She's 4!

Opening presents with cousin, Rayna (4 1/2 yrs).

 We've been celebrating all week! It started off last Saturday with a pizza party with Papa Bruce and Grandma Sandi. They surprised her by bringing cousin Rayna too! We ate at Godfathers in Okaboji, IA where we were camping. They even brought a cool Mickey cake. It was tasty too! She opened presents and then Papa and Grandma took Lauren and Rayna to the campground to play at the park.

 

Our next celebration day was a daddy date on Wednesday. She got to skip preschool and hang out with daddy all day, just the two of them! They went to her first Twins game at Target Field. They took the lightrail downtown for a noon game and enjoyed lunch and cotton candy while there. Lauren made it to the 4th inning and then wanted to go on the train...only to change her mind shortly after the doors to the lightrail closed! Since they made it back to Shakopee earlier than expected, Brian took her to Cherry Berry! What a fun daddy date!  (No pictures taken, boo.)

Day two of celebrations was a surprise. We had a family date. After an early lunch, we headed towards MOA, but Lauren didn't know where we were going. When we could see the building, we told her we were headed to the Water Park of America. I was expecting her to be so excited, but she threw a holy tantrum! NO I DON'T WANNA GO THERE! Come to find out, she thought she was going to have to go in her clothes. Once we got her calmed down, she said "But I can't go in my clothes, I can't get my clothes wet!" Once we were there and she saw we had her swimsuit, she was ALL about it! We stayed from noon-5:30, lots of water time. She could do ALL the slides....we did LOTS of stairs. She barely waited for me to get to the bottom before she was headed back to the top. Needless to say, we SLEPT well. She even slept until 8:30am (which is a first for her)!  No pictures taken, but wonderful memories made!

Day three of celebrating was a mommy day. We spent the morning at the gym and finding treasures at garage sales. Then in the afternoon, we went to Valley Fair. Did I mention this girl LOVES rides?! She prefers the big, fast ones too! We even did some hot air balloon ride that I thought I may puke on! We did the Ferris wheel, the trucks, the swing, the boat, the cosmic coaster, the jumpy house, the tree (about 15 times), and MORE. When we got home, she was surprised a day early by her birthday present from Mommy, Daddy, and Nolan...a new bike since she outgrew her old one. She wanted to try to ride it without training wheels, but in the end decided that it's okay to still have them. 

Opening her present from mommy, daddy, and Nolan.

A new helmet because she wore her Dora one out!

A "Big Girl" bike...she outgrew her 12 inch wheels, so now its on to 16 inch ones!

Day four was a quiet day at home until the evening. Then she had two little friends from our neighborhood come over for a pizza party and a bike ride to the park. They also had rainbow cake and watched a movie. Oh and played, played, and played some more. Her best friend, Reegan, even spent the night.

Mommy messed up her first cake for the celebrating!

But then I fixed it, kinda...we were out of frosting!

Neighborhood friends...Reegan (almost 4), Lauren (4 yrs), Lily (4 1/2).
They did dance together too!

Silly faces!

They rode bike to the park.

Cake time!

Nolan still LOVES cake!

We read a book about sleepovers.

Then it was movie time.

 It doesn't end there either...we plan on celebrating with our families and friends at a big birthday party next Saturday!
Happy 4th Birthday, Sweetie! We LOVE you to the moon and back!





She got to pick out her balloons this year.