Lilly's 4th "Birtsday"

Lilly has been planning her "birtsday" since Christmas. Every time she saw anything cool she would say "I wants that for my birtsday." A few weeks ago when Neal celebrated his birthday, Lilly was so excited she could hardly stop shaking at the dinner table. "It's Neal's birtsday, so it's almost my birtsday," she giggled.

This morning, I was still in bed when Lilly came in my room. I was trying to pretend I was still asleep even though Thomas had already climbed into bed and was kneeing me in the back. I opened my eyes to see Lilly's smiling face. "It's my birtsday. I'm a birtsday girl!"

I was a little worried that the day wouldn't live up to the hype. After all, I'm a pretty low-key birthday type of mom. Lilly turned four this year so based on our family rules she didn't get a friend party. She didn't care. She was mostly concerned with the cake and the presents.

Lilly wanted a pig cake and thankfully, our amazing neighbor and Lilly's "favorite babysitter" spent all day yesterday making Lilly a truly fabulous pig cake. Kathryn brought it over in the morning so that Lilly could enjoy it all day. And she really did.

By the time the birthday actually rolled around, Lilly's requests had gotten pretty simple. She wanted glow sticks. That was it. She coveted them at the recent firework shows and they moved right up to the top of her wish list. She got her glow sticks. She also got a Barbie Princess movie (help me!), some coloring books, art stuff and a book of Disney Princess bedtime stories (which Amberly promised to read to her).

Mamau and Gramps joined us for dinner and for the cake.

Lilly went to bed tonight pretty dang happy. She had a really great day and she's already dreaming up schemes for next year. She's such a dolly. Just love her to pieces.