Elizabeth's birthday.

We started the morning with birthday decorations and a few small presents she could open without Daddy (who had had to leave for work already). She got scissors--yikes?--construction paper, stickers, and a small dry erase crayon kit. Then there was this...

Monkey Bread. Too good for its own (or anyone else's) good.

It's the Fisher Family Birthday Breakfast.

[Author's Note: I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the many, many collages that are inevitably coming your way in the future of this blog. They just make everything so...organized. Bliss.]

Then there was the renting of a never-before-seen morning movie (Rio), which they loved and have since watched at least four more times. We definitely get our money's worth out of rented movies.

Then it was on to birthday Slip 'n' Slide fun!

And then there was this:

But I think he's okay....

(Oh hey, Buddy. How could I leave you out?)

After the outside fun, Tony brought home Chick-Fil-A and they had a picnic. (I took my food and the sweating baby inside.) Then there were a few bites of ice cream, a cartoon or two, and then it was naptime. Well, it was naptime for Judah, anyway, as Elizabeth used the "But it's my birthday and I can't sleep" line and got out of it. (Sigh.)

UPS delivered our gift to Elizabeth at around 1:30 p.m. We put the big box on the kitchen table and she endured hours of agony (I tried calling it "practicing patience," to no avail) until Tony and my parents got home and she could open it. Hello Loving Family Grand Dollhouse! I must confess, I was pretty excited to play with it too.

After she opened her "big present," we left to go eat dinner. My parents kept the boys and we took E to Osaka for some delicious hibachi (extra emphasis totally necessary). I was watered up for it all day, and kept thinking how awesome it was that she wanted to go there and not somewhere like Chuck E. Cheese, though I have an ominous feeling that that day's coming.

She fell asleep on the ride home from dinner, but woke up enough to get sung to [sorry; that sounds so grammatically awful] and open up a few more presents from BeBe and Bear. She got three new rooms (the laundry room, bathroom, and living room, which only has one chair [huh?]) to get her dollhouse started. She's been playing with it ever since!

I know everyone says this and that I've said it at least 3 times in my life previously and that I'm going to say it countless other times in the future, but I CANNOT believe she's as old as she is. I can't believe it was four years ago that we were doing the baby thing for the first time: going to the hospital, experiencing childbirth and bringing her into the world, nursing, changing diapers, taking her home ("We're allowed to just walk out of here with her?"), sitting around while she napped and feeling like surely there was more to do with a baby (oh, just wait, little Rachel), watching her smile, sit up, stand, cruise, walk. Hearing her laugh and begin to talk. Those were such sweet days. And now we've had four years of sweet days, and Lord willing, a multitude of sweet days to come. Praise God for such a daughter.

Happiest of birthdays to my best girl!