Pink Dino Birthday!

Emeline had a lot of fun at her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom birthday last year.  But ever since we attended one of her favorite friend's, Jackson, third birthday, she could not stop talking about wanting a dinosaur birthday for her next birthday.  Jackson did have a pretty awesome dino-baseball party, but Emeline had never expressed an interest in dinosaurs before, so I thought the idea would wear off.  It was almost another year til her fourth birthday of course.

Well, since she'd been talking about having a dinosaur birthday for almost a year, as we got closer to planning her fourth birthday, I checked in.  Did she still want a dinosaur birthday?  Yes!  And she wanted pink dinosaurs at that.  Emeline had very few requests about this birthday: pink cupcakes, lots of friends, a pinata, and sparkles.  Some of my friends from my moms group, Rachel and Lu, like party planning, and given that we are still busy and overwhelmed from all the newness of Adele, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get some help.  So in exchange for some baking cakes for their other parties, Rachel and I put together an awesome pink glam dino birthday party for Emeline.  Even though it took a few tries to get the party scheduled, the result was great.  Emeline had lots of fun and we all had a nice morning with friends and family in the park.

Here are some photos that Lu's husband, Mitch, graciously took for us.  Happy Birthday Emeline!

The invite...

Food and decor...

The cake and cupcakes...

Lunch time!  Papa BBQ-ed hot dogs and bratwurst...

Ready for cake...

Blowing out candles...I love how everyone helps!

The chocolate rocks were delicious.  No one could help themselves...

Cake eating...

When I was searching for pink dino decor, I came across this giant blow up t-rex.  I had no idea what we would do with it, but I couldn't resist.  He was a big hit!  Throughout the party someone was wrestling him down.

Auntie Rachel also organized dino-mite drawing and dino tatoos! Uncle Jaisen was a big help too!

Emeline spent a long time at the tatoo table. She's got this thing down!

Pinata time!  I think this was the first birthday party I'd been to recently where the kids actually got the hang of the pinata idea.  Everyone wanted to swing at it and they loved diving for the prizes!

Happy birthday Emeline!

Four months

Adele is 4 months!  She is our little sweetie, smiling and laughing more every day.  We have finally heard some great giggles, and they are truly addictive.  Life with three is quite hectic, but if Adele is in a smiley mood, I will stop just about anything to enjoy a few silly moments with her.

Adele is bright eyed and really starting to take in the world around her.  She loves to look at people, and will often light up with a big smile for them.  She is getting much more alert and active during her wakeful times.  She's no longer content living in her little rocking bassinet, but will be happy playing on the floor.  She's starting to learn to roll, but hasn't quite made it over yet.  She's also got really strong legs!  She pushes really hard with her legs while being held and can even support her self for a few seconds.

She is still a very sweet mellow girl most of the time.  But during her fussy periods in the evenings, she has quite a preference for mommy.  If I'm busy helping one of her sisters get to bed, Wes is usually dealing with a screaming Adele until mommy is available.

Here's our sweetie getting big!

 

One week, 6 lbs 15 oz (birth weight of 7 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches long)

One month, 9 lbs 10.5 oz, 21.5 inches long

Two months, 11 lbs 9.75 oz, 22.5 inches long

Three months

Four months, 14 lbs 12 oz, 23.5 inches long

Sisters sharing a moment

Emeline's birthday weekend

Emeline's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which meant we could have her party on her actual birthday. But due to a series of unfortunate events (lots of rain and Wes severely slicing his thumb on a mandoline), we had to reschedule the party, not once, but two times!  So we spent most of her birthday weekend trying to do fun things to make up for the lack of a party.

The morning of her birthday, when we were supposed to be at the park celebrating in the sunshine...we went to get her a haircut.  She loves having short hair like mommy! Her hair grows so fast, it feels like she always needs a haircut.

Then we went out to lunch.  Grandpa David was in town, so we had a fun outing.  After lunch, we headed to a local bike shop to let her get fitted and pick out a new bike.  The little one we got from our neighbors was perfect for her to transition from her balance bike, but she was getting to big for it.  Here she is on the rainy day heading in to the bike shop.

After a lot of chasing Kate in the shop and a big tantrum, we left with a beautiful new bike!

That night we had a family birthday dinner with my dad.  We made homemade mac n cheese and we made her a dinosaur cake....a test run for the one I was planning to do for her party the next day.  She had a lot of fun decorating it with me.

The next day, our church had an event called Taking Church to the Streets...where instead of a traditional service, we do service projects in different neighborhoods.  We signed up to help spruce up a preschool in East Palo Alto.  it was wonderful to hear about the great work this preschool does, have some community building time, and let the kids do some work and play together.  Here we all are...

We were going to do a reschedule of the birthday in the afternoon after church, but alas, the mandoline got the best of Wes' thumb while making lunch, and we had to abort due to a trip to the ER.  Emeline was very sad when we broke the news to her after her nap, but she was sympathetic about Papa's thumb and very understanding.  The sun ended up coming out and we had some time in the late afternoon for her to take her new bike out for a spin!

Cousin Nicole came over for dinner, brought her some balloons, and we sang to her again and ate more dino cake, so Emeline felt very celebrated.