a bunny turns 4...twice!

birthday bunny!

sophie is FOUR!!! we have celebrated her birthday for a week and a half here in the triangle, and i think it is fair to say that she is fully partied out now. first, we had her party at school--her teacher is fantastic about making the birthday kid feel tremendously special, so much so that sophie opted to stay for nap time. she got to be line leader, do show-n-tell (she brought her stuffed coyote and us--including gus), did snack (green cupcakes with chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles), then all her friends colored birthday cards for her. she also got to lead the class in a sing-a-long song about the earth moving around the sun four times, representing her four years on earth:

she even carried a little papier-mache globe around a felt sun

and blew out candles on a little cake in the end

birthday girl with her birthday loot from school

that evening (and a couple of others), sophie opened presents and made some fabulous art with gus:

sophie loves books...

...and beads...

...and painting with gus


and then, finally, this weekend, the main thing that she'd been waiting oh-so-patiently for, the coup de grace, the PARTAY of PARTAYS: her birthday party at the iowa gym nest!!!

sophie takes a flying leap into the foam pit of destiny

gus, in a blur of flowing blonde hair, takes his own flying leap...

...and can only watch in awe of the spider-monkeyesque 4-year olds

rich managed to take full advantage of the gym nest's facilities--i need to sign him up for an adult class

(i jumped a little, too)

rich actually climbed this massively high/long rope to the ceiling

then gus' friend, gabe, developed the perfect game which basically involved him throwing whatever item he could find--foam blocks, balls, water bottles, small children--at rich while he was bouncing on the trampoline. amazingly, the gym nest people didn't seem to mind.

sophie wonders if she, too, will be this exhausted by the foam pit when she's 10

like father...

...like daughter--sophie absolutely flung herself into a flip, with NO hesitation, the first time she ran down this trampoline thing (and after she saw rich do it)

singing "happy birthday" to a girl, one last time

cake for sweaty kiddos

sophie, finally satisfied with her birthday celebrations, is clearly thinking of next year's festivities already