Keeping Memories Close: Sage's FOURTH Birthday Party

It pains me to say it, but my little girl will be 4 on the 20th. This year, she had been saying for weeks in regards to her birthday, "I want a pool party, and I want everyone to come." I said, "A pool party? Honey, your birthday is in January!" But because HARRISON, whose birthday is in July, had a pool party, SAGE wanted a pool party. So, a pool party is what she got. This, by the way, was the first year she had a big party. She's always been so shy that I thought it really wouldn't be her thing, but we've always made her birthdays special.

Oh, and the theme? I showed her Hannah Montana, Hello Kitty, Blues Clues...no, she saw a Hunting Cake in the Wal-Mart book with a deer on it and said, "I want a RUDOLPH cake." Greeeattt. But hey, if I could do a pool party in January, I was going to give her a rudolph party after Christmas. She not only wanted Rudolph; she requested Clarice as well. A friend of mine recommended someone to me that did a fantastic job. I found Christmas stuff at the party store on clearance and found a rudolph sign, red and green bouncy balls (for the party bags), red snowflake cups, red snowflake napkins and we had a dozen red balloons. She had the best Rudolph pool party she could have wanted.

I reserved the Y and sent out invitations to her friends, and they all came. I had been telling Sage for a few days now that when people come to her party, she has to talk to them all. She is so smart, articulate and funny, but for some reason, when she gets around people, she clams up. But I told her, "You have to say thank you. You can't be shy around your guests." And she'd say ok. But I really didn't know how she'd do. She usually whispers to me what she is supposed to say to someone else. But when she opened each gift, she looked that child in the face and said, "Thank you, Isabella. Thank you, Harrison." I could have cried! It was SO big for her. We praised her so much for that. Okay, I guess I'm done narrating for now. There are a lot of pics, but it was a special day.

Her awesome cake

Oh yeah, I found a light up nose for her. :) Adorable.

Looking at her cake before her friends arrived.

She opened her gift from my Mema before we left, and it was this outfit and another top. She said she looked like Hannah Montana.

Mom/Nonni

Pool Party Time!

Daddy and Sage

Isabella

Splash!

Caedan in mid-air

Mommies NOT swimming, though I DID think about it.

Hope and Sage

Victoria

Harrison

More jumping

Harrison and Isacah

Pizza time!!

Sage and Karlita

Chrissie not eating pizza.

My baby

Through the balloons

Karlita and Victoria

Mommies on the side.

Look at that baby. She asked me how old she'd be next year, and I said that I didn't want to talk about it.

Then Sage decided to fix my hair.

And Isacah came to help.

And I let them all.

Getting ready to sing...

She got a little shy when they started to sing Happy Birthday.

Blow out the candles...with a little help from Isacah.

She blew out all four.

Sweet

Present time...and though it was difficult, I did NOT even put half of these up.

All the kids gathered around to see, and a Hannah Montana headset was very coveted.

Thanks, Karlita. Sage loves babies!

She made that! Impressed? I am.

Okay, I have to narrate again. For WEEKS, since Christmas actually, Sage has been asking for a scooter. She's really pressed it this week, "Mommy, are you going to get me that scooter? Mommy, did you go get me the scooter yet? I want a scooter." Even today, when we were loading the car, she saw some presents on the table and was disappointed because none of them appeared to be big enough to be the scooter. So, I gave her a present from Travis and I that was 2 dresses . I said, "This is from me and daddy." And she looked at me like she was sad because it was NOT what she had asked for. So she opened more, and last but not least, I handed this to her and said, "One more from Daddy and me." Look at that face.