the birthday bash

Dominique's 4th birthday...
Ivan jumped on her bed and shook her awake, yelling "Dominique, Dominique, Dominique, What do you want for breakfast?" He had promised to make her her birthday breakfast. His question however was rhetorical because all he can make is cereal, but he poured her cereal and the milk, very proud of himself.

The first thing she told me that morning was "next year, I want a star cake". Nothing like preparing in advance I guess. The kids and I had just made and decorated her butterfly cake the day before. We decorated it with dried fruit and nuts, then sprinkled little candy covered chocolate decorations. It actually tasted great, even though it looked kind of crazy.

Dominique was the first to be face painted. I asked her what colour of butterfly she wanted to be and she said she wanted to pick her own thing, not a butterfly at all. "But you are having a butterfly birthday", I reasoned. Did you know there is not much reasoning to be had with a just turned 4 year old? So she was a tiger, or if we use our imagination, maybe a monarch butterfly? Addyson, Imogen's cousin did not want paint on her face, so she got two butterflies, one on each hand.



We played lots of games, pin the antennas on the butterfly, bean bag toss in the butterfly, dance and freeze, red light green light, the birthday girl says (like simon says) and went on a butterfly hunt. It helped that mom and dad have a big deck and yard. We had pizza and salad, cake and ice cream. She got loads of presents, then Imogen stayed the night for a sleep over!



They watched Cinderella and ate popcorn, then all fell asleep very late on a big pallet in the living room. The adults meanwhile, got to play Settlers of Catan! so fun.


As the last bonus of the day, dad arrived home from his trip to Mexico and the kids were all excited to see grandpa Ian. He kept Jenn and I up past midnight telling tales and showing us some 700+ pictures. Yeah for happy days and another year of wondrous life with such an amazing girl!