Happy 4th Birthday, Grace!!

We had another celebration in Knoxville on Grace's actual birthday (the 23rd).  I got some decorations hung up the night before so we could start her birthday with a bang in the morning!  She makes birthdays and holidays so exciting because she notices every little detail and goes crazy over each one!
 For her big day, she requested that we go to "the gym" which is a huge gymnastics facility with all kinds of fun things to do:  trampolines, foam pits, swinging ropes, bars, beams, etc.  It's actually pretty fun for adults too.  :)
When dinnertime rolled around, Grace got exactly what she asked for:  cheeseburger roll-up, orange salad, "Mommy's macaroni and cheese," and a chocolate cake.
She could hardly make it through dinner since her presents were screaming "OPEN ME!" on the table next to us.  I made Grace a photo book this year (something I've been meaning to do for 4 years now!!) and I couldn't wait for her to look at it!!  Those suckers take a lot of time to put together but they're worth every minute.  And it's something that she'll get to keep with her as she grows older.  I figure between those and the blog (once it's printed), they should know every step they took and every word they uttered as kids!  After all the gifts were opened, she couldn't have cared less for the ones we got her.  HA!  Grace also got to open a gift from the Bischof's and she hasn't taken her hands off it since!!
It's hard to believe my little girl is 4 ALREADY!!  It's amazing how incredibly fast these years are flying by!  She's already talking about turning 5 on her next birthday.  WHOA little lady!  Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.  You have plenty of time to grow up!!  Just stay the sweet, vivacious, animated, little chipper that you for as long as possible!

Happy

Birthday, 

Grace!!!   

Party Day!!

The party day FINALLY arrived and we got to celebrate Grace's 4th birthday RAINBOW style!  I don't really know how we arrived at this rainbow this theme (I'm assuming from Pinterest!) but once we decided on it, we ran with it.  We had a double rainbow with a pot of gold, double rainbows hanging in the windows, rainbow balloon bouquet, rainbow party favors, a rainbow fruit tray, rainbow drinks, and a rainbow cake.
It was so fun to plan the party with Grace this year because she really got into it and got excited about all the little details!  When we got her rainbow tutu in the mail, she nearly tinkled right down her leg.  It's almost as if she was raised by someone who also loves birthdays!  :)
Bloomfield just happened to get covered with ice the night before Grace's party so we ended up a few folks short (and Papa ended up busting his bum!), but we had Aunt Maggie, Sophie, Grandma, Aunt Laura and Reggie who braved the ice!
We had our rainbow, birthday lunch filled with some of Grace's favorites:  orange salad, brie cups, and a new favorite rainbow drink.  These drinks were like kiddie crack and Anna wouldn't take her face out of her cup.  They loved them!  Matt, however, wasn't allowed to have one since they were made from Koolaid and we all know what happens when Matt has Koolaid!!  :)
Grace then moved onto her gifts with as much anticipation as Christmas morning!  She got a slew of awesome gifts and was thrilled with each one.  She honestly is the world's easiest kid to buy for.  She would be just as excited to open a box of rocks as she would be to get a new horse.  Ok, that might be stretching it a bit but you get the idea.
After Grace was done opening her gifts, we were ready for the cake!!  For weeks, I had been telling her she was going to have a rainbow cake and I couldn't wait for her to see it.  Who cares if it tasted good as long as it looked good, right??  That's what I kept telling myself when I thought I overbaked it.  We didn't get a good pic of Grace's face when she saw her piece of cake, but Matt got a video of it.  Stay tuned for that!  She was excited AND it didn't taste too bad either!
We had a FUN, FUN, FUN day celebrating with family!!  I LOVE birthdays and they get more fun each year!  I get sentimental each year (no surprises there) and start reminiscing about the actual birth day (so girls you can look forward to that when you're older!).  What an awesome experience to be able to help bring a child into this world and get to celebrate that amazing day (all month long if you so choose) every year!!
Grace, I hope you enjoyed your birthday party as much as I enjoyed watching you grin from ear to ear!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our family for your help with the girls, food prep, and gifts!!  We had an awesome weekend!