In the blink of an eye Miss Zinnia is 4! While she has been telling us for years she is a ‘big girl now’, now she really is.

The baby and toddler days seem to have gone in the blink of an eye……

Newborn, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and now 4th birthdays…… it seems like just the other day 🙂

Birthday eve…..

The parent elves were up late wrapping the presents and preparing the cake!

Zinnia wasn’t sure on what cake she wanted…. but we had flicked through the old school Woman’s Weekly birthday cake book, and after she saw the ‘fluffy duck’ cake that featured in a Bluey episode there was no debate any more!

We had to wait for his icing to set so a little skewering to hold things together overnight!!

Birthday morning!!!!

Bright and early and it is birthday morning! Zinnia was excited to be 4, finally!

Straight into the presents…..

She was super happy with her haul! All the things she’d asked for and some other random stuff we’d found we thought she’d like!!!

It is tradition in our house that the birthday person gets to pick the breakfast. Zinnia wanted blueberry pancakes with blueberries…….

Party time….

Zinnia had been asking for a party, just like the big kids. So a party we had to have. She didn’t have a lot of friends her own age (that will come next year in preschool) but we rounded up a fun crew to help her celebrate.

All dressed and playing with presents while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Soon Granny was here, with the traditional birthday balloons. A giant ‘Z’ and number 4 balloons and Zinnia declared them ‘amazing’!!!

As family and other guests arrived it was time for more presents…….

What an amazing array of special things to keep the new 4 year old amused!

Game time……

Not only did Zinnia want a party, she wanted party games. So games we had! There was of course plenty of food first 🙂

Then it was pass the parcel. Anto was in control of the music and it did get a bit random, no pre-planning here. But plenty of fun to go around.

Then it was time to rock out to musical statues. There were some questionable dance moves but plenty of laughs! It took awhile to determine a winner but we got there in the end!

Finally, a game of ‘pin the tail on the alpaca’….. Our alpaca, Inti approved! Astrid had made the game poster up and she did an amazing job.

Inti really wanted to be involved but we didn’t think he wanted too many extra tails stuck on him!

Even with a blindfold and plenty of spins and decoys from Anto, we think there might have been some cheating by a few players. We had to be sneaky to outwit them, but in the end everyone had plenty of fun and poster Inti got quite a few tails…..

Cake time……

Zinnia was thrilled with her fluffy duck. He was a certainly the picture of 80s cake design, wonderful and retro! Although more than one person said ‘oh the cake from Bluey!!!’.

Zinnia had to keep reminding us she was now 4……

There was a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ before Zinnia blew out the candles and helped cut the cake. She declared she ‘wanted to chop his head off’! I’m not letting her in charge of any real ducks any time soon 🙂

As requested Anto beheaded fluffy duck! Zinnia had requested lemon and poppyseed cake and with the fluffy frosting he was fairly delicious.

…. the after party!

On a post party high, which was probably mostly sugar, Zinnia cracked into the gifts, first on the agenda was painting her unicorn!

Then she crashed and had to watch the Bluey episode with her duck cake, just to check we’d done a good job!

After an epic day of excitement all she wanted for dinner was more sausages and an early night. The rest of us agreed that we all needed a good lie down too 🙂

The balloons were still a hit and managed to stay up for a good 2 weeks!!!

‘Star’ the unicorn continued to be decorated (endlessly) for days. She has since been washed several times and has had new artwork since. Definitely a hit!

The few days following her birthday, Miss Z was rather tired! We felt about the same…….

….. and now you are 4!

Four was an amazing age for her big brother and sister, and I’m sure Zinnia will embrace it with the same energy and enthusiasm.

While the poor third child gets dragged from one place to another constantly, to keep up with her older siblings many, many activities, Zinnia embraces it. She loves her swimming and tells us she is going to be doing 100m freestyle at the next meet,(might be awhile yet sweety), has started ballroom and Latin dancing just like her older sibs and mastered the pedal bike earlier in the year so she can start giving them a run for their money on long rides. She might be the cutest toddler in lycra ever!

She also does piano just like the big kids after spending too many years listening to them practice and play! I swear she is trying to send us even more crazy with all the running around but it is lovely watching her throw herself into all her loves with such passion.

Zinnia is most definitely ruler of the household. She makes sure we know what she wants and when she wants it, and well and truly keeps her siblings, grandparents and Inti the alpaca in line! She’s learnt some fierce attitude and foot stomping from her older siblings. She adores her pretty dresses and sparkly shoes, books, Bluey, Mister Maker and Operation Ouch….. oh and of course food!

It’s been amazing watching Zinnia grow and change over the last year. She has loved getting to do some travel again, and her first overseas trip since she was a baby! Apparently sleeping on a plane is fun (for her more than her parents). She is so looking forward to preschool next year.

I can’t believe that has come around so damn fast! She even mostly sleeps much better these days, except for when she appears by our bedside, silently in the middle of the night, staring at us until we wake up and deal with whatever Teddy or missing drink bottle crisis there is.

We are all thoroughly entertained by Zinnia’s endless amusing stories and anecdotes. She certainly has an active imagination.

Life without her would definitely be less entertaining. She certainly brings joy and smiles to all who meet her.

Happy birthday Miss Zinnia Delphine. Enjoy being 4!