Birthday Parties are THE BEST!

Especially when there are rides,

friends to ride with

and two birthday cakes for the two birthday girls!

Slumber Party!

This past weekend Hana had her very first sleepover! Can you believe it? One of her very best friends spent the night with her - at only four years old! What a lucky little girl.

Let me start at the beginning. Saturday I hosted a Saint Patrick's Day themed Scentsy party. I know, I know. A themed Scentsy party? But it was, after all, St. Paddy's Day and I do, after all, love a theme.

Close family & friends were in attendance. We smelled, talked, laughed, munched, purchased & had a great time. Several of Hana's closest friends were there with their moms. The girls played dress up upstairs and ever so often one would wander down in nothing but her skivvies. We got a good laugh at that. Oh, those silly girls! The party started to die down as guests began to leave one by one. One of my friends' husband stayed home with their baby boy, but she was there with her daughter who is one of Hana's very good friends from gymnastics. The little boy had been sick and just couldn't get well, so the dad made the judgment call that day that he needed to see a doctor.

Long story short, he ended up having to go to Children's Emergency Room and stay over night. All is well, they think it's just asthma, but had to rule out pneumonia. Hana's friend stayed with us while her mom went to be with her little brother at the hospital. Once the doctor decided he needed to stay over night, an extended play day turned into a slumber party! Of course we would have liked it to happen under better circumstances, but it was fun nonetheless.

Hana was the best little hostess. I tell you, she makes me proud. Since it was such a spontaneous turn of events, Hana shared her pajamas and even her clothes the next day.  I was so impressed with Hana's friend, too. I mean, she could have cried all night! But she didn't. Not at all. They stayed up late, got ready for bed, Ninny was here so she read them a story, then I read them one and then I told them it was late and time to go to sleep. No playing or getting up. They did just that. Kate was asleep in less than five minutes. It took Hana a little longer because she was very concerned with Ninny's getting ready for bed.

The next morning I heard Hana say, "Katie, it's good morning time!"(it was her usual 7 am) And Kate said, "It's still dark out, Hana, it's not 10 yet. Let's go back to sleep!" LOL! I knew from talking with her mom that Kate is a night owl and likes to sleep in while Hana is my early bird. But by 9 am their teeth were brushed, they were dressed, fed and out back playing! What a success!

Hana even let Kate have one of her Toaster Strudels for breakfast. Now that's love!

Hana's 4th Birthday Party

We baked the cupcakes the night before.

She decorated them the morning of her party.

I decorated one very special cupcake for one very special little girl.

She did all the rest.

She worked very hard to make each one uniquely exquisite.

(That's a word learned from Fancy Nancy)

Container #1

Container #2

Container #3

Once the cupcakes were finished, it was time to open one special present before the party.

I did not take a picture of the gift, it was a video. And you know how Blogger is with videos. You'll see what it was in a minute!

Hana wanted to have her birthday party at the gym where she takes gymnastics and attends preschool. Her school lunchroom is where we were going to eat the pizza and cupcakes. They had it all decorated for her!

Here's the completed cupcakes on their stand. Gorgeous!

Time to have some fun!

(The shiny new leotard was the gift she opened before the party!)

Even the adults got in on the fun!

Some not as voluntarily as others.

Parachute time!

Each of Hana's friends got to take a turn jumping on the parachute with her.

Then we spun Hana up in it

and popped her out of it!

They got hot pink birthday cake stamps on their hands and feet!

The Aggies were winning 61-0 in the other room!!!

Time to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday!

Wait! We forgot to eat the pizza first!

Okay, now we can eat the cupcakes.

And get our party favors.

Then the family came over to the house to watch her open presents.

She got lots of awesome gifts, like her boots and hat. Everyone really seemed to have a great time. I deem this birthday party another success!

Prayer Request

I don't normally do this, but I just feel so useless I'm willing to do anything at this point. A good friend of mine's daughter, who is a good friend of Hana's, is about to receive a blood transfusion. She is only four years old. She became abruptly ill at the end of the week, her kidneys have failed and now they're awaiting a specific blood type so she can have a transfusion. She has been on dialysis since Friday night and that was going well. As you can imagine, I don't have easy access to her mom for the play-by-play, so I don't really know what has gone wrong or why. But what I do know is that this special little girl and her family need your prayers. The transfusion needs to go well and hopefully she won't need a transplant. I pray for her to return to the happy, healthy little girl she was only a few short days ago!

Dog Pie

"Momma, I'm making dog pie for Mr. Guthrie & Oso (friend's dog)! I'm pretending Charles & Oso are going to come over and play with me and Mr. Guthrie!"

Coach Joe

Joe stepped in and acted as coach for Hana's soccer team last weekend since her coach was out of town. He had a lot of fun! I was sick, but I sent my camera with Joe and a good friend of mine whose daughter is on Hana's team was nice enough to take some pictures for me.

He played the part of coach at last night's practice too since Coach is under the weather. Man, there's some nasty stuff going around!

Soccer Mates

Hana refers to her teammates as soccer mates.

This particular one just so happens to also be a tumbling mate.

As well as a school mate.

All in all she's a really good mate.

A sweet mate.

A great mate. 

Inseparable mates.