Big 4 Year Old Bash!

Yesterday, we had Lily's Birthday party!!!
She won't be 4 until June 27th, but we will be in St. Maarten on her Birthday (YEAH!!!), so we had her Birthday party early.
Lily got to share her party with her cousin Ares again this year!!
Since they are only a week apart in age, it just makes sense to share their party. =)
Lily was super excited about her party when she got up.
She couldn't wait to get in her party dress:

Since I do not want to pack all of her presents and fly them all to St. Maarten with us, (I know, why not?!?) we let her open her presents from us before her party.
(She is getting one small present in St. Maarten so she gets to open something on her actual Birthday though).

Then it was time for her party!!

The themes were Buzz Lightyear and My Little Ponies/Rainbows.

Can you guess who's theme is who's? ;0)

Between lunch and opening presents, I saw these two cuties playing together outside:

So cute!

Then it was present time!

After the present extravaganza, it was time to blow out the candles!

Ares had a Buzz Lightyear cake that my sister Mary made:

She did a great job!!!

Ares was so cute while we were singing to him.

He sang along and even said his own name. Very cute. =)

In addition to the cakes we had these cupcakes with rainbow colors for frosting.

I have discovered Wilton icing colors and I love them.

They are SO bright!!!

Lily's cake was a combination of her themes.

It had a rainbow & some of her mini ponies on the top along with cute rainbow candles.

I actually made Lily's cake, which is a shock to some people, because I don't usually make my children's Birthday cakes.

I usually make my sister Mary do it.

Not because I can't bake, I can, but because I can not decorate cakes to save my life.

So while I did bake & frost this cake, I did not actually decorate it.

I made Mary do that when she got to my house. ;0)

She pre-made the rainbow & then wrote Happy Birthday Lily on it.

Yep, I can not write on cakes....really...it looks bad...

Anyway......

Lily loved her cake.

Mainly because it looked like this on the inside:

Six layers of cake, each one a color of the rainbow.

I got the idea for it here.

It was not only pretty, it was yummy too!

I think both kids had fun and I know they each got a lot of cool presents.

And while Lily loved all of her presents, I think she was partial to this one:

A Pinkalicious dress & princess hat from Aunt Amy & Uncle Sam.

She wore it for the rest of the day..... =)

Now Lily is excited for her real Birthday, because she gets to spend it on the beach!!!

Riverfest so far.....

When I first heard the Riverfest was going to be moved to June I was not very excited.
It's hot in June.
But now that it is here, I actually like it in June.
May is such a busy month for us, that we usually went on the Saturday that the Tot Trot was and then never went back again.
We just didn't have time.
But this year, we have already been back 3 times!
On Sunday we originally went to go for a ride in the hot air balloon.
But it was too windy. Boo! =(
But then the kids saw the paddle boats, so that saved us. =)

I have not been in a paddle boat in quite some time.....

I did not remember how hard they were to paddle.....

After the boats, we got funnel cake!!

Yummy!

Then, since it was 500 degrees, we went home. ;0)

Yesterday we went to the Children's Theatre's production of Chicken Little.

It was free with your button!

It was very cute and all three kids loved it!

They even got a picture with Turkey Lurkey afterwards!

Then we were going to go to the Kids' Corner, but since I failed to check the schedule, I didn't realize that it didn't open for another hour.

OOPS!

So, instead of waiting in 103 degree weather (not loving that part of it being moved to June) we went home and waited for Jeff to get home from work.

Then we headed back and got to see a Bio-Dome movie for $1.00 each at Exploration Place.

Funny story about that:

Riley has obviously never been to one of these (or a 3D movie) because when the movie started, the title came right at us like it was going to hit us. All of the sudden Riley screamed out, "OH NO! IT'S GOING TO CRUSH US!!!!"

Poor Riley, but it was SO funny!!

He was OK after that.

Zach & I were not though....I forgot how nauseous those movies make me. =( Apparently Zach takes after me with that....he didn't feel so good either.

But then we were able to finally go to the Kids' Corner.....where they had a whole 2 rides!!

They did have inflatables too, but it was too windy...again. (They do know that this festival is held in Kansas, right?) ;0)

The kids have had a lot of fun though and they are excited about the fireworks we are going to (try) to go to on Saturday!

Tot Trot

This was Lily's first year for the Tot Trot!
It was Riley's 4th!!
Poor Zach was over the age limit. =(
He was sad about that, but he did like being able to cheer Riley & Lily on.
We almost didn't make the Tot Trot though.
We didn't know it was moved from where it has always been.
Then we asked a Riverfest person & they told us to go three blocks in the WRONG direction!!
By the time we got to be where we actually needed to be, they had already done the 3, 4, & 5 year old races. =(
Lily really wanted to run, so we just let her run with the 6 year olds which is what Riley was running in.

They were so tired from walking about a mile and a half by the time we got to where we needed to be, but they were troopers & did a great job!

This looks like he is choking her, but he is just loving on her. :0)

Lily was SO proud of her medal!!

I am so glad we got there in time!

Their pride in their achievement was so worth the walking all over the place to get there!

Lily found the drink afterwards:

Apparently she was thirsty! ;0)
Good job Lily & Riley!!!

#8: Pick Mulberries at Grammy and Granddad's

The other day, we headed over to Grammy & Granddad's house to pick and eat mulberries!

The kids love to do this now. =)

I love that they are enjoying something that I loved doing when I was little.

They are already asking to go back to eat more!

# 4: Swimming!

We set up our pool on Monday.

Only it was really windy, and not that warm.

That didn't stop these crazy kids!

Lily likes to wear her life jacket in the pool.....

even though she can stand up in it.

That's OK, she actually gets in the pool this year without Jeff or I, so it is a big improvement from last year!
I did get her to get in for about 5 seconds with out it:

Notice the death grip on the pool though.

These two don't need any encouragement to get in and swim though:

So sweet:

Both boys really want her to enjoy the pool more.

Zach got her to let go of the edge and walk across the pool.

She only did it once though.

That's more times than I got her to do it though. =)

The boys also love to splash!

This is how Lily feels about splashing:

Everyday, she has said, "Boys! You are making me MAD! Stop getting me WET!"

To which I aways say, "Lily, you're in the pool, you're already wet...."

She doesn't think I'm funny. ;0)

So, she usually ends up here after about 15 minutes in the pool:

This is her favorite spot.

I have to drag the boys out of the pool though. =)