A Very Belated Birthday Post

Emerald's birthday was almost two months ago, which means that it is probably past time that I write about the party we threw for her!

This was her fourth birthday--I can't believe that she is growing up so fast. I love having parties for the kids just because it is so much fun to see how happy they are having a day that is all about them, and because I like to celebrate making it another year. Some days it just doesn't feel like we'll make it!!

Flashback: Emerald's first birthday was pretty much theme-less. I was broke and couldn't do much, but besides that all of Lubbock was flooded that day, so getting to the store for last minute shopping was all but impossible. She and I made a confetti cake together, and we had Disney Princess plates and napkins and stuff. My family wasn't able to make it because of the weather, but Ken and Rhonda and the Weems were there, and all in all, it was a great birthday. I remember that my mom made Emerald a chocolate brown dress with pink polka dots and a big cupcake on the chest to wear. I still have that dress stored =)

Her second birthday party was the one that the whole family got to come to (I think. It was either that one or the next). I made it Hello Kitty because Princess Hello Kitty was her favorite movie at the time, and I didn't know enough to vary up the colors so the dining room at Rhonda's house was an explosion of pink. It was intense.

The third birthday I did Dora the Explorer which turned out pretty well, as I think. It was mostly purple and orange.

After all those super girly birthday parties, I think she was ready for something different!!

As I said before, Emerald was insistent that she wanted a Captain America birthday party. I think Michael was proud enough to burst--he is a big comic fan, especially of Steve Rogers =) Honestly, I had it in my head that we were going to have a Tinkerbell Tea Party, and even tried to sway her toward it; but she had her little heart set on the First Avenger, and I didn't want to disappoint her.

It actually turned out much simpler than I had thought--there are tons of patriotic decorations that fit into the theme really easily. Anything we couldn't find with stars or stripes, we just had to pick red, white, or blue! Also because of the recent Captain America movie, bakeries were stocking Cap cakes as well.

I had wanted to get everything for the party before the baby was born so that I wouldn't have to do it after he got here, but there was just so, so much to do before hand that I couldn't manage. For inspiration, I kept Emerald talking about her party as much as possible. She actually had some great ideas.

Thus far with the kids, I have only done cupcakes and drinks or occasionally finger food at their birthday parties. Just cuts down on stress. We had been planning on that until Emerald asked for hot dogs. Hot dogs? ....sure, we can do hot dogs. I mean, how easy is that? Granted, I hate hot dogs...but it's not my birthday party!

For a little variety, my mom made a big pot of chili for the hot dogs, and we also provided Samuel Adam's soaked bratwurst, as well as chips. I like brats, so that was good for me. We had a cupcake cake--half vanilla, half chocolate as usual--with a figurine that spun on a base. Emerald thought that was pretty neat. The only downside of the cake was that there were 30 cupcakes, so we had tons left over.

Like we do every year, we had it at Rhonda's house. My parents were able to be there, but little Andrew was sick so Jarrod and Julia couldn't come. Ken had come back into town from work, so he was able to come as well. Besides that, Grannymom and DadDad and Rhonda were also there, and of course Michael, Gabriel, Benjamin, and myself were able to make it.

Besides family, we also had David and Beth, which meant a lot to me because Beth was feeling particularly crummy that day and had to go to the doctor the next day, but she still came anyway =) Sara was there as well--I love Miss Sara!

Forgive my fuzzy memory; I am still in a sleepy baby-haze, so I don't exactly remember everything she got and I don't think I will try. At any rate, she loved her many presents, and was thrilled overall with her Captain America birthday party!!

--Andie!--