Abby is 4!!

Written June 7, 2016

Abby turned 4 today! The girl has been counting down for weeks (even made a paper chain count down) and was beyond excited for her birthday this year.

It was sure a fun-filled day for her! I know I am sure exhausted after it all!

Homemade donuts for breakfast

Birthday dress to wear for the day made by Mom. I used this tutorial.

Zoo with friends
And Jessica, mom to Remi, brought a dozen donuts to share. She knows Abby's love of donuts, so Abby sure got her fill of donuts today!

Museum with friends
Abby really wanted the zoo and the dinosaur museum, and her birthday just happened to fall on the Tuesday that the Natural History Museum is free so that worked out perfectly!
No pictures here, I happened to lose my phone while in the zoo. :( Thankfully I got it back just a couple hours later. Someone turned it in and they gave Eric a call. We were still in the area (the museum is right by the zoo) so picked it up on the way home!
We had a small picnic after the museum and Emily, mom to Oliver, had made a cookie cake and everyone sang to Abby. She loved it, and I definitely was not expecting it! So nice and thoughtful!

Costco dinner
One of Abby's favorite places to go is Costco, and to her eating there is such a treat. We never eat out so really eating anywhere would be a treat, but Costco is just amazing in her mind. And it's inexpensive so it was easy to acquiesce.

Cake and presents!
Abby wanted pink cake with pink frosting with chocolate in the middle. So I made this strawberry cake with a ganache filling. Turned out great, albeit with a breakdown on my part when the cake layers where slipping and sliding (Didn't let the ganache cool enough before adding the second layer), it was a mess. Thankfully Eric came home right at that moment to help relieve my stress, or at least take the girls out while I calmed down. :) Abby was so sweet though, and came in to where I was sitting on the kitchen floor, put her arm around me and said, "It's ok Kiersten, it's ok." "It's still going to be a beautiful day." Love that girl.

Abby requested lots and lots of presents. I told her this was not going to happen, and she said, "well just a little lots of presents, then." This is the first year that she is really conscious of presents being a part of birthdays and I worried about her putting such importance in getting presents. Tried to talk to her about how getting presents wasn't the most important part, that birthdays are a day for us to celebrate her and show her we love her. But she just wanted presents.

Here is what she got: A couple of books and an outfit from Grandma and Grandpa.

And a doll house! Her 'fun' present and an amazing Craigslist find. Rua had the best reaction though, she let out the cutest squeal when Abby uncovered it.

When I asked her that night if she loved her birthday and the presents she got, she said yes, but that she wanted more presents. Oh dear, we'll keep working on it.