Saturday, March 31, 2012

Four Years!


On March 19th, Lyla Celeste turned 4! This year's birthday was a little different than her previous three. She was aware of it coming up (and asked about it every day for about two months), had her own theme picked out (cowgirl !! ) and understood that her birthday was a celebration of her birth day. We talked about when she was in Mommy's tummy and the day she decided to come out, and she is starting to remember her birthday is March 19th, which is on particular day in the month of March (although there is still plenty of confusion on the difference between months and holidays and seasons).

This year, we opted to celebrate at Rocky Top Ranch in Keller, where the kids could play on an old-school playground, feed farm animals and ride horses! I knew we'd have fun, but I had no idea it would be such a fantastic day! As always, Grandma helped party-plan, organize games, and fancy it up with cowgirl decor. Everything looked awesome!





Grandma's cake decorating skills, again. She makes the best cakes!
The party guests arrived and soon selected their western wear for the day.
 The kids played on the playground while taking turns on the two horses, Wildfire and Goldie (who was really a Pomeranian pony). I had requested a pony thinking that the little kiddos might be intimidated by the horses, however, that wasn't the case at all. I should have listened to the party director at the ranch! Only a couple of kids were too timid to ride, and the rest, especially Lyla, hopped right on and rode proud! At one point, the ranch hand commented on how comfortable Lyla looked on Wildfire, as she wasn't focused simply on riding; she was looking around and enjoying herself, reaching down to stroke her mane, and talking to her while she rode. She was so proud and happy!
 
 
 
Even Brother got to try it out!
 

Giving Wildfire a kiss on the nose. So sweet!
Other party activities included bobbing for apples (which was hilarious), and pin-dropping (which was mostly unsuccessful, apart from Isabella's hole-in-one), gift-opening, cake-eating, pinata breaking and more playing on the playground. What a wonderful day!









 Thanks, Grandma, for all your help planning and executing! Thanks Pap and Uncle John for helping with setup and keeping an eye on Flint so Mommy could enjoy the birthday girl!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY, LYLA!!!!!!!!!!!