions!

Maura no longer naps, much to my sadness. She does have "quiet time" every day where she's supposed to play or read quietly in her room. Apparently "quiet" is a relative term to a four year old and she frequently interrupts my nap with the sound of her jumping around! She is definitely ready for bedtime when it rolls around, though, and that usually happens between 7:30 and 8:00. She wakes up around 7:30 too, so I know she's getting plenty of sleep for her age group. Her favorite foods are Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Honey Nut Cheerios, but she loves all sorts of good for you foods too. Maura loves to sing all day and makes up little songs too, usually about the cat. I need to film some of them, but she gets self conscious when the camera goes on. She still loves to pretend and spends most of her waking hours as a kitty, duck or bat. I love that she has a great imagination. The other day I watched her as she sat in her doorway. She stuck her arms straight out in front of her and then hugged them to her body. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me that she was hugging Jesus. Heart melting, for sure!! I do love this sweet girl and can't wait to see how she grows and develops over the next year!