Our Sophie Girl Turns 4

I like to tease Sophie that she's growing up too fast and had better stop before she gets too big to fit on my lap and such. Her reply is always the same: "Mama, if you don't let me grow up to be a mama, then you won't ever get to hold my babies!" I can't refute that, so I just let her keep on growing.

So Sophie had her special birthday this year and turned four on the fourth of October. She was pretty excited about it, even if it means that now when she has to eat a certain number of bites before her dinner is considered finished, it's now 4 instead of 3. The sacrifices we make to grow up.

Sophie is loving her preschool class and is posing with one of her best friends in it, Tatiana. She got to choose a book to donate to her class with her picture and name inside. I was absolutely shocked when it was a princess book! (not)

She requested pink rice crispy treats for her treat to take to school and enjoyed all the attention from the other girls who wanted to sit by her while they ate.

Later that night we celebrated Sophie's birthday with our favorite Orange County-ites, the Lambs. We were so glad they made the time to come up for Sophie's big day. We went swimming and had pizza for dinner and then it was cake time.

Sophie is obsessed with Ariel right now and wanted an Ariel cake, but I was really not feeling up for making a big, elaborate cake right now, so I talked Sophie into some simple cupcakes. I was so grateful that she agreed and was just so excited about getting to have Ariel on hers that the rest didn't matter.

Avery carefully took mental notes as she watched her big sis blow out the candle.

Then it was time for presents, and Sophie was spoiled by her grandparents and family. I think she definitely got her Ariel fix!

Joseph and I only really got her one gift, a bike. She's never had one before and the poor thing is so deprived that she doesn't even know how to pedal a bike, so we thought it was about time. But it's a little too big for her still and she's not finding it very easy to pedal, so this is going to take some time to figure out I think. But she was very excited about it nonetheless.

We have decided to have family parties every other year for birthdays, so since she had a friend party last year this year was a family party. We just renewed our Disneyland passes so Joseph can take the girls there while he's home on paternity leave for the next couple of months, and we decided to take Joseph's day off on Columbus Day and go to Disneyland. Sophie is now big enough that she can ride a lot of the big rides. Her favorite for the day was by far Soarin' Over California (my favorite too) and I was so glad she didn't get scared at all. But she was also still content to do the littler rides like Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Safari, Monsters Inc., and all the little ones at Bug's Land.

We even met some new friends, these two bears (whose names I have no idea about). The girls weren't too keen on the idea of hugging them, but they were cool with high fives.

I think Sophie had a fun birthday and we sure had fun celebrating with her. We love our bright, funny, serious, silly, stubborn red head! Happy Birthday, Sophie Girl!