Happy Birthday to My Princess

Anne Marie had quite a fun filled birthday weekend! We had dinner, dessert & gifts with Mike's parents one night. Then we took her to dinner @ for our "annual Ruby-Tues" birthday dinner treat, and then she had a very special fairy-princess-tea-party @ the bakery that my friend owns. She was treated like royalty all weekend -- and had WAY too much strawberry cake! (Every place we went she ended up having strawberry cake -- probably because pink is her favorite color & that's what everyone thinks of when they think of her!

My girl is 4 ... I just can't believe it! She seems so grown up and the number "4" just seems like a huge step in the "grown-up" direction. I feel like I can no longer call her my baby (but you know I will). She's becoming such a beautiful little girl, that has very strong opinions and isn't afraid to tell everyone what those opinions are. She is so creative - so artistic - and so full of energy. I love that every night she prays for all her friends and family & even our two kitties. (and she still prays for my back every night too -so sweet!) She's ALL girl and our house would be pink if we'd let it be!

She's such a blessing to our family & I thank God every day for her & thank Him that he planned our family in this way. It's amazing how he knows well before we do what the plans are for each of us. As I look back at how I wished & wanted the adoption process to go faster that NO other child would have been more right for us!! He knows, much better than I and I'm so thankful!

Our fairy-princes cake. My friend and I worked on it & I think it just turned out tooo cute! She loved it...It broke my heart to cut into it!

The "tea-party" (apple--juice) table! My friend and I even made little tea-cookies to match the plates..we also made pb&j's in the shape of flowers, little cucumber sandwiches & fruit salad. The girls LOVED the tea-party..we served them & they each felt like a princess!

Everyone was asked to come in their favorite "dress-up" and then they got their own fairy-wings when they got to the party.

The girls got to make crafts instead of doing games. We made our own crowns (with what else - glitter & gem stickers). We also put together wooden-princess necklaces.

Cousin Naomi, our friend Mattie & Anne Marie show off their home-made crowns and princess necklaces that they each made. Too cute!

The whole gang! What cuties!!

Our annual family-dinner-trip! We were just looking back at the last 3 years of pictures..it's so funny to see how much she's grown! The first picture she had almost no hair & was just so tiny. It's kind of fun to go to the same place & get the same picture every year. I just wonder how long we'll be able to do this before she doesn't want to eat here anymore!

After dinner, we went back home for gifts from mommy & daddy. Daddy make her a barn for her little horsies and I made her a shirt & baby-Ling a matching doll dress. She LOVED the barn (not that she didn't love the shirt & dress...but the barn was really cool!) Daddy did such a good job on it...and it's his 1st real project for her. She got the biggest smile on her face when she walked in the house & saw it. She's been bragging about it to all her friends!

Grandma & Grandpa also took her out to dinner one night. She chose Mexican food & they also had strawberry cupcakes waiting for her. We went back to their house to open gifts & spend a little time with them. She got the mermaid doll she's been asking for. (You can take it in the swimming pool & it changes hair color..whoohoo!) Isn't it funny how the wrapping paper just happened to match her shirt that night? Not planned by the way!!!

Well, another year has come & gone -- it's just all going tooooo fast! Happy Birthday our sweet girl! I'm so looking forward to seeing what "4" has in store for us!