Hannah is 4! Part 1

There's nothing like a birthday to get a lazy momma blogger back on track. At least for a post or two.

We didn’t do a birthday party for Hannah, but gave her a few special experiences instead. The first was a last minute thing. Less than a week before her b’day, I found a Groupon for a Children’s Theatre production of Rapunzel . The show was the night before her big day. You better believe I snatched that up quick! We decided she’d have a date with Daddy to go.

Since the play was downtown, we were going to pick up Daddy from work, go out to eat as a family, and then let the two head out on their date. Friday afternoon, I got her all dolled up at the house in a pretty dress, precious little sweater and my dress coat from when I was little. I was excited. She wasn’t. She was in a HORRIBLE mood. I still have no idea why.

This is my ‘keepin’ it real’ picture. Her expression approximately 3 minutes before we left to pick up Daddy. I did not have high hopes:

Her mood improved slightly as we drove to Aunt Kimmy’s house (she lives downtown) to meet up with the Daddy. Here is their ‘pre date’ pose:

 

Aunt Kimmy gave her some princess hair and then we headed out to Chick-fil-a. Because when you are 4 and your mommy tells you to pick a restaurant, naturally that is what you choose. Good decision, dear one, BECAUSE the Chick-fil-a at Cameron Village was celebrating it’s one year birthday at that location. There were balloons. There were party hats. All employees had huge buttons on that said, “It’s my birthday!” with glitter and such. Well, Hannah was absolutely certain then place was decorated just for her and who am I to squash such a dream?

“Hannah, look! It’s their birthday too!”

“It’s her birthday? Can she have one of our party hats?”

 

We got our food and went up to eat. There was live music.

“This is probably for me, right?”

“Probably.”

The manager appears.

“Hello, there, I hear it’s your birthday!”

“Yes! I’m FOUR years old!”

“Well, Happy Birthday, dear!”

At this point we tell Hannah that she is going on a date with Daddy to see a show.

“A date?”

“Yes, like when Mommy and Daddy go out together, it’s a date.”

”Oh, I’ve never been on a date before!”

Awesome.

Halfway through our meal, the manager comes back with 6 employees (who John had heard conspiring earlier: “we should go sing to that little girl; wouldn’t that be fun?”) and the Chick-fil-a Cow. They present her with a HUGE ice cream sundae and sing to her. And then she got an extra toy with her kid’s meal, just ‘cause. She. Was. Thrilled. This is a fast food restaurant, people.  I was highly impressed. So kind.

“Mommy! The cow and I have the SAME birthday!”

So that was pretty awesome. None of it was orchestrated by us other than showing up to eat some dinner. It was really neat that God did that for us. We had never even been to that location before and were clueless about the anniversary of opening and everything. I wrote them on their FB wall to thank them and sent the picture of Hannah with the cow because they really went above and beyond to make her feel special :)

 

After all that excitement, Hannah and Daddy went to see Rapunzel and, although she doesn’t really know the story (she’s seen Tangled once and it was like a year ago), she apparently really enjoyed it and thought it was quite funny. Pretty good for a first theatre experience. Afterwards, John took her to Krispie Kreme, where she had an entire doughnut and half a chocolate milk all in about 4 minutes and then puked all over the men’s restroom and her dress. Ah, birthday/daddy fun. He brought her home all in one piece and when I asked how the show was, she was very excited to show me her Krispie Kreme hat. Priorities.

 

Coming soon: actual birthday morning and the big gift!