A Mother's Perspective: Darla Turns 4

Our lil lady turned four years old today. Where has the time flown?? She has turned into quite the cutie, with a funny sense of humor. She is sassy and loves to sing her way through her day. She enjoys picking out her own clothes, pretty dresses to twirl in, shoes, playing board games, and playing pretend with big brother and her best friends. She LOVES mac-n-cheese and isn't too picky about brands. School is COOL. She is learning her alphabet and knows most of the letters by sound and name. She is still working on sight recognition of letters and enjoys writting her own name. She LOVES to pick out the letter D, in every written format, from signs on the street to books we read. Bathroom humor is her favorite and when she finds something we think is funny, she will milk it til we can't stand to hear it one more time! She is a great sleeper, and still cherishes her blankey deeply. She loves to DANCE, DANCE, DANCE and has learned how to operate our music system in the living room. Now all we hear is Kidz Bop, baby! We continue to work on helping her manage her emotions, and communicate with words instead of screaming. The girls has some pipes, I tell ya. And her Dad and I couldn't be more proud of the young lady she is becoming.

She loves to help in the kitchen too, and here she and Daddy are making the frosting for her birthday cake.

We had a joint family celebration again this year. Jodi and Brian hosted both families to honor Darla and her cousin Sydney who's birthdays are almost excatly one year apart. And, another J2 cake in the books, this time with the My Little Pony theme. It was more challenging than it looked on paper. It tasted GREAT, though.

Pretty birthday princesses: Darla 4, Sydney 3

Jazz hands!

How many fingers are you, girls?

Today, Darla celebrated her birthday at school with her whole class. The teachers bake mini cupcakes right in the classroom. We sang to Darla and enjoyed a cupcake treat. And of course, Darla's school BFF Hank, is right beside her.

After cupcakes the girls were enjoying a story together on the carpet.

After school, we invited Hank and Payton, Darla's two closest friends (so far) over for an afternoon lunch party. We had chicken nuggets, cheese sticks, apples, and carrots from our garden. Then we opened presents and enjoyed one more cupcake!

Aaaaaannnndddd, one last birthday celebration: Dinner out with the family. Darla choose Red Robin again this year because she just LOVES their mac-n-cheese. We all had a nice time out together.