Chloe's Birthday

 Chloe recently had her 4th birthday and like all the rest of the members of our family, she somehow turned it into a birthday week celebration.

 First she had her friend party on Saturday. At first she wanted a Hello Kitty party, but then remembered that she had a Hello Kitty cake last year. She quickly changed her mind and decided she wanted a Rapunzel Party. She then asked me to make her a doll cake just like Kaiya's.

Grr....

Those doll cakes are a lot of work, and if you recall, my last one {Kaiya's Belle cake} spilled all over the counter because I didn't cook it enough and then had to call Heather in tears to see if she could help me. But really, who can resist this face...

So of course I readily agreed, and we were on our way to having a Rapunzel party.

This was going to be Chloe's first "friend" party and she was so excited. I gotta say, I should have definitely planned better because the whole "having 2 kids with December birthdays" thing is really hard sometimes. The last thing you want to do before Christmas is to plan a party. But, this is why I love blogs. I managed to find a whole Rapunzel party online that gave party ideas and PDF's for EVERYTHING! Fabulous! 

 I was nervous about making the cake, but here Rapunzel is in all her glory:

Not too shabby, huh! I was super proud of her, especially since my other princess cakes were all sorts of ghetto. I needed help with Belle--or more like Heather made Belle and I sat and watched. The Cinderella one from years back looked like she had been punched in the face--according to 3 year old Kaiya.

Chloe loved her too!

Here Chloe is, waiting for her friends to arrive. The Elf made her a sign that day. Isn't he so thoughtful!

We played all sorts of fun things at the party. We played "pin the frying pan on Flynn Ryder" game. As you may recall, Rapunzel hit Flynn Ryder with a frying pan in the movie. We made Pascal noisemakers. We colored Rapunzel pictures.  Each kid went home with "Rapunzel Paints" which were watercolor paints with a label on them, because Rapunzel loved to paint in the movie.

Here Chloe is, ready to blow out candles:

Party guests:

 Ready to open presents:

Party guests with Chloe:

What could it be?!

She had a blast! It was the first year she really understood this whole birthday thing, and LOVED it!

Here she is on her birthday. Jared and I took her on a special lunch date to Red Robin. She was embarrassed, yet loved that they sang to her. She kept saying, "Today is my Birthday!!!" When people would say Happy Birthday to her, she would get the ginormous smile on her face, like "Yeah, I'm pretty special today."

 

When the kids got home, we had a dinner, and of course she got to eat on the "You Are Special" plate. Then we let her open her gifts. It was like the funniest thing ever, because both gifts she opened, she was completely expressionless. She opened them quietly, stared at each one, and then set them down. 

Then she just sat there for like a minute, and finally said, "Yay! I got a Birthday Ballooon!!!!" And shook and danced around with her balloon.

You could tell she had no idea what her gifts even were.

There is Carson building one of her gifts. She got a FurReals Busy Town thing from us.

Her big gift though, was the LeapPad Explorer Tablet, from Grandma and Grandpa. Once we got it all set up, it was a hit!!! She LOVES that thing and says, "Now I have a DS too!"

Then on Tuesday, they celebrated her birthday at school. She got to bring cupcakes she decorated. She got to wear a special crown too. It happened to also be Pajama Day at school so she thought it was like the best day ever.

It's hard to believe that Chloe is 4 already. My baby is growing up. It is really bittersweet because I wish I could freeze time and keep her this age forever. She is so dang cute. She is definitely the most laid-back of our 3 kids, and trust me, we needed to have her in our family. She is like a tall glass of water on a hot day---Her personality is refreshing! We all love this little girl to pieces. She says the funniest things all the time and she keeps us constantly laughing.

Happy Birthday Chlo-Bo!!!