So! This past weekend was my kid's 4th birthday.
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| This tiny one is now a 4 year old. |
I wanted to make it really special considering how crazy and upset our worlds have been lately with
the renovation going on. We actually spent the first half of the weekend reorganizing our house. Now that things are a bit further along the
Giant Pile Of Ikea can live in the basement. PROGRESS.
We still celebrated all of the March birthdays at my parents' house, though:
Yeah my parents' have 6 (soon to be 7) kids/grand-kids. 3 of which celebrate March birthdays. It just makes sense to combine celebrations:
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| Pictured: 2 of the 3 March birthdays |
Then on Sunday, her actual birthday, she woke up to some simple decorations:
Not as all out as
last year but every bit as thrilling. Especially thrilling? Giving gifts to a 4 year old:
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| TWILIGHT SPARKLE! OMG!! BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!! |
Then we got all dressed up in our green for the parade - well except for the girl. She wanted nothing to do with that. It's her birthday and she was NOT going to be one of the sea of green. Noted.
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| Also noted: green makes me look really pregnant. |
As much as we wanted to go to the parade again we had no desire to ever go through
the insanity that was last year ever again. EVER. So we left WAY early and ate lunch on the east side. Then we drove back into downtown from the east well before the parade started. We parked in the lot across from the Galleria so we'd have quick and easy access to the shoreway once the parade was over. It was a good strategy. We had a great view and never encountered too much traffic at all. SO DIFFERENT FROM
LAST YEAR! On to the pics:
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| Let's get this show on the road already! | + |
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| The start of the parade. |
The kids LOVED the parade. Were totally into it and thrilled by every little thing.
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| I feel that Matt should use this for his profile picture for everywhere from now on. |
Some random highlights...
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| TRUCK. TRUCK. MORE TRUCK. |
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| My brother's Alma Mater representing |
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| Photographic proof that I was actually at this event (as the one that
usually takes the pictures it is rare to see one with me in it.) |
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| The required pipe and drum band. I still don't get the appeal of bagpipes. Too much Italian in my blood. |
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| Santa totally makes sense in a St. Patrick's Day Parade. |
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| THEY PAINTED THE HORSES TOENAILS GREEN!!!!!!! You have no idea how thrilling this was. |
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| Some Irish Dancers. |
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| And my kid trying to join the parade. Naturally. |
As much fun as we were having the kids (really all of us) hit the wall on the cold somewhere around the hour mark. We called it and headed for the car before the parade was completely over. The key to any fun family activity is knowing when you've hit the limit.
All in all it was a super fun day / weekend. I think my girl had a fantastic 4th birthday! Oh and I haven't even mentioned her friends' party yet. 7 little kids at my house! I think I'll save that insanity for another post...
Oh and if you want really awesome pictures of the parade check out
this post by Adam Gercak. He was on a firetruck and took some fantastic photos of the crowd.
I'm behind the red light in
this one but you can kindof see Matt. Pretty awesome perspective.
