The Big Birthday Party

We celebrated Hayden's 4th birthday yesterday with all of our wonderful family and friends. It turned out to be a great party(it usually is), but this year Hayden was so excited about it and she invited some of her classmates too. Kierstin was the first person to call Hayden yesterday morning to wish her a happy birthday, after the conversation(which was pretty interesting) Hayden asked a million times what time was Kierstin coming to her party. Kierstin, Addie and Ally are all in the same class with Hayden, they seem to have lots of fun together. There were lots of other kids too...Gunner, Kylee, Jacob, Chase and Dalton. We had a great turn out and they all played very well together, no major fights or anything. The boys were glad to see each other, I guess they weren't to excited about a Little Mermaid Party, but they did have fun picking on all the little girls. The boys played in Gracie's room the majority of the time, which is quite interesting being that there is nothing in there but baby toys. The girls played in the pretend kitchen and in the snow white tent until it was time for the cake and ice cream.

Hayden had told me that she wasn't going to be scared this time when everyone sang Happy Birthday, but I could tell by watching her face she was a little embarrassed. At least she didn't try to hide this time. She informed me right before I started this post that she was only a little scared but she was glad she could hold my hand(made me feel very special). The cake and ice cream was delicious and I am pretty sure all the kids loved it, I know Gracie definitely enjoyed hers! Then came the presents, which ended up being VERY exciting. Hayden, Kierstin, Addie, and Ally all helped open the presents. I didn't even know who the gifts were from most of the time, they were opening them so fast and moving right on to the next thing. It was nice to see Hayden having so much fun and enjoying herself so much. As always she got lots of REALLY great gifts. When I asked her what was the best present she got...She said Ariel and Eric and the Barbie Preschool Teacher, I was very excited because both of those were from us(Mommy, Daddy and Gracie). I had a really hard time this year because she pretty much already has everything. Kim and Artie gave her another inch of pearls, it is so hard to believe she has four inches now(she is growing up way to fast). She also remembers exactly which gifts came from Kierstin, Addie and Ally and she tells me each time that they were all so nice for coming to her party, she is such a sweet little girl! Clay and Katelyn came in while Hayden was opening gifts, and she immediately stopped and got up from her presents to go over to give Katelyn a big hug and kiss, and she had to hold her for a minute too with help from Mimi. She really loves Katelyn, she talks about her all the time, and Katelyn was adorable as always and showed everybody how well she crawls.

After the craziness with the presents, Hayden wanted to know if all the girls could play dress up, she had been asking since the beginning of the party...So I finally told her YES, they could, it turned out to be a great Princess Party, they all had on beautiful dresses and dress up shoes, it was so adorable. They all got in Hayden's bed and pretended to be sleeping. Then Ally and Addie had to leave, Addie didn't want to leave, she cried the whole time she changed her clothes. She even told her Mommy that she just wanted to spend the night at Hayden's house. Kierstin never wants to leave so we knew when it was time to make her change her clothes it was going to very interesting. I think it is so sweet that Hayden and Kierstin love each other so much! It always seems like when one person makes the decision to leave, everyone else starts to leave too, but the party wasn't over for Hayden. Mimi, Pop, Kim, Artie, Grandmama and Linda were staying for dinner, so she still had plenty of people to play with for the night and Heath and Alisha and Cy and Nichole came over after the kid party to give Hayden more birthday presents.

Hayden says that it was the best birthday party ever! I agree, I think it was a pretty great party too.

Thanks to everybody for the gifts, she is a very loved little girl!!!

The Little Mermaid:

This was when everyone was singing Happy Birthday!

Hayden, Kierstin and Addie:


Grandmama and Katelyn:


Beautiful Princesses:


Snow White's House:



Tired Princesses:



Katelyn being a Big Girl:



Gracie feeding her Monkey, she didn't even try to keep up with the Princesses:



My size puzzle from Heath and Alisha: