The little birthday girl

We now have a 4-year-old running around our house!  I'll spare you my ramblings about how time has flown, etc. and move on to the festivities.  

But before I write about Cassie's birthday, I need to mention something truly sad that happened in the days before her birthday.  At the beginning of April, my Dad's older brother Jerry was diagnosed with terminal melanoma.  I was shocked at how fast the cancer took over his body.  He was his normal, healthy, happy self at the beginning of April, and he passed away on May 31.  He was really an amazing and humble person, and it makes me so sad to think of how cancer took his body away from him.  I could write a lot more about him and his death, but I want to focus this post on Cassie.  His passing affected her birthday quite a bit for two reasons.  First, my Aunt Ann came to town, and I hadn't seen her in ten (or more?) years, so she had never met Trevor or our kids.  Second, the memorial service was planned for Cassie's birthday.  We decided to celebrate Cassie's birthday with my family a few days before her actual birthday so that we could spend more time with Ann as well.  Celebrating her birthday was a welcome distraction from the sorrow that we had been focused on.  We really had a wonderful, fun time!

 "I want a pink cake with pink frosting and sprinkles!  And I want it to say my name."  Easy peasy!  I don't think she knows yet that cakes can have princess figurines on them...

 Action shot!  Right before she blew out the candles, I explained the concept of making a wish.  Of course, I don't know if she understood 'cause she can't tell me what she was thinking or her wish won't come true!

 A gift from aunt Taja: sparkly pipe cleaners.  Pure genius!  She is still having fun with these.

 With Grandpa (People always say my kids look like my dad.  I can definitely see the resemblance here.)

 And Grandma, who bought her the awesome dictionary in the bottom of the picture.  Bedtime is now preceded by reading several entries from her new favorite book.

 The whole crew!  Hooray for camera timers.

 My dear Aunt Ann.  It has been too long since I last saw her.  Watching her interact with my kids reminded me of why I loved her so much as a child: she is amazing with kids, so funny, attentive, kind, and fun.  My kids warmed up to her and adored her right away.  I am so glad that my little family finally got to meet her and that I got to spend time with her again.  Did I mention that she got Cassie a "twirly skirt" for her birthday?  Yeah, so she's pretty much the best.

Since I was gone for several hours in the middle of Cassie's actual birthday, she got to spend some glorious time with our wonderful next-door neighbors.  Okay, we spend a lot of time with them pretty much every day.  But they went above and beyond mere babysitting and took Cassie to a dinosaur museum!  I was so glad that her birthday was not at all tainted by me being gone for most of it.

 Cassie got to choose one gift to open on the morning of her birthday, and we saved the rest for that evening.  She opened some new shirts, so she chose one to wear for the day.

 She also asked me to curl her hair, which I did, but it was a super windy day, so it was pretty straight by the day's end.  Here she is opening the rest of her presents before dinner.  (She couldn't decide between having pancakes for dinner and going to a restaurant, so we decided on Denny's!)

  

 Whenever I asked Cassie what she wanted for her birthday, she always told me, "A squirter gun!"

Strawberry lemonade smoothies after dinner.  Yum!  Thanks to Maggie for the awesome idea! 

Wearing her new "flower necklace" (saw it at Target for $1 and knew it would be a hit) and princess "nightdown."   She had been wanting a nightgown for several months...I think the idea of wearing a pretty dress to bed was novel and exciting to her.

Happy Birthday, big sis!