Happy 4th Birthday, sweet Hannah!

Hannah continues to be intense and competetive in most things that she does, but she has become very generous, caring and helpful this year too! She still enjoys winning, but will often slow down to make sure Eliza is keeping up and will give someone else a turn without being prompted. She has a genuine love for her family and gives the tightest hugs and biggest kisses! She enjoys being at home and just playing with her sisters. She has become Eliza's best friend, and loves to lead Eliza in games of chase and hiding and sweetly teaches Eliza how to pretend with their dolls and animals. We absolutely adore our little 4 year old!!!

Hannah celebrated her birthday in Bend with her cousins this year. Her cousins, Darien and Monica, helped me get her party ready and bake her cake the night before. We had some technical difficulties with the birthday cake, and learned a lesson about spraying the cake pans! Our initial attempt gave us plenty to work with....

But, the final result worked out pretty good! Hannah wanted a money party this year, so we made her a piggy bank birthday cake...
Darien decorated a special birthday chair for Hannah that she loved to sit in...

She wore her birthday crown all morning! Hannah loves the color blue and her many silly bands...

We started her party with a piggy bank relay. Here is "Team Monkey bank"

And "Team Piggy Bank"...

They had so much fun that we played it twice!

You can see how competetive Hannah is in how she put the coins in while crouching down for her return sprint to the line!

Eliza amazed us all by how she listened to the instructions and jumped right into the game, grabbing the first coin and taking off to put it in the bank right at "Go"! She ran so fast and couldn't wait for another turn. I think she is going to give Hannah some competetion very soon!!

Papa and Clarice were well-entertained by these crazy kids!

Explaining the next game of finding the different dollar bills and matching them to the chart...

Darien helping Hannah get her dollar on the right spot...

We can't have a birthday celebration without a pinata! Hannah picked out her favorite animal, an elephant...

Clara, getting ready for a big swing...

We needed Darien and Monica to give the elephant a big smack to get the candy falling...

Diving for treats...

My beautiful girl trying on her stick-on earrings...

The three sisters checking out a new Zhou-Zhou pet...

The elephant family...

Hannah looked amazed when she opened the carousel horse from Aunt Julie!

Daddy trying to get the horse out of the box, while 3 little girls anxiously wait....

I told Eliza that she had to wait until the Happy Birthday song was over before blowing out the candle, and she waited just until the end and tied Hannah to blow out the candle.....like I said, Hannah has been a good teacher, and Eliza is learning well! ;)