Joely's 4th Birthday!

Little Jo turned four today...I can't believe it. Can it be possible that the tiny baby who looked up at me with huge blue eyes in the first seconds of her life is now this complex and delightful little person I now share my life with?

We decided to have a party to celebrate, complete with kids invited from her "school" who Tan and I had never met before (another sign that her universe is expanding beyond ours). We rented the centre where she and Lucy go to a playgroup with Tan each week. It's a great facility because it has both indoor and outdoor play areas, toys galore, and even a kitchen etc. so we could prepare food and drinks.




A very interesting fact that Tan pointed out to me was that Joely spent nearly the entire time playing with the two kids from her school that she befriended and invited on her own; i.e. she didn't meet these kids through us. One of the kids was a little guy named Jacob who Joely thinks is one of the funniest people she's met - much like her cousin Aiden.



I caught this photo of the two of them just sitting at the end of the table chatting, while all the other kids were playing, etc. Very cute.



We set up a craft table, which was quite a hit:



And of course, there was The Spread:



Lucy showed those know-it-all older kids a thing or two about working a buffet table:



And finally, The Cake (in the Teddy Bear picnic theme):



Again, Lucy shows the older kids how to get in where the action is:



The party ran from 10 am until noon, so we went home for afternoon rests. After everyone was up, we broke into the gifts:



One of the gifts was some Princess dress-up clothes which were entirely appropriate since Joely had selected an up-market dining establishment for Birthday Supper (Hungry Jacks, the Aussie equivalent to Burger King). This is what Joely wore to Hungry Jacks:



She had a lot of bling going on, but hey - if you've got it, you've got it. Watching her daintily dip her chicken nuggets in the sweet and sour sauce with those pink gloves practically up to her shoulders was a sight to behold, let me assure you.

Happy birthday, Joely.