Happy Birthday Adia!

She's four! :) It was a bit iffy yesterday as (a) she had a fever, and (b) she was insisting she wanted to remain 3, but she managed to tough it out and she's mostly fine on both accounts today. She's still a little warm, but she's been cheerful and swinging from the rafters all day, so I think she's alright. (And she's been exhausted, but at least three of us were awake for 2.5 hours last night when she decided she was hungry at 2am and did not like the choices presented.)

I made blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning, and we just hung around and played all day. Gamma was the first to call and wish her a happy birthday. When I got around to putting the phone on the charger, it rang within minutes and it was J checking to see how Adia was feeling and to wish her a happy birthday. Then Adia's best buddy S beeped in and sang her happy birthday. The immense cuteness of a four year old calling another four year old and singing happy birthday cannot be described. Oh my goodness!

This afternoon we baked the cake. That was almost a disaster. I used my beloved box mix from Trader Joe's (which I think makes us officially out of TJ's goodies from the run last May!) and thoroughly read the directions before we started. I melted butter in one mug and put water and three eggs in another mug so that Adia could pour them into the mixer. She did, I turned it on and mixed it all up. Then I read the next step and looked up to notice it needed two eggs, not three. D'oh. It came out okay, luckily. I iced it, and Adia did the sprinkles honors.

When Charles got home, we had spaghetti (Adia's request) and garlic bread. She wolfed it down so we could get to the fun part -- cake and presents! Francesca took two bites of garlic bread and licked the sauce off of the spaghetti. Eh, at least I can count on her making up for it by nursing. All night.

The cake was a hit for the three of us who ate it. It was orange chocolate (which we were expecting to be chocolate with a hint of orange... reverse that and that's what we got) with chocolate icing. And sprinkles, let's not forget those. Adia just ate the "outside" which means anything with frosting touching it. Francesca just got oranges. It's rough being the baby. (She didn't seem to notice or care, so it works.) I used the nifty color flame candles I'd gotten for Charles' birthday. I used the white ones on his, which just had standard candle flames. Adia's were far more colorful (although you can only really see two of them in the picture.

Adia opened Francesca's present first -- a copy of Candy Land. She didn't ask for anything specific until the end of last week, but we managed to pull it off. We got her a box of fairy tale creatures. There was a dragon, a prince, and a princess. And something that I thought was a fairy godmother, but Adia was quick to point out that "she doesn't have any wings, Mo-mmy." (Like, duh Mommy.) Then came two books from Gamma, a card with fairy stickers from K, K, and P, and two stuffed animals from Grandpa, C, C, and M. The biggest hit was Candy Land, as she wanted to go play it right away. All four of us "played" the first time, and I won. (And felt crappy about it.) She and Charles played another game, and she bounced all over the house when she won.

Now she's off in bed with Charles reading "Horton Hears a Who" and "On the Night You Were Born" and a Winnie the Pooh book from when he was a kid. :) Oh, and she's having some toast, because she's still hungry. Maybe that'll lead to a quieter night tonight. I hope so, because we're heading for Farmville tomorrow for party #2. We're stopping along the way for organic strawberries to top her cake, as that's been her request.

Happy Birthday my big girl! You've grown from baby to toddler to preschooler, as I realized today I must refer to you. So far, four's been okay. (The last few weeks of three were particularly trying.) I hope that four is better than whatever it is you're fearing. I hope it's your best year yet, even!