Happy birthday, Addison!

It's hard to believe it was only 4 years ago that we met this sweet girl for the first time and took on our long awaited roles as parents.  This year her birthday took place on day 3 of being snowed in together so we worked really hard to make today feel special even though we couldn't actually go anywhere to do anything!  Fortunately we were done shopping for her presents long before the snow and cold came, but I hadn't really given a whole lot of thought to decor ahead of time and then she declared on Sunday that she wanted Minion cupcakes for her birthday.  David and I exercised our creative energies and resourcefulness during rest time and after bedtime yesterday and here's what we came up with to celebrate Addison's birthday!

We gathered most of her stuffed friends and set them up outside her door to greet her in the morning with a "Happy birthday Addison!" sign.

We raided my scrapbook paper supply (which I no longer use anyway) and made paper chains to hang in her doorway.  We also taped up 4 balloons to fall down when she opened the door.

We had a total of 6 presents to give her so we cut out a number 4 for each one, wrote a clue for where to find the corresponding present on it, and hid the 4s around the living room/kitchen area. 

 Three were hidden down low for her to reach (and open those presents) in the morning.  Three were hidden up high and she had to wait until after dinner to find those presents.

 We also used bath crayons to write messages on all the bathroom mirrors.

Here she is reading the message in her bathroom.

When she came out of her room and saw all of the stuffed friends, the paper chains, and the balloons she said, "When my birthday is over you're going to have to clean all of this up!"  Then she told us all we needed to come upstairs and sing "Happy birthday" to her.  So we did. :)

I made her chocolate chip muffins and hot chocolate for breakfast.  Oh, notice the purple decorations on her chair as well.  (More scrapbook paper).

Present #1 which she found in the washing machine.

 Present #2 which she found hiding among my shoes in our closet.

Present #3 which she found in a box of fruit snacks in the pantry.

(Trying to figure out if it's a movie or a game....)

Present #4 which she found in her carseat in the van.

Present #5 "from Ethan" which she found in the guest bedroom.

And present #6 which she found in the shower of the basement bathroom.

And thanks to Pinterest and David's venture out to Kroger today... The Minion cupcakes!

I had to include these rejects in at least one picture though.  I learned right away that the Twinkies needed to set for a little while before placing them on the cupcakes or the Minions got a wicked case of droopy eye syndrome.  Still tasted great! 

Happy birthday sweet girl.  We love you more than you'll ever know.