A (Mostly) Happy Birthday

Today is Kate's fourth birthday, and I'll start with the end of the story just to explain the "(mostly) happy" birthday. She's been home sick half of today with a fever. Ibuprofen brings it down and she perks up pretty quickly, but she was having chills for a while this evening which makes me think "flu." So, we'll probably take her to the doctor tomorrow, and she's definitely staying home tomorrow, either way.

But for the most part, our Katestravaganza weekend was a lot of fun.

Kate wanted to have her party at Monkey Joe's this year, a local bouncy place. You know how much I love to throw a theme party, so I was kind of bummed not to have a party at our house. I still designed an invitation for it, trying to incorporate a gymnastics-ish theme, since Kate loves gymnastics. (As you see, she was wearing her leotard while addressing the enveloped with me!)

 And I brought out the pennant banner I made for her first birthday so the house could be a little festive too!

Matt kept reminding me it was Kate's birthday and not mine, so I should quit fussing about it. :0) The party at Monkey Joe's on Saturday was a hit. Kate loved every minute of it, and that's what's important. The kids ran around and squealed and bounced and climbed and slid on all the inflatables.

Claire even got to enjoy the "under-3" bouncy with Daddy.

After an hour of bouncing, it was off to the party room for snacks and cake (from Publix—I heard they did good cakes, and it was indeed good!) We gave out star sunglasses as a favor, and the kids had a lot of fun with those.

Monkey Jane (Monkey Joe's sister or girlfriend, I'm not sure :0) came to visit.
This was Kate's reaction:

 And this was Claire's:

(Keep in mind it was Kate who was terrified of the Easter Bunny last spring, and Claire who was fine. Go figure.)

Kate was all smiles in the big, inflatable birthday throne. You'd think she would have been exhausted after all that—and generally, an afternoon car ride is our only hope for a nap these days—but no dice. She played with her new presents all afternoon until it was time for our "grandparent dinner," or the family party counterpart to the friend party (which the grandparents also attended) earlier in the day.

We had spaghetti and meatballs, ice cream for dessert, and then more presents! (I was relieved and proud that Kate voluntarily went through all her old toys and stuffed animals last night and today and filled a shopping bag of stuff to give away. That combats the influx of new stuff to some extent!)

Yesterday, after church, we went to our friend Emery's birthday party up in Clarksville. She made it down for Kate's the day before and we had fun celebrating her third birthday up there. (Kate complained a million times about the hour-long drive, and I reminded her that Mommy did it every day for four years not so long ago!)

Kate was up with a croupy cough in the night, but seemed fine in the morning when we blew out candles on a muffin and got dressed with her "I'm 4!" sticker. She was especially excited to take her Berry Blast Ice Cream Oreos to school for a birthday snack with her class.

Alas, she got sent home with a fever around noon, which subsided with medicine to the point she was playing  inside and outside (60-something degrees here today) before relapsing in the evening some. Her temp is back to normal now and she's sleeping soundly.

I have to say, it was really nice to be able to be home and trade off with Matt to tend to Kate just by walking up and down stairs, and to spend her "birth time," 2:07 p.m., cuddling and reading a book with her on the couch. My sweet little birthday girl. Happy birthday, Kate!