Raisin' 4: A birthday party, fourth child style...

Moments like these are what make busy moms glad they stayed up until 1:00am to make a last minute birthday cake. She never smiles this big when she first wakes up.

Last week was one crazy week. We made a very exciting trip to Cincinnati to see the newest cousin on Thursday and Friday. Tess's birthday fell on Saturday, but I got home and quickly got to work on the baby shower I was scheduled to help throw on Sunday in Bluffton (for another new cousin... babies everywhere in this family, and we love it!). We had already decided to lay low for Tess's birthday with all of the traveling, and I even talked myself into no cake... just a candle stuck into something at some point in the day.

Wow. This is fourth child thinking, for sure. Good thing I'm so far behind on scrapbooks that they'll never know the difference. And good thing you don't remember anything from when you're three anyway. But there are those simple moments that are worth the effort, even if they won't remember it a year from now. Or next week. After I couldn't stand it any longer, the cake went in the oven at 11:00pm the night before her birthday. I had no cute plan or even a theme. No matching napkins and streamers. I scrounged around for anything remotely girly and party-like (hard to find in this house!), and began decorating the kitchen at midnight.

She loves babies, and this is as creative as I get on a whim. Heh. Her surprised face when she woke up the next morning.... totally worth every minute of lost sleep. The great thing about having three brothers is that you always have a party on your hands. They cheered and sang and cheered some more, and didn't even fight over her presents.

Probably because they were all pink.

As much as she gets in their space, I think they've still all asked at some point why they can't marry her. She's still spunky and spirited, but she's finally maturing in her behavior and is becoming such a fun little personality. A day doesn't go by when we don't laugh hysterically at her antics. She was able to attend VBS while I volunteered this year, and every night multiple leaders would come to me with the funniest stories about her (they usually had something to do with her expressiveness, extreme silliness, or her crazy good three-year-old dance moves). One leader's comment was, "She's so adorable because she's hilarious and she doesn't even know it."