oh my Katie

So, my little Katie turned 4!
She has been waiting for this since last Oct when the first of her friends turned 4; she was the last one and it was a long awaited event (I wonder if she knows that someone is going to turn 5 in Oct?).

Katie makes my life interesting. She was a little bit of a hard baby, but a pretty great toddler and preschooler. But, she still tries me with her stubborn personality and sassy attitude (Mark always laughs at me when I get mad, and when I ask him why it doesn't make him mad he says 'because he fell in love with it 6 years ago'; he doesn't really help the situation). She loves babies and tries to convince me that we need one more. She loves to be told princess stories at bed time. She is a little princess, but at the same time picks up frogs and grasshoppers, gets dirty and dreams of climbing trees. She loves to go on dates with Daddy. She is smart--she knows all her site words and is working on reading her sounds. She helps around the house--she unloads the dishwasher and cleans her room (as well as I do!). She is a great big sister! And the best part, if I am having a hard day she lets me know that I am the 'best mom' (of course she has started telling me I'm a bad mom when I put her in time-out.) She is such a little grown-up, but of course still needs plenty of cuddle time.
We love our Katie.

She was a little bit of a stinker on her birthday (I think the pressure got to her) but we got through it and had a fun time. Mark took the day off, so after cereal for breakfast (Katie's choice) we headed to the park.

After lunch Mark took Katie on a date to see Toy Story 3.
They came home to dinner and a little party.

Grandma gave her a princess dress that she was pretty excited about

A perfect end to a birthday.

We let Katie decide whether she wanted to go to Carowinds (the local water/theme park) or have a princess party for her birthday--she picked the party. Because her birthday is so close to the 4th of July most of her friends were out of town on her birthday, so we had the party the next Friday.

The invitations

I also asked Katie what kind of cake she wanted...why, would I do that?...and she picked a castle cake to go with the theme of the party. I found a cute idea online and my sister, Flossie, agreed to help, so I committed. Again, not smart when I am a work from home mom with 3 kids running around. If you have ever tried to make a cake from scratch with 3 little kids "helping," you know how it went. Luckily, I was smart enough to make it the day before...

We had the party in the morning; 4 of her girl friends and Carson came.
We played 'pin the crown on the princess' and went on a treasure hunt, and then decorated a little princess bag (I did give a blue one to Carson and Marcus).

Miss Princess

Talia, Katie, Ella, Ally, Laurel, Addy and Marcus (yes, my son has a tutu, he cried while Addy and Katie were getting dressed so I gave in)

lunch

Thanks to Flossie's help, I think the cake turned out pretty cute, Katie's face was priceless when she saw it.

Carson

Talia

Aunt Flossie and Aunt Sarah with Carson, Katie and Talia

opening presents

Katie and Ella

He took off the tutu after lunch-don't you just want to grab him and kiss him!

Carson stayed a little while after the party to play with Katie, she was so excited about him being in town--and he actually stood still to take this picture--he refused to get in the one with all the girls.

At the end of the day, everyone was nice and tired.

Bed Time