Megan Tenney

Fairies and a Four-Year-Old

My little girl is not so little anymore! Vanessa turned 4 on February 18th, and we celebrated all week long!

The Friday night before her birthday, she got to have a special sleepover with Gramma and Grampa, and the next day, they took her to Build-a-Bear to… build a bear! Well, she built a cat!

On Sunday, the kids sang to her in Primary at church, and then her Sunbeams class actually celebrated her birthday on the following Sunday, and her teachers let her have some time during class to tell her friends all about her birthday party. So sweet!

We celebrated her birthday on Tuesday night, the evening before her birthday, because I had not scheduled a rehearsal for my play that night. My mom took Harry for the afternoon, and as soon as school was out, Vanessa and I went to pick up Daniel and then Carter, and we headed over to Skyzone!

I wanted to take Vanessa somewhere fun for her birthday, and then finish up with cake and ice cream at home with the family. She chose a “fairy” theme for her decorations and cake, so we thought jumping at Skyzone (trampoline park) would fit in with the fairy theme (jumping/flying, same thing right?).

The four of us jumped for an hour, going from the big trampoline room to the foam pit jump to the basketball dunk to the dodgeball court. That was the best part, I thought. We had the whole court to ourselves, and jumping on trampolines is pretty fun to begin with, but then add a bunch of soft balls to throw at each other, and it just gets better. Vanessa was nervous about getting on the trampolines at first, but by the end she was jumping all over!

In the meantime, Gramma, Grampa, and Harrison were at our house, setting up the party decorations. On our way back, we picked up pizza and brought it back for the party.

Parmesan cheese = fairy dust for pizza!

Vanessa loved her decorations and fairy cake! I also made Fairy Punch (recipe coming soon)!

Harry enjoyed the cake, too!

After food, she opened her presents. She got a Flutterbye Fairy, a Magic Fairy Cookie Baking set, a bracelet decorating set from Harry, Frozen Trouble game from Carter, and we got her all of the expansion packs for an app she likes to play (Strawberry Shortcake’s Bake Shop). She got some fun presents from Gramma and Grampa too, including a Play-Doh set and a Magna Doodle.

The next morning, on her actual birthday, she got to go to her best friend’s house for preschool, and then Gramma joined us and Harry for a special birthday lunch at Denny’s!

Vanessa is an absolute joy. She is sweet and funny and so smart. She often comes into our room early in the morning and cuddles with me for the last few hours of sleep. She loves to give hugs and kisses, and her favorite thing to do is to pretend it’s your birthday and make you a “cake.”

Making her “magic fairy” cookies!

Vanessa loves princesses, dancing, and playing outside. She knows all of her letters and can write her name. She’s in the beginning stages of learning to read and can recognize some sight words like Mom, Dad, Dog, Cat, and all of our names. She and Carter can bicker to the point of me pulling my hair out, but other times I’m blown away by how sweet they are to each other!

She is also a good big sister to Harrison and likes to call him a “cutie baby!”

Vanessa is now Facebook-famous for her daily wisdom. Some of my favorite quotes include: “Look before you leap. You might go too far,” and, “Your heart is never really broken, but sometimes it feels like it’s broken.”

I told Daniel the other day that I am actively trying to enjoy her as much as possible while I still have her at home. In another year and a half, she’ll be off to Kindergarten, but in the meantime I’m happy she’s home with me.

Happy birthday, Vanessa. You’re growing up, but as you remind me often, you’ll be my daughter forever!

The post Fairies and a Four-Year-Old appeared first on Shaping Up To Be A Mom.

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