Paige is 4!!!

Paige had her 4th birthday on September 3rd. We celebrated at home, as a family (and our neighbors) with cake and ice cream and presents. Paige completely hammed it up and enjoyed the attention ALL DAY LONG ... she wouldn't allow any of us to call her Paige: she said, "Call me Birthday Girl" everytime we addressed her by her name--that has continued on through this week, even! (I've created a monster!)

The following Saturday, we had a birthday party for her at the local park. We ended up with 15 kids and they had the most WONDERFUL time playing on the playground! Brian went and picked up pizza so we all had lunch under the covered pavillion, then we sang "Happy Birthday" (Paige hid under the picnic table--she loves attention but THAT MUCH obviously overwhelms her!), ate cupcakes and Paige opened her presents. She got some really great presents--one of her favorites is a microphone that plays two songs from Highschool Musical 2 that she can sing along to! She's a little rock star--even I am impressed by her awesome moves!!

Humor me for a moment as a get a bit reflective ... I can hardly believe Paige is already 4 ... it seems like just yesterday that Brian and I were falling over in disbelief because we had a nine month old son and had just found out we were pregnant!! I never would have thought I could love another child as much as I loved Nicholas but then this little girl came into our family and stole our hearts! She makes us laugh everyday and is such a sweet and sassy gal--she has completed a family that we didn't even realize wasn't whole!! We whole-heartedly celebrate the day of her birth and hope that we did it justice in her eyes--I hope every year she'll understand just a little bit more what a treasure she truly is!!

The Indiana State Fair

The Indiana State Fair was in August and we took the kids, along with our neighbor, Sophie. The kids got to go through a mock-farming experience--they milked cows, fed animals, planted & harvested crops and sheared sheep! After that we rode an elephant (weird combination of circus and farm animals, I know!) which was fun but kind of scary--for me and Paige especially (I had to ride with them because Paige freaked out when time came--the lady running it let me ride for free due to Paige's little fit!). Afterwards, we walked through and saw the real farm animals, ate some fair food (no deep-fried candy bars or twinkies) and the kids rode some rides. The kids had a good time--so did Brian and I--it's always a good Indiana experience!!