Heather turned four this year. But not without some Heather-style anxiety. In the days leading up to her birthday she would occasionally have little meltdowns about not wanting to get older. She liked being three and didn’t want to get bigger or do different things. We assured her that it was not an instantaneous event–She would still get to go to pre-school, dance class, and gymnastics. That seemed to help her calm down.
She had a party on Saturday with friends from church. They painted pictures, ran around the house like loons, and ate cupcakes. It was a blast.
Over the weekend Heather started asking if we could play “miniature ball” by which she meant miniature golf. So we did that Monday evening. She’s never played before and we’re not sure where she even got the idea from. She was really excited though. When I got home from work she just about tackled me.
She started out enthused and interested:
But by the 18th hole she just wanted to be done:
I had a great game. I averaged 2.66 strokes per hole on 18 holes and my worst hole was only 4 strokes! On the way to the parking lot I asked Heather how it was. I told her, “I had a great game; probably my greatest game!” She responded, “I had a boring game; probably the boringest game.” I think she had fun overall, but she was definitely ready to be be done. She burned through most of her energy being excited all day.
On her birthday I made a treasure hunt for her to find her presents. Mom would do this for us every so often growing up and I thought Heather would really enjoy it. She thought it was amazing.
I compiled a video of the footage Jess took of the treasure hunt. It’s at the end of the post if you’re interested. I was able to trim it down to 7.5 minutes, which I realize is still quite some time to watch a video, but it’s still pretty great.
We did the treasure hunt and opened presents during lunch so Heather would have the afternoon to play with gifts. Jess convinced me that this was a better plan than waiting until having cake after dinner then opening presents and immediately trying to send Heather to bed.
We had dinner at the Ale House (or, as Heather prefers to call it, the Ollie House). It’s Heather’s favorite restaurant. They apparently have the best mini corn dogs, fruit, and milk dinner in town. Then it was back home for cake, colored blue per Heather’s request.
Overall I think she had a great day.
And now the Treasure Hunt video:
And a direct link if you want/need to download it to view it: Heather’s Treasure Hunt 2015 (right-click, save link as…).
You will now have to make a treasure hunt for every birthday until the end of time because a four year old doesn’t forget! Ha! Yesterday Addie was demanding a piece of candy someone gave her months ago that she was told she could eat later that night…but she fell asleep and somebody else ate it. It was probably 6 months ago and suddenly yesterday she had to have it. It would be fun to have her and Heather play together!