Sweetpea's Fourth Birthday

Her big day in pictures:

The birthday girl and her Daddy at the breakfast table.

We gave her a spiffy new house for her Sylvanian Families. Here
she is giving her dad directions on how to make the
lights work.

We visited Scratch Patch and they LOVED it!!

 I was planning to treat my flower-loving daughter to a beautiful garden-themed birthday party and have been pinning ideas like crazy (see my Garden Party board on Pinterest - click here!)

BUT

when I sat her down to start planning and making a guest list, she firmly told me that she wanted a 

tea party 

and that she wanted only to invite her two aunts and her grandmother. I was very surprised (and a little disappointed!), but then again, with such lovely, doting aunties and a grandmother who loves her to bits, it really made good sense to me! So I called them up (and snuck in an invitation for grandpa, too!), and we decided that everyone would be wearing a hat to the party. We got a little creative - and a tad silly - but I think our official party photo, taken by my husband, came out very nice indeed!!

The birthday girl was in her element, wearing her favourite hat with a flower pin and the pink ballet outfit that was one of her gifts.

Now, you need to know that her birthday is the day after New Year's and that here in the Western Cape that's a public holiday, and that between Christmas and New Year's it is already nearly impossible to find anything decent in the supermarkets. So the tea-time treats were a limited but lovely array of nibbles we were able to make with what we had in the house.

On the menu:

A pretty pink cake with sprinkles galore,

pearly marshmallows...

and dainty sunflower sandwiches and pink sugar cookies.

And her favourite gift by far? A set of plastic princess accessories!

Please note, though, that she wasn't the only belle of the ball: Look at this little cutie pie admiring her grandmother's pretty 'Fresh-from-the-Garden' hat!!

Happy birthday, Sweetpea!!

Birthday Lapbook activities

   Sweetpea was really excited about her birthday this year, so we made the experience last a little while longer by making a lovely Birthday Lapbook that we worked on every day of her birthday week.

   The cover:

   (It is in Afrikaans and  says It's my birthday!, My birthday is on 2 January, and I am now 3 years old.)

She followed the dotted lines to complete the number 2 and 3...

For the inside we needed cupcake pictures. I found this idea in a book called 365 Things to Draw and Paint. I first painted some cupcake shapes, and then we mixed craft paint with white glue, which we slathered on top for the frosting. Added some glitter and other decorations and drew faces.

I added a little pocket for birthday candles and drew dots (1 - 4) below each cupcake. She had to count the dots and put that number of candles on each cupcake.

I printed these Birthday Candle Shapes from The Activity Mom, and she loved this!!

Drawing on the dotted lines to add a string to each balloon.

Finally, we added prints of her hand and foot - it will be fun to come back next year and see how she's grown!!