Lily Turns 4 Years Old!

Lily is now 4! She is so loved by so many that we actually have celebrated her birthday 3 times this year. The first celebration was on her actual birthday. I held a combined preschool/birthday party for Lily at our little apartment in Roosevelt. We learned about animals and played games around that theme. It was fun to have my mom there, even though she probably shouldn't have been because she was unknowingly fatally low on blood. What a trooper! We had fun! We own a mini parachute and I had all the girls bring their favorite stuffed animal and we bounced them on the parachute outside. Then, we used it as a picnic blanket and ate cake.

Speaking of cake, Lily picked out a cake design from a book that I had found at a yard sale for 25 cents. I followed the instructions, with a few of my own variations, and I think the cake turned out very cute.
Here's a snapshot of the teddy bear cake before it was presented to Lily.
We made monkey masks for an activity. The eyes have mini holes poked out, so the girls can see through the mask.
This was a little game of "I spy" that we played, using toilet paper rolls as our telescopes. I had posters of various animals taped to the walls around the room, and each girl took a turn finding an animal for everyone else to spy.

Below is a video of Lily's reaction to the balloons we scattered on the walls for her birthday. Steve and Uncle Geoff blew up the balloons and taped them to the walls the night before. So when Lily woke up, she had a happy birthday from the get-go. Amara calls the balloons "moons." Sorry that I was a little out of it and I filmed the first 1/2 of her reaction with my camera turned on an angle.