Zoo Birthday Party

We started a new tradition this year.  I took 4 balloons, 1 for each year, and wrote a note on each one.  Then while the birthday girl was sleeping I dispersed them in her room.  She loved waking up to balloons.  Someday, she will appreciate the notes as well.


Rachel's birthday centered on a zoo theme.  We had planned on taking her to the zoo the day before her birthday.  It didn't happen.  But we still had fun monkeying around the house.



We invited the family over.


And we partied like animals.



I made a zoo cake.



Complete with zebra stripes on the inside.



Happy Birthday Sweetpea!

Dying Easter Eggs

This year I made our Easter egg dye by adding food coloring to 1 cup of hot water and 1/4 cup distilled vinegar.  It worked like magic.



We had fun discussing colors and how they combine to make other colors. 


The whisks idea came through Pinterest.  Boy were they wonderful!  I didn't have to worry about eggs being dropped and broken.

Announcing Baby #4

I've been thinking about how to announce baby #4 for years.  Yes.  Years.  I wanted it to be special.  I wanted it to be as exciting and wonderful as it was with the last 3.  Remember this from 2010?


Okay.  On Saturday March 30th, Doug suggested that I take a pregnancy test the next morning.  I told him that I didn't want to because I didn't want to get bad news on Easter.  He agreed.  What he didn't know was that I had been secretly planning on a very personal April Fool's Day joke for Monday.  I hadn't taken a pregnancy test but I knew I was pregnant this time.  On Easter morning I took the test because Doug wouldn't expect it.  When it came out positive I realized that I couldn't wait even 24 hours to tell Doug.  So I put my plan in motion a day early.

I handed Doug an old negative pregnancy test that I had stashed in my drawer.  Yes, I know, icky.  I placed it in his hand and retreated from the room.  I knew I couldn't keep a straight face.  Running away was the only answer.  Immediately Doug began asking, "how old is this test?" (meaning had it been 2 minutes or 20 minutes since I took it.)  I began to lose my nerve.  I figured he suspected that it was an old test because of the black mark in the window.  I let him ask a few more times.  Then I realized there was worry in his voice and I couldn't hold out on him.  I'm just not that mean.  I had planned on keeping it to myself for at least 30 minutes. 
 

I went back to the bathroom, retrieved the real test, then returned to Doug.  I placed the new test in his hand saying, "I gave you the wrong one."  The worry melted off of his face and was replaced by astonished disbelief, then pure joy.  I'm sure he didn't hear me say "Happy Early April Fool's" as he hurried to give me a hug. It was fun as a joke.  But it was wonderful to think about the significance of Easter and all 4 of our kids through out the day.


The next day I opened a fortune cookie and found this inside.  Hmmmm.


Over the next three weeks we leaked to a handful of people.  We knew that we couldn't tell anyone else before we told the family.  We concocted a plan.  Rachel's birthday party was the perfect venue for a surprise announcement.  Most of Doug's family was here.  My parents and Nanette were here via facetime.  And my good friend Bethany and her husband were here.  It was the perfect time.  The family members who were not here all received this little video via text message.  Don't you just love technology!

Here's the link:  Rachel's Favorite Present


The plan was to wait 3 more weeks and announce publicly on Mother's Day.  In that time we had family photos taken.  There were two announcement ideas that I was still toying with.  The first was a picture of all of us reading books about babies.  Our faces would be hidden or obscured as our books were lifted up and shown to the camera.  It just wasn't possible with a rambunctious 2 year old in the mix.  However, I really like this one.


I loved how Doug was studying his book.  He looks like he really wants to know "What Daddies Do Best."


The shoes won in the end.  How perfect!  The same shoes used to tell our family are immortalized in our photo.  Our due date is officially December 8th.  This little one will be scheduled for a c-section somewhere between November 17th and November 27th.  We couldn't be more excited.