Little Miss Z turns FOUR!

On the 15th of August, our little lady Z turned FOUR!  Crazy!  Four!!!  Because her big day happened to fall on the very day that we were going to be loading our moving truck, we had a bigger celebration a day early, followed by a quicker one on her actual birthday.  On the 14th, we headed out to the Mall of America (Z's request) with her desired destination being Build A Bear.  At this point in our packing process, we were living out at the lake at Pake and Beppe's house, so here is the birthday lady ready to roll that morning (with her first Build a Bear that she made last year on her birthday in tow).

And here she is with her second Build A Bear.  This year, she built herself her own Alvin the Chipmunk - something she had been planning for for at least two months. 

After making Alvin, we were going to take the kids on just one ride at Nickelodeon Universe because we had some points left over from a previous visit.  However, while standing at the ticket kiosk trying to determine which ride they wanted to go on, a very kind woman came up and handed us a 5-hour, unlimited rides, wristband.  What a sweet birthday treat!  Needless to say, they got to go on more than just one ride.  For a few different reasons, we decided to let T and Z ride the ferris wheel on their own this trip (they are both tall enough to do so now).  I was a bit nervous as they were going up and then wouldn't you know, they were at the very tip-top for what felt like an eternity while other people were being loaded and unloaded.

Thankfully, they had a very safe ride and felt quite proud that they had done it all by themselves!  It was a great day!

Then on Z's "birthday birthday", we celebrated with her choice of breakfast,

some gifts,

and lunch out at Red Robin.  Then we headed back to our house to start loading the truck.  We did take a break from packing up to have some tasty cookie cake.

And then the following day, we moved!  We like to tell Z that not every kid gets a brand new house when they turn FOUR!!!  Even in the busyness of the days, we still had a ton of fun celebrating Z!!!