Maia's Birthday

Our little princess turned 4 last Tuesday, and we had a fun day. She got to open gifts from us early in the morning, which included a lot of clothes,




a net canopy thing for over her bed,


and a dress-up outfit from Xander (oops, no picture). We were going for a Sleeping Beauty costume, but there was no fooling her. It's a Rose Fairy Princess ballet dress. Now she thinks she needs real ballet shoes to go with it.

She also got this cool playhouse (a free gift from some friends)



She was pretty funny opening presents, because she felt the need to close her eyes while she opened them. Double surprise or something, I guess.


Tuesday afternoon & evening, we had almost all the family here for her party. Marie wasn't feeling up to it, but everyone else came, we had corn & black bean salsa with chips (this recipe is AWESOME! I use fresh grape tomatoes instead of canned italian style), some fresh fruit, and burgers and hot dogs on the grill. And of course, the cake. I chose to go with Dairy Queen's blizzard cake (oreo) this year after the horrible cake I made for Xander's birthday.

After the party, we sent Xander & Maia home with Grandma Georgie & Grandpa Bruce for 5 days. They had a great time, though Maia got a little homesick in the middle. We went and picked them up on Sunday.