Lily turns 4!

I've neglected this bloggy blog for a while, but there's nothing like a birthday to bring me back.

 Lily turned 4 last Wednesday.  Part of me can't believe the 4 years has flown by, but the other part of me feels like it's perfect timing.  We've rising out of the whiny 3's and we're powering into the rationalizing/arguing 4's.  All part of growing up and all part of me learning how to teach and train her in the right way she should go. 

Lily is the light of our family.  She brings laughter, craziness, and joy to our family.  She is our feeler.  I can already tell that one of her gifts is mercy.  When we watch Wipe-out, she gets very unhappy when we laugh at the people falling.  Sometimes to the point of tears.  At the end of Toy Story 3, she nearly fell apart at the possibility of the toys being burned in the incinerator.  So we've learned that she has an extra sensitivity to people's pain and we make sure to help her work through those emotions.

She loves to hug, kiss and cuddle constantly.  It's often a point of frustration.  She loves to hug and cuddle Sam and he does not want his sister smothering him.  Her challenge will be learning to respect people's personal space.

Eloise is her world.  They fight, but they create, play, and imagine together and Lily watches what Eloise does with an curious eye.  I look forward to watching their relationship change and grow.

We're still following the family birthday party plan so we just had my parents down to celebrate.  Lily is in love with unicorns, so we opted for a unicorn birthday cake and a few rainbow party props thrown in. My cake wasn't as fabulous as I had hoped, but she loved the rainbow inside and the princess and unicorns on top (Playmobile). 

 





















She wanted a rainbow fruit salad, pickles and olives, mac & cheese shells and chicken strips.  She also wanted orange juice.  Requests granted.



Her favorite gift was a hula hoop!  She had hours of fun playing.  They also got a store front that Sam loved to play in and Eloise loved to draw on.  She received lots of other great gifts too.



It was a great day to celebrate the Lord's wonderful gift to us.  We are blessed and thankful to have Lily as a part of our family.