We celebrated Hailey’s birthday several different times.  First a couple of days before her birthday I took cupcakes to her pre-k class at the day care center she goes to 2 afternoons a week.  I don’t have any pictures to post from there because they all show her friends eating with her and I can’t post pictures of those kids.

Next, on her actual birthday I took a pizza to her UPK class (they don’t allow cupcakes or cake).  Here she is with her birthday crown on.

Later on her birthday Grandma and Pa came over to have some dinner and cupcakes and to open gifts.

Hailey was just a little bit excited to open some presents.  (She had just gotten home from ballet, which is the reason for her ballet outfit.)

Happy Birthday!!

Then 2 days after that we went out to eat at the Olive Garden with Grandma, Pa and Aunt Winnie to celebrate Hailey’s birthday again.  They brought her a cake- but they didn’t sing.

The next weekend we had Hailey’s birthday party with her friends.  Here she is all ready to go.

The princess cake

Blowing out her candle

Hailey had about 19 friends come to her party!  I don’t have permission to post pictures of all of the other kids, so I’m just posing a couple of pictures with her cousin Anika in them.

Playing with Anika

Fun with Daddy and Anika

We had lots of fun celebrating Hailey’s birthday!  I can’t believe she’s already 4!!

It seems like we were just celebrating your 3rd birthday not too long ago, but another year has already gone by and you are now 4.

Every time I looked at the clock today I was remembering exactly what I was doing 4 years ago.  Actually it started yesterday.  I woke up early in the morning on October 6, 2006- I needed to make my hourly trip to the bathroom.  I went to the bathroom and when I stood up there was still a small trickle.  Was I wetting on myself?  Possible, since I was 9 months pregnant.  But not the case- my water had broken.  So I did what any sane person would do.  I started cleaning the house- dusting and vacuuming.  You were 3 weeks early and I wasn’t exactly ready and the house needed to be cleaned.  Then I took a shower because I didn’t know when they would let me take another shower at the hospital. After all of that was taken care of we went to the hospital.  You were born a short 32 hours later on October 7 at 1:34pm so I really did have plenty of time.

It really doesn’t seem possible that 4 years have passed and you are no longer a baby.  When I see other kids who are your age I think they seem so grown up.  When I see you I still see a little toddler with chubby cheeks and fat little arm rolls.  But then I realize that you have gotten very tall, you have slimmed down and you are just as grown up as those other 4 year olds.  As you told me, “I’m fouw (4) now. I’m not a little kid anymore.”

You are so independent.  When it’s time to get ready for bed, you run to your room and get your own pajamas on.  It’s nice to be able to tell you to go get dressed and you do it all by yourself.  You’re pretty particular about what you wear. Every night we have to plan out your outfit for the next day and you pick everything out, right down to your underwear and the bows for your hair.  You want to go to the bathroom all by yourself.  If someone comes in the bathroom you make sure they know they need to leave.  When did that happen?

You love all things girly- you like dolls and princesses.  You love pink and always want your nails painted. You want to wear your jewelry and you love dressing up in princess dresses.  You prefer to wear dresses and skirts and you love to walk around with my dress shoes on.

You love to cuddle, but only on your terms.  Sometimes you just need your space and you don’t want to be hugged or cuddled.  But when you go to bed at night, we lay together and read books and you tell me, “Cuddle with me mom.  Hold me tight.”  You and Daddy have a special little game you play called snuggle hugs.  Every night you ask him for a snuggle hug.  He has to pretend he can’t find your tummy and he looks for it all over- in your mouth, up your nose, everywhere.  And the whole time you just giggle and giggle.  Then when he finds your tummy he rubs his head on your tummy and tickles you and you laugh so hard.  I love hearing you laugh- it’s the best sound in the world!

You have blessed our lives more than we could have even imagined.  Our days are happier and full of laughter.  I never would have thought it was possible on that day you were born, but four years later I love you even more than I did then.

I love you Little Miss!!  Happy 4th Birthday!

Mommy

On our actual anniversary we decided to go to Hollywood Studios.  At first we had thought we would skip going to Hollywood Studios.  While we enjoy Hollywood Studios it is not our favorite park.  But we had done the other 3 parks and felt like we should go to Hollywood Studios.

