We celebrated Ella and Sterling's 4th birthday the Saturday before their birthday. This was the first year Ella caught onto the fact that their party wasn't on their real birth date. She kept telling people at her party that it wasn't her "actual birthday until Wednesday." So funny! Of course, we had to have split themes. Gone are the days of having a single theme for their party. Oh Baby Einstein, we miss you! Anyhow, Ella, of course wanted the newest Disney princess, Rapunzel, as her theme. Sterling wavered back and forth for a month between Cars and John Deere tractors. In the end Cars won out, but I'm not sure we won't be seeing tractors next year. A friend of mine made these incredible cupcakes for the kids. Didn't she do a fabulous job?
Everyone, parents and kids alike, were in awe of the precious details on the princess cupcakes.
We had the kid's party at a bounce house here in town called Monkey N Around. It was such a perfect and easy setting for a party. We simply showed up with cake, food and balloons and then let the kids go wild. Every child was totally entertained and safely contained. Seriously, perfect when you're talking about 19 3 and 4-year-olds.
Ella was over the moon ecstatic that her little friend Ollie brought her a crosage. As I type it is still safely stored on her book shelf drying. SHe refuses to part with it.
Sheer joy!
We tried to let the kids seperate to the "girl" tabke and "boy" table. Needless to say, all the little girls sat nicely at their table. I won't even show you the boy table...no one would sit still!
Sterling helped Ella to blow out her candles...
Then moved on to blow out his own.
All the kids made and decorated mardi gras masks with help from their parents. 
This is a small sampling of our crowd. We truly are so blessed to have made so many awesome friends here. We've just got the greatest group of kids to play with, and I'm excited to watch that group grow up together. 
We had to head down to Marshall County for a family illness, but while we were there, Sterling was in heaven riding around on Granddaddy's tractor. Oh how he loved it! 
Granddaddy let him take the helm. 
She just doesn't look angelic, does she? She looks like a schemer! 
T-R-O-U-B-L-E. That's all I have to say about that one. 
Seriously, the most darling swim suit ever! She keeps asking when it's going to be warm enough to wear her "swim soup and hat". 
We have started a little tradition with our friend Ollie and his mother, my dear friend Tracy, where we hit up a cupcake shop to celebrate birthdays. We LOVE this tradition and have found an appropriately named bakery called "Yummies". 
He was just tickled by the gummy bears on top of Ella's cupcake. A real joker this one. 
Of course, this month brought still more birthday parties to attend. If our weekends are this filled with parties when they're four, I dread what it will be like in coming years! 
What more do you need in life than a good buddy who has your back? How incredibly lucky are we that our children have such sweet little friends! 
We actually had 2 birthday parties to attend in one day. The second party was for a little girl from school/ballet class. It was a princess make over party. Can you tell Ella was in heaven getting her hair and make up done and wearing sparkly dress and jewels? All the girls loved it! 
Don't you just love the pink hair? She did! 
Baby, you should be in pictures... 
This was truly one of the cutest parties we've been to! 
That's my little fashionista. They had a runway where the girls could "model" their new looks. Most the girls came out very shyly. Not my girl, she was working that runway. I was hanging my head in embarrassment! 
We are so lucky to know the most darling group of little girls. And lucky for me they all have really sweet mothers too! 
We got Sterling this John Deere Gator toy last month, and boy can that child drive! He'll spend a day just speeding all around the backyard. It just tickles him to go over bumpy patches or get stuck in some mud! He's a thrill seeker I tell you. 
And for your viewing pleasure, some twinsy pics of the kids. Don't be fooled, they're not always so cutesy and sweet! As you can tell from the pictures, they're still basically the same size. At their 4-year check up, Ella weighed 30 lbs. and Sterling weighed 32.5 lbs. And they're nose to nose in the height department at somewhere close to 40". 
