Eliza's 4th Birthday (in Utah)

 Eliza turned 4 years old when we were in Utah after New Years.  We had such a fun birthday for her!
She woke up to a bouquet of balloons by her bed, which was very exciting!  Papa and her cousin, TJ, had gone to the store the night before and picked them out for her. They chose a Rapunzel balloon, which was perfect, of course!  She felt so special!

For breakfast, all the GIRLS got to have a TEA PARTY!  Grammy went to work late that morning so she could do the tea party for Eliza.  She made a really yummy sweet apple 'tea', and we had scrambled eggs, zucchini bread, and toast. It was so fun!  The girls consisted of Grammy, Aunt Melanie, Eliza, Mommy, Aunt Brittany and cousin Nyah.

Eliza opened up her gift from Mommy and Daddy before we ate: a tea party hat and white lace gloves. :)  Here Grammy is offering Eliza some whipped cream to serve on top her  tea.

The younger boys were so silly during our tea party! We had told them they could not come into the dining room while we had the tea party because it was just for girls. So they pretended to be girls and ran through the room, thinking they were hilarious!

 The BOYS consisted of Coleman, Bridger, Cannon, Benjamin, and Gabe. So silly! Notice how Bridger put Eliza's orange bow in his hair, and Coleman is wearing something on his head that apparently makes him a girl. :)  After a while, the mommys said, "no more!" and shooed those silly boys out. :)

Here is sweet, pretty Eliza with her Grammy at her birthday tea party. :)  Eliza felt very special! She was so cute - very soft spoken and sweet. If Grammy asked her if she would like something (ie, more eggs) she would softly reply, "yes" and once or twice she would look at me and whisper something, like she was too shy to talk at her tea party with all that attention on her. :)

Later in the day, Aunt Melanie painted her finger nails a pretty pink, with sparkles on top! Aunt Melanie had told her the past few days that she was going to paint her nails for her birthday, and Eliza was very excited for it!

Our 4-year old Birthday Girl! 

To kick-off her birthday party, we watched Tangled!! This is her favorite movie. We love it!  She snuggled on Papa's lap the whole time. He had never seen it before. Notice how she is holding her fingers up so that her recently polished fingernails don't smudge. :)

All her cousins came to her birthday party (Connor, TJ, Coleman, Bridger, and Cannon were staying at the house with us, along with Gabe and Nyah. Matt & Amy also came over with Wesley and Logan, and Mindy & Griff came over with Jack and Colt.)  Since she has a LOT of boy cousins (11 plus her two brothers) and only ONE girl cousin, she decided to have a "PRINCESS PIRATE PARTY!"  She decided this a long time ago, and she told everyone during our stay in Utah that her party would be a 'princess pirate pirate party.'  So, that's exactly what she had!  When all the boys arrived at her party, she handed them each a pirate eyepatch, and she gave her only girl cousin a crown just like her own. :)
We played "Princess, Princess, Pirate" (duck, duck, goose):

"Don't eat the Princess!" (don't eat Pete):

and "Button, Button, Who's got the Button?"  Then we sang to Eliza and she blew out the candles on her pink cupcakes.

After cake and icecream, she got to open up presents from her aunts/uncles/cousins.  Everyone gave her wonderful presents, and she felt so happy and loved. It was a very fun day!

Eliza & cousin Wesley

Happy Birthday, Eliza!  We love you!