Belle's 4th Birthday

Isabelle's 4th birthday was this week. I told her that she simply wasn't allowed to turn any older and that she had to be my baby forever. Then, she said that God made her to grow up. How can I argue with that logic? 

She woke up on her birthday to some streamers hanging from her door. From our bedroom we hear her giggle with delight and then run up and down the halls-- "I growed up! I turned 4!" on repeat. Her birthday fell on a day when I was working in the evening, so we celebrated at breakfast. 

She opened up her gifts. It looks like a ton of gifts, but the big one is just a new car seat for Derek's car. Here she opened a box of stamps and she looked so excited and then said, "well, I wish it was stickers..." Ha! She has actually played quite a bit with the stamps in the past few days. 

Jackson picked out some Frozen hair clips for her and we got her the Elsa and Anna barbies (for her birthday party cake). I was so happy to find this Toothless dragon on clearance at Target a few weeks ago. It's definitely her favorite birthday gift and it hasn't left her side. 

Isabelle requested hamburgers and french fries for her birthday dinner. She also wanted pink frosting and pink sprinkles on her birthday cupcakes (which is humorous because just a few days prior she had a meltdown of all meltdowns because she "didn't like pink" only liked blue). 

I left work a bit early to come home to celebrate Belle's birthday with Derek's side of the family. I somehow managed to take ZERO pictures with family, but they were all here. Lot's of Frozen gifts. She was thrilled. 

Today, Belle had a few girlfriends over for a party. Elsa made her presence known all throughout the midwest this weekend and so we had some friends from out of town who were unable to make it. It was a small, but mighty crowd. These gals are fun friends from church and I love hanging out with their mamas, too! 

The girls played with sparkly playdough

and put together Frozen puzzles.

You can't forget Frozen tattoos. We watched some of the music videos from the special features on the DVD and we listened to Frozen soundtrack a time or two. 

I had let Belle look on Pinterest with me to pick out a cake. She had picked out some  massive castle cakes, but I talked her "down" to a dress cake. Even then, she had some high expectations. My friend HanNah is magical and she crafted this cake, which was clearly the most awesome thing at her party. Isabelle was THRILLED.

Belle is loving being 4! 

Belle and I play this little game. She'll ask if she has permission to grow up and after I protest for a moment or two, I'll grant her permission... but only if she promises to continue to give me hugs and kisses as she keeps growing! She has told me that she'll still be my baby even though her body gets bigger. 

We sure had fun celebrating this gal!