harper turns 4!

Happy 4th birthday to our sweet, little H!
Cupcakes for breakfast.

This month, we celebrated the birth of our sweet little Harper!  It's hard to believe that she is already four years old.  When she was born, she came as the answer to our prayers, a bright light after so much darkness, and she has been my best little girlfriend from that day on.

Since Hunter's birthday in September, Harper has been asking if it's her birthday yet.  We explained that first it would be Halloween, and then it would be her birthday.  So, of course, on November 1, she asked, "Is today my birthday?"  Oops.  Another 18 days later, she got her wish--and that was only the beginning of the celebration.

Harper's birthday was on a Thursday this year, which is one of the days that she goes to school.  She had told me much earlier that she wanted a "Frozen" party.  I talked her into a "winter wonderland" theme for her family birthday party, but we obliged her Frozen birthday wishes when it came to her classroom celebration.  The night before, we baked cupcakes--vanilla with chocolate frosting, also per her request.  We sprinkled them with snowflake shaped sprinkles, Harper being very diligent and strategic with the sprinkle placement.  Then we added a Frozen ring topper to each.  Harper was super concerned that she get an Elsa ring, and I assured her that the birthday girl most certainly got to choose her cupcake first--but just to be on the safe side, we mentioned it to her teacher in the morning too.  

I had taken the day off from work to make her birthday special, but I was actually really happy that Harper loves school so much that she wanted to go celebrate with friends rather than hanging out with her mom.  She had a special morning with her classmates, where she got to wear a special birthday crown and have everyone sing to her.  She also received a little gift from her teachers: a rainbow slinky!  She is pretty much obsessed with her slinky, though it continues to get tangled.  Hunter loves it too, of course.  We may have to splurge for a second slinky to keep the peace.

Harper, in her birthday crown at school!

I picked Harper up early from school so that we could have a special date before Hunter was done with school for the day.  First, we met Harper's friend, Brenn, and her mom for a lunch date at Harper's favorite pizza place.   After lunch, we said goodbye to our friends and then headed up to the mall so that Harper could pick out a pair of new dress shoes--or two.  Then we picked up Hunter from school and all headed downtown together to get Dallin from work early so that we could have dinner together.  Harper got to pick the restaurant: Full Moon, one of our favorite Cambridge spots, since they are the most family friendly restaurant in all of Boston and have the best kids' play area.  I don't know that Hunter ate even a morsel of his dinner, opting to play at the train table instead, but it was a delicious dinner at least for Dallin and me--and then we headed home for…presents!

4 years old!

Harper's special gift this year was a new bike!  Even though the weather will be getting chilly and not exactly bike friendly soon, this big girl bike was something we have been wanting to get for her for a while so we are hoping she and Daddy can get a few good practice days in before the winter comes.  She was SO excited when Dallin wheeled it in; definitely a successful birthday for our favorite little four year-old!  

We continued Harper's birthday celebration that weekend.  One thing she really wanted to do for her birthday was a piñata, but we thought that activity would be much more fun with other little friends--especially because Hunter, for whatever reason, is a little scared of hitting a piñata.  The irony is that he is content to hit just about anything else with his wiffle bat, but so it goes sometimes.  So we invited our little neighborhood friends to join us at the park down the street on Saturday morning for birthday donuts, a piñata, and some park play.  Of course, we were excited to surprise Harper with a FROZEN piñata to continue the theme we started at her preschool celebration.  We brought a bunch of giant snowflake balloons and some Frozen themed goodie bags to round out the celebration and make it feel really festive.  Harper and the kids had a blast whacking the piñata and then scurrying around to collect all the treats when it finally broke.

The victories crew--holding up pieces of the smashed piñata!
And their treat bags, of course...

The final installment of Harper's birthday celebration took place the very next day, when we had our family over for a "winter wonderland" party.  Harper wore the beautiful white jeweled dress that Mimi had gotten for her a few weeks prior, along with the special snow queen headband we had chosen together at Nordstrom earlier in the week during our mall date.  We had snowflakes hung everywhere, a giant number 4 balloon, snowflake cupcakes from our favorite spot--Georgetown Cupcake--and even winter terrariums glowing in the living room.  Harper, as always, loved being surrounded by her family and friends.  She is truly in her element when she has all of her people surrounding her, and it was such a fun evening.

Winter wonderland was the perfect theme for our little girl.  It was December when she finally left the hospital after she was born, spending the first few weeks of her life in the hospital NICU.  One of the first things we ordered for her was her Christmas stocking.  At the time, her baby hair was so dark that I was convinced she was going to be a brunette like her mama, and we picked a darling little stocking with a dark haired dancing girl embroidered on it.  Our little blondie loves it nonetheless, and she is just merry all the year round.

I am so grateful to be this sweet girl's mother, for the adventures she has shared with me these past four years, for the patience she continues to teach me, and for her infinite kindness.  I am nowhere near perfect enough to mother this perfect little spirit, but she showers me with more love and forgiveness than I ever knew to be possible.  Oh how we love our darling Harper and look forward to every moment that age 4 has in store for her.  Happiest birthday, to our lovely little H! 

Harper's first school picture!
With a red bow for Marjorie--who we remember at every milestone.

No birthday is complete without a trip to the pediatrician;
this little 4 year-old nailed her check up!