Motherhood is really just a great big crazy time-warp, y’all.  Stella seemed like she would be my baby forever and somehow over the weekend she turned four years old.  FOUR YEARS OLD.  That’s such a big girl age.  I am loving her so much at this stage, but it brings a tinge of pain to think back on all the cherished stages before.  I can’t believe how quickly we’ve moved through them.

Stella has been planning her birthday for months MONTHS.  Ever since January, she has had the line of people’s birthdays’ before her and she just kept moving down the list.  “First is your bwuthday, then baby Grae will be here, then daddy’s bwuthday, then grammy’s bwuthday, then my bwuthday!”  She kept them in perfect order and as one of us had a “bwuthday” she would happily move down the row.  The anticipation jumped a bit as we came upon daddy and grammy’s birthdays and she was next.  This moved to “how many sleeps til my bwuthday?” and from 10 sleeps on, she counted down.

On the nights Stella sneaks out of her bed for some extra snuggle time, she’ll whisper in my ear, “Mom, let’s talk about my birthday.”  We have written her ideas down on a little card in my planner.  She has been ecstatic about her own special card in my planner.  She planned out her whole party with a few ideas of what she wanted for her birthday. “A mermaid outfit for me and for Harlo.”  That’s what I love about my girls, they are always always thinking about each other.

Much to my dismay, our kitchen remodel happened right over the top of Stella’s birthday.  I was crushed to not be able to give her the party we had been planning, but with a kitchen torn to the bones, there was just no way.  My little happy-go-lucky Stella didn’t skip a beat, though.  We quickly arranged some other plans I and I tried to incorporate as much of her ideas into each event as I could.

We made a long weekend of celebrating our favorite 4 year old.  She picked where she wanted to eat (Mongolian bbq of all places for her special lunch with Gram) and all the things she wanted to do (lots of swimming, treat-getting and the movies).

We have packed birthdays with small little traditions to make the day special.  As my girls get older, these little traditions become more and more fun.  We didn’t do anything extravagant for Stella’s birthday this year, but the day was still filled with magic.

The night before Stella’s birthday, I found a gift bag on the ground in the kitchen and when I went to put it away, I saw this sweet envelope addressed to Stella in Harlo’s handwriting.  My heart almost exploded!

Stella was thrilled to be turning four.

Since “a mermaid outfit for me and for Harlo” was nearly the only thing she asked for this year, you better believe my mom took that seriously and whipped something up.
I almost peed my pants when I saw she had made one for Grae, too.  (and so did the girls)

You can easily assume that anytime you stop by my house in the next few months, the girls will be in their mermaid outfits…. they even slept in them the first night.

We ended the birthday festivities by sending off birthday wishes on the pinkest balloons I could find.

 When I asked Stella what her favorite part of her birthday was she thought for a minute and said “sending off bwuthday wishes in the sky.” 🙂 and then she added, “…. and my mermaid outfit.”
Sweet sweet success!