birthday bliss

zoe got extra bday fun this year.  she deserved it.  after all, four is pretty big stuff. we started celebrating by taking a little trip to ft. collins to stay a couple days at my parent's place there.  we love going to fort collins and had the house to ourselves.  zoe and max were pretty disappointed when they realized that grandpa and mema weren't there though.  max kept going around the house yelling, "gampa! memaaaa!" 

here zoe is sitting in gpa's comfy chair.  zoe's cute 4 shirt came from the bubaks.  she couldn't wait to wear it.  i made it wait till her actual bday.  she goes around telling everyone, "i'm 4 now!"

then we got to see aunt cailyn & uncle paul's new house they just built.  its super sweet and we were happy to be some of the first guests there.  we had a mini princess party there, pizza, pop and cake.  healthy fun.  thanks c & p for the bday fun and letting us hang out in your new digs!

the next evening we went out for a bday dinner.  the lights downtown ft. collins were all lit up so pretty.  i made a little white lie and told zoe that they must have known it was her bday and decorated for it.  whoops.  we also attempted a family photo.  those never work so well. 

And onto the main event.  Zoe's first girly-friend bday party.  The theme was snowflakes.  The hard part of having winter babies is not being able to do outdoor bday parties.  The easy/affordable part about winter bdays is you can find a lot of cheap Target dollar bin party stuff as well as use your own Christmas decor. Zoe was sooooo excited to have her friends come, but so bummed that her cousins are too far to join.  Maybe some year we can make it work!

 Lots of girly squeals and giggles were heard during this party. 

Of course Max had to be a part of the events too. 

  We did snowflake crafts, played Christmas Bingo, ate supper, and then opened presents. Two things I learned about this party:  1) Where there are girls, there is drama.  We didn't experience negative drama, just the girly drama in expresssions, orders, play, etc.  It was really funny.  These girls are all super sweet, and I'm so thankful Zoe has them as her friends here.  2) I'm not a cake/cookie decorator.  Frosting and I just don't get along.  In fact, I'm terrible.  I needed my sister Cara for that!

So overall, Zoe had quite the bday events.  The best part was at the end of the night of her last party she looked up at me with a big smile and said, "Thanks Mama for the bestest party ever!"  I needed to hear that.  Birthday parties are a lot of work!  My response, "Thanks Zoe, for being the bestest 4 year old ever!"