Ella's 4th Birthday!

Ella woke up on her 4th birthday to find a fun new surprise... a bike! 

As soon as I saw her that morning, the first thing I said was "Happy birthday Ella!" She looked at me very seriously and told me to not say that until her birthday party. Oops. I told her she'd have to wait another week until we got to party with everybody. Luckily, I was able to convince her to have a fun day even without a party. Ha! We spent the day as our family of four and had a great time! It included a fundraiser pancake breakfast by some soccer boys that Ella adores, lunch and playtime at Chick Fil A, a long bike ride at the new trail nearby, dinner at Top That Pizza, and several cupcakes at Pinkitzel. 

At the age of 4, Ella is wearing shoes approximately size 11 and size 5T clothes.

She loves to dress herself and often times ends up in the strangest of outfits.

Her favorite recent activities include building houses from her Duplo blocks, playing school, putting together puzzles, playing games, and drawing/making cards for people.

Ella is even more determined to do things herself at this age. She is getting more polite about telling us so and we are getting better at letting her try.

She has picked up the art of tattle tailing on sister and has also started to tell us lies or "jokes" as Ella refers to them.

She has also started sticking out her tongue at us lately and has learned that is a big no-no. When we finally told her that he next time she did that we would have to wash it with soap, she was heartbroken and sobbed big crocodile tears. (We haven't seen in in 3 days!) 

Ella loves to race. It's how she cleans up her toys, gets in her carseat and pretty much anything else when we need her to hurry.

Ella loves to have cuddles at the end of the day and continues to request that she get rocked every night.

She makes up songs daily and loves to sing and dance.

She continues to be a social butterfly. Any time she sees a familiar face, she says hi and wants to give hugs. Even to our grown up friends!

Ella can read & write her name, spell Mattie's name out loud, and tries to write and spell TONS of other things. She LOVES sitting at the counter while I make dinner and writing down shopping lists. She'll tell me a word for her list, I'll spell it out as she writes it down. 

It's hitting me that she is growing up into her own person! I love how much she cares for people and I pray daily that I help her grow into the person God intended for her to be. She has so much potential and promise and I'm excited (and a bit fearful) of all that she tries to accomplish in her life. She's a big dreamer and loves adventure, so I hope that I don't squash that desire from her heart.

We love you Cupcake!