Birthday Girl - You are so loved!

Today was my sweet girl's 4th birthday - we had the official celebration on Saturday night, so today was a quiet little day. Full of kisses, cuddles, and proclamations about how very, very good it is to be four. She was so happy. We were able to dole out a few presents throughout the day, which kept the excitement high and even had a couple of lovely friends come by just to deliver a gift to the birthday girl - how kind is that?! Though this did lead her to enquire at the end of the evening 'Who else is coming over to give me a present?' (!!!!)

I loooove birthdays. I love celebrating them with my nearest and dearest and most especially these days, my sweet children. To me birthdays are a wonderful excuse to really celebrate, cherish and love on that child, and I already have a whole list of little traditions we do or plan to incorporate each year to make birthday's special. It's not about heaps of pressies but about finding ways to shower that sweet child in love and joy for a day. It is such an honour to do this and I'm excited about creating a childhood of special birthday memories for our kiddos!

Because that is our focus for birthdays, I am relieved to say that though I certainly can find plenty of things to feel guilty about during this period of sickness, I don't feel that guilty about the kids not having extravagant birthday celebrations or parties. Actually, not a scrap. In fact if I had been well, I don't think we would have done them this year anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love parties and the kids will get them some years just as they have in the past (though I'm yet to develop some kind of policy as many parents eventually need to about alternating years etc!) - but I know I don't plan to have them every year. I hope we can make birthdays still special and fun without lavish parties being a yearly or expected thing!

Sweet Chevelle secured her spot in Lily's heart with a gorgeous box of NEW dress-ups
including this incredible pink confection (with full accessories of course!).
Lily says she is 'Glinda the Good Witch' from Wizard of Oz here.

I was so happy to see my girl fully satisfied, her heart filled, her joy overflowing and her present-capacity most definitely reached for her special day. It was a quiet and simple day but with lots of love and fun with her family, and a few of our little traditions, the day was all it needed to be.

That night, her special birthday dinner request was home made pizza (again! Yes, it's her fave), and she wanted to watch a movie whilst eating dinner - she was so excited to do this! Which is how we all ended up curled up in the lounge watching The Little Mermaid with one very happy four year old. She loved it. I loved watching her love it. Birthday cake leftovers were the literal icing on the cake (actually, that's all she ate of the cake that night, lol)!

I haven't even taken the time to freak out about having a four year old yet!!! Perhaps I'm just having a delayed reaction..... wow.... four! My babeeeeeeeeee!!

Sweet dreams, my little four year old baby girl.... how loved you are!