Milestone: Happy Fourth Birthday Rowan!

Somehow I have now been parenting for as long as it took me to get my college degree...but this four year education with Rowan has given me so many priceless lessons about love, patience, and what is important in life. Each day I am in awe that this exuberant beautiful-inside-and-out compassionate little person is my daughter and I get to raise her. "How lucky am I?!" Rowan frequently says when she gets a sticker at the bank or is told we are having grilled cheese for supper. I'm the lucky one.

Rowan's birthday fell on the day of the epic blizzard here in Maine, so we were snowed in, which was actually kind of nice. She enjoyed a stack of four silver-dollar pancakes with sprinkles and birthday candles, a scavenger hunt to find presents hidden in our dryer, and then the rest of the day was spent playing with new presents, making cupcakes, watching a movie, and shoveling chest-height snow! Rowan didn't mind though- she loves using her kid-sized shovel, and she just kept proclaiming, "I'm having a great b-b-b-blizzard birthday!" The following day was full of more birthday hoopla- her first friend party with her little girlfriends at the YMCA pool. We did a mermaid/ undersea theme--I had lots of fun making decorations and favor bags, etc. but I realized that the kids would have been equally happy with only a few balloons to toss around. It was a great time though and Rowan seemed to really enjoy herself. We made little clothespin mermaids, played the fishing game (Aaron was the big ol' fish down on the ocean floor dispensing the treasure), ate cupcakes and went swimming. Then back to the house so that grandparents and cousins and great aunts could wish Rowan a happy birthday too. Lastly, we celebrated her birthday at her preschool, and I got to visit and be a part of her "birthday walk" ceremony, where the kids all help assemble a wooden ring that symbolizes the sun- they lit four candles around the ring and placed cards for the seasons and months around it to make the rays of the sun, and then Rowan walked four times around the "sun" holding a globe while they all sang happy birthday. Such a wonderful ritual! Happy birthday to my first-born girl, I love you more than you'll ever know. Here's to another year of laughter, snuggling, growing and learning together :)