She started the day with meeting her new fish, a pinkish, blueish, purplish betta fish. Not a cat, or bunny or puppy but a pet nonetheless. Greg and I bet on what Teia would call it. I said "Purpley" b/c she does tend to take a dominant characteristic of whatever "pet" she is naming and then add a "y" to the end. Greg bet on "Purplo" b/c its Spanish (at least the way Teia speaks Spanish). I thought Purplo had kind of a nice ring to it and I think we were both a bit attached to the name by birthday morning. But Teia had her own ideas and first named the fish "Hungry Fishy Swimming." After saying that a few times she found it a bit of a mouthful and changed his name to Sharkie, which has stuck.
Sometime during birthday week, Sharks became Teia's favorite animal. A few weeks ago when we started planning Teia's party the animal du jour was changing so rapidly that I made the parental executive decision that it would be a general animal themed party - therefore covering all possible bases. So it was a bit of a mish mash with a dinosaur skeleton hunt, a dragon pinata, tiny ocean animal softies in the pinata as treats for our guests, and jungle animal cupcakes. Teia's birthday cake for our family birthday dinner was a rather plain affair b/c of our artificial color avoidance and thankfully was not decorated until the last minute. I had run out of time to find a dragon to put on top as requested but shark favoritism had moved in, so Greg was able to sketch a quickie pink shark - b/c that is the only plant-based food coloring we had around! Teia didn't seem to mind.
Poor Kai came down with a fever the night before Teia's big day so he got to stay home and lie on the floor bearing witness to all the birthday hoopla. Daddy took an unexpected day off work too b/c the thought of two kids, one of them ill, one of them having a birthday, house cleaning and last minute birthday party errands and preps just about put a certain Mommy over the edge. So Teia had her whole family around to share in her excitement.
Kai managed the cutest drawing for Teia despite his fever and not getting off the living room floor for 12 hours:
I love how he even captured her #4 badge and her unruly hair! (yes I did try to rotate this but for some reason it was back un-rotated post-upload).
Some photos of her present-opening excitement:
So excited to receive the "dotted Nemo" she'd had her eye on for awhile!
She was entranced by her singing "Puff."
Ariel was a hit as well!
Lots of Love for Puff.
The next day we had Teia's first "official" birthday party. It seemed like small kine after Kai's 6 year old mega-affair but I found myself pretty busy with it anyway. We got the bouncy house up, the craft center set up, the dinosaur skeletons hidden and the food ready to go. I have to admit I secretly really like creating my kids' birthday parties and celebrating what they're into on their special day. It would be nice to have an unlimited budget and unlimited time but its fun nonetheless.
Here is the puppet making station complete my own "sample puppet - zebra." I have to thank Super Dad for cutting out a bazillion construction paper animal body parts.
Who's that hiding behind the tree???????
The party was a success but I didn't get many photos....was a little bit busy. Here is our Peach with her VERY favorite friend from preschool sharing a chair and enjoying their cupcakes. I didn't get a picture of how cute the cupcakes looked. I think it might be on the video on Greg's phone (as well as some great bouncy house photos). Now that he has joined the iPhone masses I will have to task him with some blogging.
Teia was very adamant that the 3 boys she hangs with at school be invited to her party even though I didn't know their parents at all. Two of the three were able to come with both parents and we got to make some new friends, thanks to our little social coordinator.
I was glad we invited some 6 year olds to T's party b/c this dragon proved tough to open! We were thinking we might need to let the parents take a whack. But it was fun for the kids who got lots of opportunities to test out their aggressive sides.
Teia did something cool for her birthday too. Rather than getting presents from her party guests, she opted to ask for presents for the animals at the humane society. So we have a big box of great kitty and puppy toys that we'll be taking down there sometime soon. Teia can't wait. One of her favorite games these days is to play "Animal Shelter Woman." That's our girl, patron of the furry four legged creatures :-)
Since the big day T has been telling every person she sees that she is now 4. Turning 4 has brought some changes as well. T has decided unilaterally that she does not nap anymore. As a result 4 seems to be a little bit sassier and moodier than 3 was. This decision of hers may be going to arbitration sometime soon. Although we do love this little spunky, challenging, vivacious, incredible little girl!
Happy Birthday Peach!!!!!
1 comment:
Sounds like a great party! Sorry I was not there: this is the first one I have missed. I was there the day she was born and for birthdays 1, 2 & 3.
Fabulous photos, you really captured her happiness.
Love,
Mom
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