Happy Birthday, Ainsley!

For Ainsley's 4th birthday, we celebrated with a Frozen party. We decorated the dining room with Anna, Elsa, Sven & Olaf. We enjoyed cupcakes with Frozen cupcake toppers and a Dairy Queen princess ice cream cake that Ainsley had been eyeing for months.

Ainsley got a lot of wonderful gifts from the whole family!

Birthday girl

Who knew Elsa could hula hoop so well?

Bean bag chair, er...hat?

Snowman scarf

the Queen

New table for doing art or having a snack

Princess kitty

Testing her new remote control car

Making a new necklace with Daddy

Anna & Elsa jammies

Clio helps open gifts

Queen Elsa of Arendelle!

Queen Elsa is ready to greet her royal subjects, with her new wand and cape.

Grandma carrying the queen's cape

Ainsley asked all day when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday." She was convinced that she wasn't going to turn 4 until we sang. So when it was finally time, we had one happy birthday girl, wearing her birthday crown from school, along with her Elsa cape and t-shirt. Happy Birthday, sweet princess! 

The Long Cold Winter

On this 90 degree day, just a few days shy of the first day of summer (and our peanut's 4th birthday), it seems not so long ago that we were in the middle of the never-ending winter. It snowed, it blowed (?), it was 10 below...for a LONG time. Many of our winter days were just too bitter cold to play outside, but Ainsley still bundled up a few times to enjoy the season!

Here are a few pictures Daddy took one afternoon while they played at the Euclid Creek Reservation.

Snow angel

Euclid Creek

And a few in our own yard, one evening in late March...when we thought the snow would never stop falling.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Yummy!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

A windy Spring day is the perfect opportunity to fly a kite, and we took full advantage!  Ainsley had been asking every day if we could fly a kite, not yet understanding the required weather conditions for the activity. So she was super excited when we ventured to the North Chagrin Reservation one afternoon to give it a shot!

Squires Castle

Ainsley & Daddy, getting prepared

Here we go!

Up, up and away!

Ainsley's favorite kite-flying position

She's got the hang of it now!

Happy Easter!

We also did many more fun activities to celebrate Spring and prepare for Easter. We started with an Easter Egg Hunt, where all of the eggs were filled with a candy treat!

We also visited the next generation of Eggshelland. The gentleman who placed the eggshells in his yard for over 40 years passed away last year, so a group from Euclid Beach purchased the eggshells and set up the display at a park in Lyndhurst to carry on the tradition.

It wouldn't be Easter without coloring eggs, and Ainsley and Daddy had a blast. Ainsley picked a color for every egg & continued to check on each one until the color was perfect. She placed the eggs in the glasses and removed them all by herself.

Ooh, perfect!

On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny left a scavenger hunt of clues leading all through our house to find Ainsley's Easter basket. She found it in the living room this year and enjoyed all the goodies it contained, including lots of candy and Princess Anna & Elsa magic-clip dress dolls.

Showing her favorite colored egg.

We enjoyed the beautiful Spring day in the yard before heading to Great Grandma & Grandpa Paul Shellhammmer's house for Easter dinner.

The Easter Bunny came to Great Grandma & Grandpa Paul's house, too!

Relaxing at the end of the day
with a movie and some Easter candy.

Easter Bunny Lane

Before Easter, we took our semi-annual trip to Kraynak's Garden Center with Great Grandma & Grandpa Paul Shellhammer. Easter Bunny Lane is such a cute display each year - it quickly melts away the long winter blues and puts you in the mood for springtime sun.