Four.

When Anni woke up the day of her birthday (Friday), we had her first bike, waiting for her.  She had known it was coming after she accidentally stumbled upon it's box a few days previous in our closet.  From that day, she whispered in conspiratorial tones to anyone that would listen that, "We aren't supposed to see our presents before our birthday, buuuuut I saw a bike."  Despite that, her face lit up like the sunrise when she saw it leaning against the couch (with a helmet, which I almost forgot until she mentioned earlier in the week that you can't ride a bike without a helmet... which, of course you can't, so good thing she reminded me!) 

The helmet was immediately strapped on, and the rest of the morning was spent slowly walking the bike through the house, occasionally lifting her feet and practicing her balance.

Colette thought she should be able to hitch a ride on the back wheel.

Once I managed to peel her away from the bike and get dressed, we picked Daddy up from work for a lunch/ice cream/bookstore date.  

After dropping Daddy back to finish off his work day (always kind of sad to do that... we just want to keep him), Anni washed up some dishes (her very excited idea) to get ready to make some cookies.

Then we had some homemade pepper-oni (said just like that) pizza with a candelit cookie for our birthday girl to blow out.

The rest of us thought it was pretty exciting... Colette apparently didn't agree:

Whew!  Okay, onto party day.  We feverishly shopped, baked, and cleaned the morning of the party, all while watching the sky warily as it randomly spit rain at us.

Luckily, it held off just long enough for us to drag the table outside, and have about an hour of her sweet little tea-party on the lawn.

Everyone picked out a teacup (that they also got to take home, so I told them to pick carefully), and noshed on some snacks for a little while.  We tried to keep things rolling, because we had several friends who needed to leave a little early.  So, out came the cake (chocolate, with chocolate frosting, as she had very clearly informed she wanted for the last several months).

 

It was quickly devoured (reminder to self: make more next time) and enjoyed by all.

Then there were bubbles and chalk to enjoy until the rain rushed us inside for presents.

Such a happy celebration for a very sweet four-year-old!