And So It Begins!

The birthday celebrations are already starting. Violet turns 4 on Saturday ~ my heart is breaking just a little bit right now. My baby isn't a baby so much anymore. Anyhow, we went to a great Mexican restaurant last night, Pappasitos, and we made a semi-private birthday celebration out of it. I say semi-private because it was just the three of us at the table but the whole restaurant participated in the celebration when the wait staff sang their version of "Happy Birthday To You" in front of everyone. Violet was beyond thrilled due to all the attention. I'm not sure what made her most happy though. She had a huge group of people sing to her, got to wear a giant sombrero, and got a free desert! By the way, the sombrero was bigger than Violet and nearly weighed as much as she does. The restaurant provided a polaroid for us and the picture is quite good, I've got to get it to someone one who can scan it for us so I can share it with you.

Violet was very impressed with having the wait staff singing to her. I think my favorite part of the whole evening, besides a smile that stretched further than her beautiful face, was Violet asking Gregg and I, "How did they know it was my birthday?" You can't see it right now but I'm smiling just thinking about that.

I've bought the makings for cupcakes to make later this week. Violet and I will bake the cupcakes and take them to her daycare (aka "school") so she can share her birthday with her fellow friends. We'll be making vanilla cupcakes with butter cream icing. What's going to make these cupcakes special is they'll be baked in Tinker Bell cupcake papers and sprinkled with pink "pixie dust" (aka pink food glitter) that'll magically appear overnight after we've baked them! Needless to say, all the kids at daycare will be flying high on sugar by the end of the day, something that I'm sure will endure me to their parents.

Violet's enthusiasm is uncontainable. She has talked non-stop about her birthday. The three of us went to the pool today and guess what, there was a birthday party in process for a boy celebrating his tenth birthday! Of course that set Violet to talking about her upcoming birthday. We've been hearing, "Is today my birthday? No? What about now?" so much that it reminds me of the Verizon commercials in how repetitive her questions are. In hopes of helping Violet understand how many days away her birthday is she and I made a paper chain to count the days. Starting on Monday evening Violet will tear a link from the chain. We've even added when her MiMi and Pops will arrive, along with three of the four kids they are guardians of, on the paper chain.

We're not having an elaborate party this year. Violet's birthday this year will be simple as we've only invited a handful of friends. Her party will be Tinker Bell themed, very girly. This is the first year that Violet's birthday celebration will be girly. Her previous birthdays have been fairly generic themed. Her first birthday was Suzy Zoo. Her second birthday was everyone's favorite furry red monster, Elmo and the third was Winnie the Pooh. Violet's "girlyness" is definitely coming out and I must admit that it's alot of fun. I've fallen in love with Tinker Bell again after witnessing Violet's excitement for her.

This week is going to be full of preparations. Not only for the party and company but for making space for everyone. Gregg doesn't know it yet but we're going to be rearranging some furniture. We have a love seat in our bedroom and I want to make room for it in the living room. With that and our sofa and two chairs we should have enough seating for everyone. It'll be a little cramped but that's just fine. I love having family visit and tripping over one another. We don't get to see our families as often as we'd like and so space issues don't really bother me all that much.