Ginger is so excited to be 4. She has been talking about turning 4 since before summer! She kept on asking: "When am I finally going to be 4? Is it going to be November next week?" (in July). Her 4th birthday was last Saturday, and she has been telling everyone that we see that she is 4! She feels like such a big kid (she IS such a big kid!...to me anyway).
I have tried to take advantage of her excitement of turning 4, and used it to make her more independent by telling her that there are certain things that 4-year-olds do. A couple of months ago we started "practicing" being 4, and I would let her know about 4-year-old responsibilities and have her try them out. If she fought me, I'd say "that's okay, you don't have to do it. You're only 3. But when you turn 4, THEN you'll have to". Four-year-old responsibilities have included buckling her own seat belt, picking out her clothes and getting dressed, and I hesitate to say online--but it's a big one for us--wiping her own #2 ALL BY HERSELF! There are other things that we're still working on, like putting her clothes back away after she's gotten dressed (there are always piles of unwanted shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, you name it, on the floor after she's gotten dressed in the morning), and putting her dishes in the sink when she's done eating. I've been thinking about adding making her bed to the list of responsibilities, but how much can you really expect from a girl who's only been 4 for a week? In general she's loved being 4, despite her new jobs. She feels like she just graduated from some phase of life. She tells everyone we meet that she is 4 now! It really is so cute.
Today she had her birthday party with a bunch of her preschool friends. I found a deal on Living Social for a cooking party, and I took advantage of it! There aren't that many birthday party options in November. So, Chef Cristin from Rutabaga Sweets came and helped the kids make their own pizzas, and cut out and decorate cookies! They had so much fun! I'm sure that when Chef Cristin realized that she was going to be in charge of 10 4-year-olds, she was more than a little nervous. But it turned out to be fantastic! The kids were used to being in class with each other, so they were very attentive and did an amazing job of following instructions. My mom and a couple of the kids' moms stayed to help out (great for when the kids started freaking out about the dough being so sticky!...but once I told them that they had "monster hands" they thought it was really fun). Anyway, the kids all had a great time, and Ginger kept on saying how fun her birthday was. In fact, at dinner tonight she asked, "So, when do I turn 5?"
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| They started off with some cookie dough that they rolled out and cut into cookies. |
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| There's Chef Cristin, writing the names of the kids on the parchment
paper. Brilliant! Something so simple, but I wouldn't have thought of
that. I would have just tried to remember where each kids cookie was! |
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| Some of our decorations. I bought this package with 5 signs at Party City for $5, not realizing that 2 of them were 6 feet tall! Then Brandon put the smaller ones in picture frames that we put on the walls. |
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| Once the cookies were in the oven, the kids mixed their own pizza dough. They literally mixed the flour and water/yeast together with their fingers! |
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| Trying to add flour to the dough to make it less sticky... |
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| Showing me her "monster hands". |
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| These kids have getting in line to wash their hands down to a science! Soap, wash, dry, "NEXT"! They washed their hands 3 times during the party, and they always waited so patiently in line for their turn. |
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| Adding the sauce. |
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| I don't know why, but Ginger refuses to look at the camera and smile at the same time. She will do one or the other, but never both! |
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| Adding the cheese. |
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| Once the pizza was in the oven, they mixed up icing to put on their cookies. They even got to pick what color to make their icing! |
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| Some of the kids just dumped the icing all over their cookie. Can't have too much icing, right? |
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| Then they got to decorate the cookies with sprinkles. |
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| Showing off their cookies. |
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| Yummy! |
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| They FINALLY get to eat! Their pizzas were done, but were too hot to eat, so they got dessert first. |
We ended up running out of time, so we wrapped up the pizzas for the kids to take home to eat. I still just can't get over how good they were! And they had such a great time, and the parents had a great time. We got to help out a little, but didn't have any huge responsibility. I got to chat with other moms and take some pictures. Win, win. Thank you Chef Cristin! And Happy Birthday Ginger!
