Today my beautiful daughter turned 4 years old. My amazing Aaralee, the girl who made me a mommy. I can't imagine my world without her in it. She is so smart, absolutely beautiful, hilarious, and even more stubborn than me... if that's possible.
The past year with her has been a whirlwind of adventure, fun, learning, and the daily challenges of threenager life. She tested my patience and made my heart burst with pride. She conquered her first year of preschool and hiked up her first mountain. Last September, she was my shy, quiet, tiny little lady, and today she is my outgoing, chatty, big girl.
In this house, we celebrate birthdays in a big way. Parties are centered around whatever the girls currently love most. This meant that Aaralee's fourth birthday party would have 3 main components: Pink, princesses, and unicorns. With plenty of input from the guest of honour, we created her dream birthday party.
We invited all of her best girl friends, and together they coloured pictures of castles, princess and unicorns. They decorated their paper and their arms with stickers, while wearing crowns and tiaras.
As per usual, the kitchen was filled with treats and baked goods, including my homemade macarons and Grandma's famous cookies. The crockpot was full of Aaralee's favourite meal... mac and cheese!
Aaralee had a specific vision for her cake, and I was happy to make it a reality. It was pink, and coated in chocolate, "so so many sprinkles", marshmallows, a unicorn, and pink candles.
We managed to wrangle a few toddlers to play an amusing game of "pin the horn on the unicorn".
The highlight of the day was without a doubt the smashing of the unicorn pinata. What was once a colorful donkey pinata from Walmart had become a beautiful unicorn after a few tedious hours of my life. I watched my masterpiece get shattered into pieces by determined a few determined 2 to 4 year olds.
The aftermath of the pinata was an endless sugar high felt by both young and old party guests.
Aaralee assured me that she had had the best birthday party ever, and it made me so happy to see the pure joy on her face for the whole entire day.
She was sad to say goodbye to her party guests and asked why they couldn't stay all day. We sent them off with a bit more sugar for the road, much to the appreciation of the parents, I can imagine.
The party continued into today, her real birthday. My 4 year old woke up, ate some pancakes, put on a princess dress and got cozy on the couch to watch Frozen.
For weeks she had been asking to go to Chuck E Cheese's so today we granted that wish and spent a few hours running wild, eating pizza, playing games, and riding rides. She was in Heaven, running around in a Belle dress and fairy wings.
We went home, let Briley take a nap while we watched Frozen yet again. When little sister woke up, we headed to the swimming pool for an evening of splashing. By the time we dragged the girls out of the pool, everyone was exhausted and ready for dinner. It was Aaralee's choice, so naturally, we ended up at McDonald's.
We came home to watch a bit more Frozen (making the most of our 24 hour rental) and finally managed to put our "not tired" girls to bed. It was a super fun, super busy weekend for the most special 4 year old girl I know.
Happy birthday, my sweet princess. I can't wait for the adventures that this year will bring us.
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