Hopey Turns 4!!!

Hope Elizabeth is officially 4 years old. I haven't had a lot of time to update lately, but wanted to get this posted before it becomes a blur. We had her birthday party on the 21st at Grandma and Grandaddy's aka Uncle Anthony's! Grandma, Grandaddy, 'mommy's Grandma', Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Jesse, Uncle Rob, Uncle Dan, Uncle Anthony, Uncle Dave, Aunt Philly, Carla, Carlee, Leia, Brandon, and, of course, our clan, were there to celebrate her big day! Hope has been waiting for this day for nearly 5 months, ever since we began planning Bethany's party back in September. We have been doing a count down and marking days off the calendar since the first of the month, and finally it was here! Her chosen theme was DORA, what else is there? Aunt Bonnie was kind enough to give her a DORA cake pan that she has treasured for over a month impatiently waiting for her party - I have even busted her sleeping with this cake pan! No pressure there! I had already read of the horror stories of this particular cake, and am not the greatest cake decorator to begin with. Cake 1 stuck the pan, was too moist and completely crumbled. This is, of course, at midnight the night before her party as I waited until we got to Baltimore Friday night to make the cake. So, emergency backup - bake another one. This one mostly came out okay, but the entire face and all the details of the top left side of poor Dora stuck and had to be rebuilt. Hopey was very pleased with the finished product, even if the pain-in-the-butt-critic, Roman swore it looked nothing like Dora. You can judge for yourself!



We didn't really have much planned for the party - I know, not like me at all! - but the Uncles had their own little surprise, so it all worked out in the end. We had lunch waiting when everyone arrived - tacos, in honor of Dora. Throughout the first hour the guys kept disappearing. We thought they were upstairs attempting to wrap presents, but they had other things in mind.



Over 100 balloons were blown up and just before opening presents they were dumped all at once over the balcony to the delight of our little birthday princess being showered below. It was beautiful and the kids went crazy!



After that was time for gifts. She is one lucky girl and got all sorts of really cool stuff. Then we had cake and ice cream, cut and served by our very own birthday girl. And finally time for the pinata. My kids LOVE pinatas, but honestly, where in the world do you hang them?? Not my problem this time. I threw it at Uncle Dan and Uncle Anthony and told they were in charge of the pinata. The end result.....



Yup, that's my brother-in-laws lowering a pinata from the rooftop! And people wonder where my kids get their collective creativity!!! The party was a bit hit and the birthday girl was thrilled, so will call it a success! But... that wasn't all for Hopey's birthday as her actual birthday was on the 27th. That night the Sammons - Angie, Jason, Josh, and Hopey's new best friend, Madison - came over for dinner, carryout from Don Jose's, and we celebrated again with a small ice cream cake. She has been in birthday heaven! Saturday (the 28th) when she woke up wanting to know what we were doing for her birthday that day, I had to break the news that her birthday is over. Her response? "Well, how many more days till I turn 5?" LOL It's gonna be a LONG year!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS HOPE!!!!