happy 4th birthday, elenora mae!

this birthday was pretty awesome.  our little girl had so much fun!  she started out the day by announcing to me when i came into her room in the morning, "Mommy, since I've been 4, i've been doing all kinds of things that i can't usually do... like turn on the light switch without standing on my tiptoes, and jumping higher."

all this after a half hour of being 4.

j. got elenora her first violin as his special present to her.  he plans to start sunday afternoon violin lessons with her tomorrow.  she was pretty excited about it, and i have to say she already holds the instrument pretty good.

our plan for a birthday breakfast party at the park got washed out, though morning broke without the rain they said would be unrelenting.  in the end, i got tired of changing the location back and forth and decided to hold the party here since the house was all set and the park would be soaking wet after a whole night of rain.  

everyone started arriving around 9:30 am and we served up coffee, egg strata (e.'s nan's recipe), coffee cake (c.'s recipe, made by momby), apple strudel (made by h.) and fruit salad (made by h.), along with mimosas (thanks to k.).  21 people were here in all, making for a great party.

in the midst of the present opening, baby gracie decided to stop the show by bonking her balloon up and down into her head.  so funny, and what a cutie!

k. and f. got elenora a fisher price digital camera that really takes photos.  ella took photos all afternoon.  great practice.

here's ella with aurora, rose and penelope.  we also had nathan, eli and grace.  i love that most of these kids have been at elenora's birthday parties since she was 1.  they are all such precious friends.

 at the end of the party, ella wanted to try out her new bicycle basket, so we took the kids outside to ride bikes, scooters, big wheels and tyke trikes while s. drew some amazing sidewalk art.

our craft was t-shirt decorating, thanks to some fabric markers and puff paint from momby.  each child got to create a t-shirt.  after the other kids left, i traced a kanga and roo onto a t-shirt for ella, and j. free-handed a "roo's daddy".

ella's mamaw got her a big girl car seat, which is so comfortable and easier for her to get into than the seat she's had since she was 7 1/2 months old.  amazing the amount of sand and pine cones i found under that old car seat when i went to do the switch.

in the late afternoon we went to bertucci's for dinner with the family.  i realized while i was there that j. and i had lunch at that restaurant the day ella was born.  now it's one of her favorite places to eat (mostly because of the pizza "play" dough they give her to play with).

(notice little bear's new dress... it's his birthday, too.  yes, he's That kind of bear.)

elenora had salmon, green beans and mashed potatoes.  what a good eater!

then the whole family came back to my place for coffee, cupcakes and family presents.  mostly she got clothing from me, and she was so tired by then that she was pretty much tossing the clothes out of the bags without looking at them.  it was pretty funny.

but you'll notice that this present from her mamaw got her attention...

(i love love love that her first instinct is to want to share this moment with little bear.  soooo sweet.)

it was a gorgeous, fun, amazing birthday.

here's the "4" of us (little bear is quite the personality around here):

i'm exhausted.  next year i'm looking forward to going back to her actual birthday and the day of her party being on separate days.

but i wouldn't change a thing about today.  thank you, everyone, who helped us to celebrate.