Megan's 4th Birthday!

What a great (and busy!) day.

After eating pancakes made by dad, Megan opened her first birthday present- a pink booster seat. She's been asking to sit in one for months, and she was super excited to get this seat installed in the van.

She felt very grown up!

Zoë was glad to have company in the back-seat.

Megan then headed to Notre Dame campus to let the world celebrate her birthday with brats and hotdogs, burgers and soda pop. Okay, they were really tailgating for the first ND football home game, but it was still fun to run around on campus and see the cheerleaders. (I stayed home, so there were no pictures of this adventure).

After watching Dora Snow Princess, we loaded up the presents, cake and accessories and headed to the mall. We met up with friends at Build-a-Bear where Megan, her sisters, and a few friends got to pick out their own bears...
stuff them with hearts...
and stuff them with fluff...
and then give them a squeeze to make sure they're just right...
and after they're sewn up, they are your bear...

This was followed by a "bath"
and then each girl got to decorate her bear with bows.


Nanaunt spent this week helping me with the birthday cake: a three-flavor Castle Cake
(whew!) covered in buttercream frosting and fondant.

Nanaunt spent the rest of the week sewing adorable little jumpers for all the bears for the guests. Each girl got to open a little bag with their name on it.

The girls were very excited to get a little outfit for their bear! and they immediately dressed up their bears. Thankfully (to my relief and Nanaunt's) the jumpers fit the bears!

We took another group shot:


Once the girls packed up their bears, we went to the food court and sang "Happy Birthday" and cut into the Castle Cake (choice of Hot Tin Roof Cake or Strawberry & White cake.... Travis called it "Neopolitan Cake".) Then, a quick ride on the merry-g0-round,

and Megan opened presents.

She loved every card and gift she got!

Thanks to the moms/dad/grandma who helped with the whole party and even helped clean up afterward. I was VERY grateful for all the help!

After playing (crazily) on the mall playground (they worked off some of the sugar they consumed) we headed home where we had yummy zucchini quesedillas and then the Megan shared her birthday presents with her big and little sisters and the three played with their bears and dolls until it was time for bed. (Miranda even put her bear in Veronica's bed so her baby sister could see her big sister's new bear).

Happy Birthday, Megan!
We love you, SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

*There are no longer patterns available for build-a-bear bears, so we added an inch to the back of an American Girl doll (or rather a 15-inch doll) pattern. The jumpers were absolutely perfect! Even the sales ladies at Build-a-Bear were oohing and ahhing over them.