Aubrey's 4th Birthday Party

I'm not sure how this will format, since Mick just quickly moved these pictures to this post for me last night, but I'll go for it anyway.

Aubrey had a wonderful couple of days celebrating her birthday--in new party dresses (the pink ones from Auntie Dana)! On Saturday night, the 4th, Dane and Aubrey came out of their room dressed up to go out and celebrate at dinner. (They chose their own clothes, and, well, pretty much decided we needed to go out for the occasion in the first place.) Before we headed across the street to The Outback Steakhouse (convenient, affordable when we share meals, and loud), we all took turns using the tripod and taking family pix dressed up. Dane looked very serious in his shirt and (short) tie, concentrating fiercely on setting up the tripod--Mick and I felt like we were with a real pro. Dinner at The Outback was really fun too; we got the chance to celebrate Aubsie's birthday in style (take the "style" part there with a grain of salt) and we all loved getting Mick's undivided attention for a couple hours after another brutally demanding week at school (and another one to come). And, yes, we all enjoyed sharing Aubrey's free ice cream sundae.

For the party the next day, Aubrey and Dane and I colored about 20 butterflies to tape to the door and above the streamers. The butterfly ice cream M&M cake was a joint effort by Mick and me (Mick did the ice cream, of course). When the kids came at 3, they made party headbands with more butterflies they all colored. (Note: Dane and his friend Vincent made feathers for "Indian headbands" instead.) Aubrey loved playing with her new Polly Pockets (Cinderella, Ariel, Belle), princess dress, jewelry, and big rubber Hello Kitty ball.

Who attended? The Javadi girls (pictured with Aubrey) and their parents, Annie and Cyrus; Whitney (blondie pictured with Aubrey) with her Mom Natalie and infant brother Cole (this was Whitney's first big birthday party to attend and she was ecstatic); the kids' "new best friends" Vincent, 5, and Amelie, 3; and little Brighten and his dad Richard, a second year dental student (my good friend Shari was recovering from a week in the hospital with pnemonia, 7 months pregnant). The Schultz gang (my friend Margaret and her family, including Wilton, Dane's great friend, were gone to Bear Valley for the weekend, so they helped us celebrate earlier that week.)

Our film card ran out mid-party, so some pix haven't gotten to us from Richard's camera. Perhaps we'll post more soon, but these pix give the general gist.

-Anjie