Four

And just like that, we've hit the four year mark. I wish I could come up with something deep, or even comprehensive, about the young woman that Henrietta is becoming. She is, well, she's Henri. And we love her, and are frustrated by her, and she makes me laugh, and she makes me scream (not my finest parenting moment), and she has the sweetest heart, and she can be totally heartless (I'll have to tell you her take on King Herod's law about infanticide....), and she loves order if it's her version of order, and she's a great helper, and she finally knows all her letters and is this close to reading, her sense of fashion is disastrous (not that I'm one to talk about fashion), she has an insanely good memory and is super observant, she mothers all her dolls and stuffed animals, and my fridge is going to collapse from the weight of all her drawings.
Hen had pretty simple requests this year: a jump rope, supper of rotisserie chicken, and a strawberry cake. She "decorated" the cake by dumping an entire bottle of sprinkles on it, and it was a big hit. We met up with Steve at Chik-fil-A for lunch but otherwise her day was low key. Looking forward to seeing what this next trip around the sun brings for our Sunshine!

She wakes up cheerful in the morning

Steven decorated for her

Birthday waffles and HUGE strawberries. And birthday balloons.

She got her jump rope!!! And a Waldo book. Except she just flipped open a page and said "oh, there's Waldo (flip another page) there's Waldo..." She is scary observant. (I still can't find Waldo...)

And then the kids piled on my bed like they do most mornings so I attempted a birthday photo shoot and of course I was blessed with total cooperation. Not. 

She picked out her outfit (like every day) and I was amused to see it was a birthday themed shirt. 

So many of these would have been perfect if she would just smile. 

I had to keep one hand on Hud for most of this so that he wouldn't be in the frame. Once allowed up, they just wanted to play so there was no nice sibling shot. 

Most of it looked like this

OK, just a few of my little love bug...

He adores his sister, he isn't content unless she's right next to him.And then he just wants to torment her. But it's all done in love. I think. 

Lots of smooches

Happy Birthday!!!!!