Elena's 4th Birthday

 'Twas 4 years ago today, I awoke feeling a little weird.  I had no idea we would meet Elena later that evening.  It's hard to believe it has been 4 years already!

 We threw her a party, total attendance was 30--14 kids including 2 older siblings, plus parents, Pop and Lorraine and of course us.

 Elena loves balloons but is always disappointed when they deflate the next morning.  So instead of balloons, we used beach balls to decorate the fence and slider.  After a little while the balls were taken down and the kids had a blast playing with them.

 Everyone seemed to have a good time.

 The girls especially had fun with the veggie straws.

 In order from top to bottom: Elena, Ema, Lulu, Emma

 And as Elena dictated earlier this week, no party is complete without a cake.

 Carl lit the candles and as everybody inhaled to begin singing, Elena blew out her candles!  The picture above is her giggling after realizing she blew them out too soon :)

 As Carl re-lit the candles, the breeze began.  It was a very welcomed breeze but took a few matches to relight these candles.  Elena found it very difficult to wait...we're still working on patience.

 So excited to finally blow out her candles!!

 The girls are so excited to get some cake!  Left to right: Lulu, Selah, Emma and June.

 Yum!

 Ever wonder how many kids can fit in Elena's small bedroom after they have pulled out most of her toys?  Our final count was 8.  7 are accounted for above: we have Jonah, Selah, Emma, Ema, Lyla, Ryan and Lulu.

 Galit and Claire...

 and Norah :)

 Mischief makers...Elena and Lulu = trouble :)

 Another piece of cake (or rather frosting) with Grandma Lorraine.

 Loving her Pop Pop and Grandma Lorraine.

 Such a happy girl!

 Elena on her new bike!  

A big girl bike.  It's a 16" but she'll soon out grow this bike and be on to the 20" bike.  We still have a little room to raise the seat but not too much.

It didn't take her too long to master starting and stopping.  We're still working on looking ahead and steering.  She's posing in the picture above...loving her bike.

Overall we had a good day and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Elena had one melt down and a couple cases of the grumps but enjoyed her party and having her friends over.  Next year we'll keep it a little smaller.  This year Elena asked to invite 2 friends.  With prompting she asked to have a big party--with 5 friends.  She has a couple group of friends at school so I talked her into inviting 10 friends from school.  There are 32 kids in her class, including all the part-timers.  I was surprised with the turn out, nearly everyone we invited attended.  Most other parties we have attended have invited everyone in the class but the turn out is small.  At the end of the day, Elena was right, a smaller group is more our style.  I'm glad we did this party but we'll do something a little smaller next year.