Last week we celebrated Anna’s 4th birthday. This year she was pretty excited about her birthday. We started off with a week countdown calendar including gifts, snacks, and a movie night. For movie night we watched Disney’s Snow White. Snow White is a favorite book in our house for the little girls and it was a blast sitting with Clara while we watched the movie, since she was very involved in the story, repeating phrases and saying “I found her!” whenever she saw Snow White.
Anna’s cake order was a bit complicated. She went between wanting a Mymy (her small stuffed panda) cake, a flower cake, and a butterfly cake. Then she settled on wanting a round cake with a picture of Anna, Mymy, and Mymy’s Little Sister in a stroller. Then it got more complicated and she also wanted Anna making a cake and Anna in a house included on the cake. I told her that I could only draw one Anna on the cake, and that was hard enough, since my smallest tip is still too big for tiny detail. The result was tasty, and Anna was pleased.
Taking Anna’s birthday picture this year was a breeze and she kept asking me if she could do different poses. That was quite a change from the years I begged her to look at the camera.
Anna had big plans for her birthday morning. She wanted to get up really early and put on a pretty dress. All the kids ended up getting up early and getting dressed up. They then played Legos together before breakfast. We had decorated Anna’s door the night before, so she got to see that first thing in the morning. For Anna’s birthday we went swimming in Ban Lung and had a pizza and French fries lunch at the pool we swam. Then for supper Anna ordered hotdogs and macaroni & cheese.
Gifts were pretty easy for Anna – she wanted a new mosquito net, a backpack, and some Little People princesses. Her siblings enjoyed buying/making gifts for her.
Four is a really fun age and Anna is one very bright and fun little girl. She can talk non-stop about the things her dolls are doing and she’s full of expression as she tells you every little detail about her dolls. I just love her hand gestures that go along with her stories. As our middle child, she did get lost in the cracks with her nighttime thumb sucking. A few weeks ago we started working on that and we’re so proud that she has, as far as I know, dropped sucking her thumb altogether. Anna also stopped taking a afternoon nap and has joined her older siblings during afternoon rest time, where they hang out on the porch and do projects and listen to books on the iPod. Our little girl is growing up.
Anna is pretty excited about having a new sibling and is praying for a baby sister. Before we told the kids we were expecting another baby, she told me we were going to get a baby on our trip (last March) to Phnom Penh.
We had a great time celebrating Anna’s birthday. She’s such a bright part of our family. We’re so thankful to have been gifted with her to our family.
The last picture makes me laugh. I told everyone to make grumpy faces and Anna who is usually my straight faced girl is pictures smiles while everyone else masters their grumpy look!