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For Annie's 4th birthday we started the celebration at Five Guy's Burgers. We all wolfed down our burgers and fries in anticipation of yummy cake to be served at home. I had already pre-baked and frosted the base of the cake earlier in the day, but Daddy and Annie put the finishing touches on it together. A tiara was the main theme since Annie is such a cute princess. The cake was promptly eaten, and then it was time for opening presents. Rather than wrap a bunch of gifts, I decided to fill up Annie's brand new Tinkerbell backpack with the goodies in all the various pockets. Consider it a "back-to-school" sort of theme. Annie soon discovered in the pockets/pouches that she received a princess jacket, birthday t-shirt, headphones, box of chalks for the rarely used chalkboard, Barbie Princess coloring book, drawing pad, Thumbelina cartoon dvd, and LeapPad learning system. I'm especially excited about the LeapPad thingy (Annie doesn't know it yet, but she is, too.) because it aids in the learning of reading/writing/math skills/etc. {I hope that it will help keep her busy on our upcoming plane trip. It has an outlet for earphones; hence, the reason for headphones as a gift. I also got Mimi a pair of headphones, so she can watch the DVD player on the plane. I wonder if I will get a moment of peace.} Anyway, Annie seemed to really enjoy her birthday and all the gifts she received. She also got some money from Grandma Indiana and Grandpa Minnesota and an envelope of goodies from Grandma Minnesota (which we forgot to give her--we'll have another celebration the next day), and birthday cards from anuts and uncles. Thanks so much for thinking of her. Annie has a new, favorite song and is asking to hear it constantly. It's called "Toast" by Heywood Banks. However, sometimes her little brain gets mixed up and she requests, "Bread". This song was a favorite of Mike's when he was younger, and I about died when it came on XM Kids a few weeks ago. I immediately hit the record button. Now each time we're in the car Annie begs to hear it over and over. When bread is part of meal, Annie also makes sure to ask for toast and then adds, "YEAH, TOAST!" Just thought I'd share since I'm hearing about it persistently around here (this isn't as good as the radio version, but it's acceptable). In other news, Annie has been greeting me each morning with items she plans to pack for the trip. All these items will, of course, fit into her Dora backpack. You don't have to remind me that we were silly to slip up and tell Annie about the upcoming trip.

Apparently, Mimi has developed a phobia for bugs. The other day while in the backyard Mimi started screaming as if she were being attacked by pack of hungry wolves. I run over to see what's happening. A mosquito had landed on her. Yes, that was it. Granted, I despise mosquito bites as much as getting a paper cut, but her reaction was a bit much. Other than that, Mimi is quite a cute kid. The other day I caught her during naptime in the playroom being quiet as a church mouse. The little sneak. I've also been working on teaching her the letters. So far everything is "E" to Mimi. I try not to compare her to Annie who already knew all her letters by her 2nd birthday, but it's hard to not get a teensy bit frustrated. It will happen one day, I know. Her little personality is so cute. She's adopted the crossed-dressed crocodile as her baby. Mimi shows no prejudice in her love for others. Various letters from the alphabet are finally starting to inhabit her memory. Now instead of every letter being "E", "H" is also making appearances. But seriously, Mimi does seem to be making lots of progress in this area. Oh, she also did something that I thought was cute. She brought over her empty snack baggy and proclaimed with much glee, "Mommy, I ate my snack all gone!" I don't know why I thought this was so adorable, but I immediately picked her up gave her big hugs and kisses. Of course, Mimi was up for it, too:~)