Rainbow Connection

Recently, our biggest girl turned FOUR!  That's right, FOUR.  One.  Two.  Three.  Four.  It's as amazing to me as it is exciting to her - FOUR?  REALLY?!?!?!?  You'd think I'd have a better grip on this motherhood thing by now....

But I digress.

Tanner's 4th Birthday party theme was "Rainbows."  She decided this somewhere around April and never gave it up, so Rainbows it was!  We made rainbow invitations, filled rainbow goodie bags with rainbow goodies, and made rainbow cakes - it was rainbow-er-iffic! :)

Kermit would be proud.

Not only did Tanner get to turn FOUR, but she got to do it TWICE, celebrating in Illinois -AND- Denver.  What a lucky girl!

Her Illinois party was held at Anthony's where we had a room to ourselves.  It made a great place for all the kiddos to run, run, run!  (And with all her Illinois cousins - Logan, Kinley, Landrey, Cale, Charlie, and Noah were all in attendance - plus TK & EK - we needed a gym! :)

Tanner gets some present-opening help from Cousin Landrey.
Ooooo!  Color Wonder!  Thanks Papaw & Riri!

Now, Cousin Logan comes in to help.
You can never have too many helpers for one gift.

Ellery decides she needs to oversee the present-opening process, too.
Especially if there are Barbies involved.

I'm not sure what Landrey is doing here....but it looks funny :)

Rainbow girl eats her rainbow cupcake!

Being the lucky little 4-year-old she is, we also had a party in Denver at Jumpstreet Trampoline Park.  Tanner had her heart set on having a birthday party at Jumpstreet since she went to her friend Noah's party there in February.  I figured since I wouldn't have to clean or cook, it'd be money well spent :)  And it was tons of fun!

Gabe & Tanner climb the Wall of Trampoline!

Just like Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed.

Ellery gives it a whirl...and loves it!

After about an hour spent bouncing and playing, it was time for pizza and cake!

Om-nom-nom...

Mommas cuttin' it up :)
In the background, you can see the BIG KIDS bouncing area.  Our group played in a smaller 7-&-younger area called the "Earthquake Zone."

After pizza came my favorite - Cake!  This year, I decided to make a layered rainbow cake - a rainbow DOODLE cake - a mimic of the cake made on Sweetapolita's blog.  So cute!

Tanner coloring her cake with rainbows, her name, flowers, and "the cross, Mommy.  Because that's where Jesus died."  Very appropriate birthday doodles, indeed. :)

The finished product!
(You're thinking this is just a boring white cake, right??? with bad fondant, to boot! :)

Tanner blows out the big 4 while Noah & Gabe wait patiently.

Making the first cut....nervous!

Ta-Daaaa!!!  Perfect!

Hammin' it up with my handiwork.

Cute friends enjoying cute cake!

I love it!
(and it's all about me, right? :)

Ellery, for the first time ever, is the last one sitting at the table.
She ate every last bit of food.  What a rarity! (even for pizza and cake!)

What better to do after eating?  More bouncing, of course!

At 4, you're fine.  In your thirties, you hurl.

Ellery makes eyes at and plays blocks with Jax.

Anson goes down the shark slide.

Tanner next!

A slide more Ellery's speed :)

Gads of kids play with gads of blocks.

The kids were too excited to go play and bounce to open gifts at the party - but as soon as we got home, Tanner was an Eager Beaver to make quick work of it:

Sportin' her new big-girl owl backpack.  Super Cute!

 

Who doesn't love Dinger?
Thanks, Auntie Fischy (& Chris!) for a crowd-favorite! :)
(and for always keeping my kids in Rockies gear!  Go Rox!:)

 Of course there were tons more gifts - more than I could ever photograph - and she continues to play with them all!  (Trust me, I pick them up every-stinkin'-day, multiple times.  Ellery has taken quite a liking to her Big Sass' gifts, too, which has been the crux of more than one disturbance...but again, I digress :).  She had such fun at both her birthday parties and is already talking about what we're gonna do NEXT year! 

(Ummm, Tanner?  MOMMY'S birthday is next.  Let's talk about THAT first, mmm'kay??? :)

Being FOUR has already brought a lot of new sassy-ness into her demeanor, and I'm sure there's more to come.  Splendid.  Next week, she starts PRE-K (can you believe it????) four days a week, and I'm sure that will only add to her 'tude.  Marvelous.  I can't wait to share all the stories with you!  (The ones suitable for print, at least :)

Happy Mid-August!