Ella is 4!!

Ella is 4!!!  Happy birthday to our imaginative, sweet, helpful, sometimes dramatic Ella bean!!  She is such a big girl these days-the toddler days are long gone as she has gracefully transitioned into a preschooler and has matured and learned so much in this past year.   She has really stepped into the big sister role since Charlotte has been born and is such a great help.  She often will unload the dishwasher bottom rack without being asked, or get Charlotte a toy when she's fussing or even put away her clothes once I'm done folding.  Her room...however...now that's a different story.  There are some days where I feel like I am walking into a dark deep abyss upon entering her room.  She is definitely a packrat and most days likes to have everything strewn about.  She can play for a long time in her bedroom keeping herself entertained.  She is known to sleep with piles of stuff/junk surrounding herself on her bed.  For example last night when I went to check on her I removed her piggy bank, a stack of books, her jewelry box, a baby carseat carrier and two picture frames from around her! I'm thankful for a variety of baskets in her bedroom to just dump things in to hide the mess for now-some day I'll become more organized in her room but for now it works.

She continues to receive speech services through Westwood Elementary and although we have noticed improvements we are looking into adding supplemental services through a private provider at the new year.  She continues to drop the ending sounds of words and her /k/, /g/ and /d/ are often hard to understand.  She enjoys going to speech and it doesn't seem to be holding her back at preschool.  She is really enjoying preschool and it is evident that she is so proud of the work that she completes there and has fun. She has a really special relationship with all of her siblings and honestly is kind of the common denominator in the family right now as her and Joseph can play really well together for a long time and then she can play really well with Julia together but then she also kind of bridges the gap with Joseph and Julia.  She can be a little bossy towards Julia at times but really for the majority of times she plays so well with both of them.  She does have a pretty good "stink eye" and has mastered the crossing of her arms and stomping off if she isn't happy.  We have learned that even if you raise your voice the slightest she normally bursts into tears and nothing processes with her-we try our hardest not to raise our voices  with anyone in our family but know that with her, that technique definitely does not work.    She loves being outside and is determined to ride her bike without training wheels "when she's 4" so has been working hard at the balance bike to get her going.  Rich and I often laugh at her facial expressions or how she will talk to herself while using hand gestures-she has become very animated whether talking to us or while playing imaginative play.    She definitely has a sweet heart and she brings so much joy to our family. 

Happy 4th birthday baby girl (which we still call her!)  

This was early on her real birthday-like her brother, she requested to open up one gift in the morning and chose a gift from Aunt Gina, Uncle Brian, Michael and John and was so excited to receive a Frozen microphone and stuffed bunny.  She has slept with the bunny ever since opening it!

Ella's birthday celebration lasted an entire week!  On December 16th she celebrated her special day at preschool by bringing in her treat of choice which she decided upon pink sprinkled donut holes and strawberries.  She also had to bring in three of her favorite things to share with her class so she brought a picture of her family, her baby doll and bunny.  She basically skipped the entire way to school because she was so excited.  

We gave her the option of a birthday party with friends or a special day somewhere and she chose the special day.  After going to Legoland for Joseph's birthday she wanted to go back to Legoland for her birthday but we were able to convince her that Sea World would be a lot of fun and something different so on Sunday, December 18th we headed to Sea World.  We surprised her with Sydney and Cole showing up and spending the day with us which was perfect and so much fun!!  

Charlotte was there, too!!  

 The dads and the kids on the ride!

Ugh...the teacups.  So  much fun for them, not so much fun for me.  I went on this one while Rich sat out with Charlotte which I regretted as soon as we started spinning.  Thankfully, I made it through it and was able to walk (barely) after it stopped but it did take a few minutes to recover.  I told them "Never again!!"

I was much happier in the airplane ride!

Such a fun way to celebrate her 4th birthday!

Love these three and their little sister who was asleep in the stroller, too!

On her actual birthday she was lucky enough to have Lindsay, baby Finn and Nani come over for a few hours to hang out since they had just flown in the night before.  That night we celebrated with just our family and had pizza, mac and cheese, broccoli and cupcakes which is what she requested.  At some point this past year she deemed this dress her "party dress" and wore it to as many birthday parties as she could, so it would only make sense that she had to go upstairs and put this on before we celebrated her birthday at home!  

She had some help from Joseph opening up her gifts!

On the following day we had all of the family over for another birthday celebration.  The kids played an outdoor scavenger hunt where they had to find snowballs and if they found a snowball with a blue dot on the bottom they won a prize...the girls won Frozen necklaces and the boys won a pack of Pokemon cards.

We just ordered Costco pizza and loved having everyone over!

She was a speed unwrapper and I don't really think processed what she received until the next day when she was really able to play with them and she totally loved them all!

After dinner we played a game where each kid chose a grown up as a partner to make them into Olaf out of toilet paper.  It was hilarious and so much fun!!!  Ella chose Aunt Hollie and everyone was in hysterics during the game!

I mean, seriously, how cute and hilarious is this?!?  Joseph and Poppa got a little creative!!

Happy birthday sweet Ella!  May all of your dreams come true this year.  We love you so much!