Friday the 16th...our baby turned 4!

This past Friday...at exactly 1:31 AM, Marissa Kate turned 4 years old. I should probably say things like, I just can't believe she's four or, she's getting so big I can't believe it....but I can. What I mean is, she acts so grown up these days...she is basically self-sufficient with everything. Today, I watched her make lunch for her sister and herself, not because I couldn't do it or I was too busy, but because she "just wanted to". By the way, she made strawberries, bread with grape jelly on it and a big glob of peanut butter on the side. I'm not sure why the peanut butter went on the side instead of on the bread, but they both loved it. Their plates were clean. :)  I am so excited to see her with McCoy because I know she is going to be so wonderful with him and such a big helper for me. She already is:)

So, on Friday, her actual birthday (not to be confused with Sunday, which was her birthday party...which actually was very confusing for her...) we did a few things we knew she would love.

The first thing was she got to open her gift from Miss Jill, which was a clipboard filled with crayons, markers, paper, stickers, etc. She loved it! Here she is showing all her goodies to her sister:)

Next was DONUTS!!! As you can see from her smile...this may just be one of her very favorite things to do in the world! Today, she chose the donut that daddy likes...the cinnamon crunch.

Mommy and her birthday girl. I love this girl so much.

Marissa and NeeNee. Marissa has her camera smile perfected, don't you think? :)

Miss Jill came along for the fun, and of course, Allie has her silly camera face perfected. (You will see just where she gets that from later on in the post....)

Finally, a normal smile. But, I also took this to show you how Allie eats her donuts....notice the top (the icing) is totally gone and the bottom is perfectly intact. And she's done.

Sweet Sisters :)

The girls with the birthday girl at the donut shop!

Miss Jill and Marissa, they love each other!

So, after we got home, it was time to do another one of Marissa's favorite things....dress up like princesses. This time they added the scarf veil for an even more dramatic effect :)

We then went outside to play. Allie must have been playing hard, she needed a little water break.

Marissa was jamming on her guitar!

To end the night, we had her favorite dinner with most of her favorite people. (There were some missing...) We had chick-fil-a with Bryce, Avery, Adam and Layne! She loved it and as you can see, got a little bashful as we sang Happy Birthday to her!

Blowing out her candle...thanks to NeeNee for making her some extra special and yummy cupcakes!

Avery was very excited about her cupcake!

Big, cheesy birthday smile....all she is thinking is..."Please stop taking my picture so I can eat this cupcake!!"

Adam and Bryce enjoying their cupcakes!!

Layne looking sweet and pretty and Russell looking like....who is it that is always sticking their tongue out?! Oh yea, ALLIE! Now we know where she gets it!! See the picture below and the resemblance. :)

Monkey see, Monkey do!

I think it's safe to say Avery really enjoyed her cupcake!

As did Allie.

Marissa got to end her birthday with one more favorite thing...playing computer games. She was showing Bryce and Allie her favorite PBS kids games...they were all very into it.

Happy, Happy Birthday sweet Marissa. We all love you so much!