When Kaia saw me making this poster for her birthday, she just had to help out. I love the picture of herself in the upper right hand corner. Then she drew a "naked" Asher running to his dresser (under him) to get clothes. Then she drew a dresser for herself and one for me & Peter (we appear to be in need of clothes, as well).


As evidenced by my last post, I went to bed way too late last night, so when the kids woke up at 6:45 they got to start the day with Sesame Street. We were all happy - they got to watch a fun show and Peter and I got some more sleep. Then Kaia and I had to get busy making her birthday cake and the frosting. Since she wanted a dinosaur party, we decided to make a volcano cake. This was a little tricky because Kaia doesn't like chocolate (like me at that age), so I had to be creative about making brown frosting. I ended up doing coconut-pecan frosting (like on a German chocolate cake). Kaia was a great help making the frosting.

With licorice "lava":


Today's birthday party is the first one Kaia has had with friends. It certainly takes a lot of work and prior planning to host a birthday party! But I think it went really well and the kids had a great time.


After dinner, we opened some presents that were from us and from grandparents. Kaia is really into "giving myself a surprise." This means she closes her eyes until the suprise is ready to be seen. So she unwrapped most of the presents with her eyes closed and got some great surprises!


My brother Jordan called to sing happy birthday to Kaia. At first she refused, but then Jordan asked if she would want to have the song sung to her in penguin talk. She smiled and consented. Kaia loved hearing Jordan and his fiance Brighton sing the penguin version. Then when Sienna called she let her sing to her in chipmunk and polar bear talk! All in all it was a wonderful day and my little girl is 4 years old!