A quick pose on our way into the park.

I always want to go see American Idol when we’re there and have never been able to until this time.  I really enjoyed it!  I don’t know if Hailey will love it when we go back next month but I’m hoping to go again.

I didn’t take any pictures but I really enjoyed going through One Man’s Dream.  Since Hailey doesn’t have any interest in reading every little thing about Walt Disney we usually go through it pretty quickly.  This time I took my time and read every little tidbit of information.  It was so interesting!

I love Beauty and the Beast and we ate delicious sundaes while we watched.

Us on the Backlot Tour.  This was right before we got soaked.  We were in the front row of the tram and it looked a little cloudy when we started the tour.  A few minutes into the tour it just started pouring.  Since we were in the front row and with the direction the wind was blowing- the rain pretty much poured right into our laps.  We had to finish the tour in the pouring rain.  We were soaked!

There was no time to change our clothes before we went to dinner at Ohana- so we ate soaking wet in the air conditioning.  Fortunately we didn’t actually look wet, but I was freezing!  Even so it was definitely the best food I have ever eaten.  All of the food was amazing and the bread pudding we had for dessert was like nothing I have ever had before.  After we had stuffed ourselves so much that I felt like vomiting at the thought of ever eating again our waiter brought us a special plate of desserts from Kona in celebration of our anniversary.

It looks delicious to me now but at the time we could barely even try the yumminess.

After dinner we went back to Hollywood Studios.  We were able to see a few more things and ride Toy Story Mania.  It had a 3 hour wait but thanks for our fast passes we only waited about 20 minutes.

We watched the Rock N’ Glow band play for a while and enjoyed that.  We weren’t able to see Fantasmic because it was full about 2 hours before showtime and we weren’t willing to wait that long, so we headed back to our hotel.

In the morning we went back to Magic Kingdom.

We rode my favorite ride- Splash Mountain a couple of times.

We enjoyed one of Rich’s favorite rides- the train.

Rich posing in front of Mickey’s house.

Me in front of Minnie’s house.  I can’t believe these houses will be gone when they redo Fantasyland.  We are going to have to take lots of pictures when we go back next month.

I just had to share this picture of us on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.  Can you see the look of concentration on my face as I try to defeat Zurg??

One last picture on our way out.

We relaxed by the pool back at our hotel for a couple of hours.

One last picture of Coronado Springs.

Then it was time to head home.  We had an amazing time and it was the perfect way to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We missed Hailey sooooo much but know it was good for us to go away by ourselves.  Hailey had a great time with her grandparents back at home and continues to ask me when we’re going away again so she can have her grandma and pa come and stay with her.

On our 2nd day in Disney World we went to Epcot.

Since we have a Disney Visa card we were able to go to the special character meet and greet and get our picture taken with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  We were also able to get a free 5×7.

Us enjoying a nice hot day at Epcot.

Us on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros ride in Mexico.

We enjoyed lots of rides and attractions and had a great time at Epcot!  For dinner we went to the Garden Grill.

Me and Pluto

Rich and I with Chip

Me and Mickey

Me and Dale

We watched the amazing Illuminations show.

One last picture on our way out of Epcot.

The next day we got up bright and early to head to Magic Kingdom.  It’s amazing how quickly we were able to get ready in the morning when it was just the 2 of us.  But I sure did miss my little Hailey!!

We enjoyed watching Dream-Along with Mickey

Us

At some point during the day I enjoyed my first Pineapple Float with Dole Whip ice cream.  I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of me enjoying it, but it never even crossed my mind to do that.  It was soooooo delicious!!  I can’t wait to have some more when we go back next month!

We had dinner at the Crystal Palace.  We ate there when we were on our honeymoon so it was fun to be able to eat there while celebrating our 10th anniversary too.

Me with one of my favorite characters, Tigger.

Me with my other favorite character Pooh.

Me and Piglet

Me and Eeyore

The Castle at night

We were able to see the Main Street Electrical Parade, which we hadn’t seen since we were there on our honeymoon.  We didn’t get a very good spot because people were finding places to see the parade when we went to the Crystal Palace for dinner 2 hours earlier.  But we still enjoyed watching the parade.

The Summer Nightastic fireworks were amazing!!