Elizabeth's 4th birthday

Last week our little Lizza turned four.  I can't believe she's so old already!

Here she is at just a few days old:

One year old:

Two years old:

And last year, at three:

Here she is the morning of her birthday this year, ready to open presents:

Her main present (the pink bike pictured in the card) hadn't come yet, but the ballerina barbie plus a crown and earrings were enough to make her a very happy four-year old (the fancy prince and princess cards are from Tristan and Oliver):

In fact, the crown and earrings probably would have been enough all by themselves.  She slept with them carefully set up on her pillow all last week: 

She also was lucky enough to receive this fabulous "Super-Girl" costume from Tristan and Oliver:

She wanted to go swimming on her birthday, so we packed a little lunch and walked to the pool.  She had a blast testing out her new kickboard.

She had specifically requested two kinds of sandwiches for her birthday picnic lunch:  cheese, and "peanut-butter sandwiches with plum jam and no peanut-butter." (My kids think that both cheese and sandwiches with no peanut butter are extra extravagant).

Her birthday cake of choice was a pink butterfly.  The kids loved helping to decorate this one.

Happy birthday to Elizabeth!

Somebody requested a silly-face picture after the candles were blown out (Tristan was gone at a cub scout camp, so that's why he's missing from the picture).

Her birthday bike arrived earlier this week, and she loves it!  She has pretty much been riding it around non-stop since then.  It's a Strider bike with no training wheels that helps kids learn balance and gliding, so they can go straight to a normal bike without ever needing training wheels (yesterday Lizza asked me if it's okay if she calls her strider a bike, even though it's not exactly a real bike.  Before I could answer her, Rachel assured her, "Yeah, I'm sure that's okay, because it's at least in the bike family."  My little scientist.)

The first day she got it she convinced me to let her eat dinner while sitting on her new bike.

After seeing her cruise around on it the whole week, I'm definitely sold on the idea of skipping the whole training wheels stage.

Gliding down the hall (after this week it might not be allowed indoors so much):

All of her siblings love the Strider as much as Lizza does.  Luckily she's pretty good at sharing (I don't know - do you think they're over the 50 pound weight limit?).

Thanks for being such a fun girl, Elizabeth!  You have always been good at making our lives more exciting.  We love you!