BIRTHDAY MANIA -- Megan is 4 Years Old!!

Well, if you look at the date of my last post...I have been MIA for about a month.  Why, you ask?  Because I have been in the midst of Birthday Mania!  Between Alexia and Megan's birthdays and all of their celebrations, as well as a few of their dear friends celebrating birthdays...we have been up to our ears in birthday balloons, birthday cake, birthday presents...basically ALL THINGS BIRTHDAY!  It's been a crazy month, but a super fun month, for sure!
I have hundreds of pics of all the celebrations...but here are a few of my favorites!

My 4 year old Megan...
Celebrating at school with her classmates...I took in cupcakes, which all the kids thoroughly enjoyed!!

For her birthday party this year, she decided she wanted a Berenstain Bears Party...Well, apparently not very many kids love the Berenstain Bears the way that Megan does b/c there was absolutely nothing on the market that I could use for the party...so, with a little bit of internet research, my creative juices got flowing...and this is what we came up with ~

Welcome to Bear Country!  We set everything up downstairs, due to a rainy day...at first, I was disappointed we couldn't do it outside, but everything actually worked out perfectly! 
Here was their entrance to the party...

After everyone arrived, we welcomed them and let them know that each of them had a special picnic basket with their name on it...and that they would use their basket throughout the party!

I would not call myself artistic whatsoever, but here was my attemt at drawing "Sister Bear" who greeted them once they had entered the tree house!

And, of course, we had to have a special cake...this cake was done by "Specialty Cakes" in Mechanicsburg...they never disappoint me -- it was fantastic!!

Ten of Megan's best friends came to her party and she was thrilled...Alexia was there, too, of course and she was Mama Bear's Helper throughout the party!

The first game was "Pin the Bow on Sister Bear"...

Then, we did a series of games/activites that went along with a particular Berenstain Bears Book...I did not read each book, but basically summed up the story and then explained the activity...

Berenstain Bears "Forget their Manners" -- they each were given a little bear container that had different kinds of candy in each one.  They were given instructions to offer their candy to a friend and then receive candy from another friend...all the while practicing use of their "manner words."
I was very aware that this could have backfired on me...lol, but thankfully the kids loved it and each one was thrilled with the candy that they received :)

The next book was "Berenstain Bears and TOO Much TV."  We talked about all the things that they could do besides watch TV and then they had about 20 minutes to play in the treehouse with their friends...

Berenstain Bears "Get the Gimmes."  We talked about how we were going to play a game about giving instead of getting ~ we then played a version of "Hot Potato" only we passed around "Sister Bear" instead of a potato...Megan later told me this was her favorite game!

Next, it was story time....and Scott and Alexia read the book "Going on a Bear Hunt" to the kids...and the kids had to act out the motions to the book...another super fun activity!

After their story time, I asked the kids what bears do when they are hungry and want to eat...thankfully, one of them boldly exclaimed, "They have to go and hunt for food!"  YES!!!  That's right!  So, I explained they were all going to become bears and were going to go on a hunt for their snack! 

Papa Bear led all of the cubs on their search for a snack...

Here's a look at all of the yummy snacks they found on their hunt...

And, once they were finished, they headed back to the treehouse with their goodies...

After their snack, it was time for birthday cake...Megan LOVED it when all of her friends sang Happy Birthday to her...

And let's not forget about the presents...Megan stopped for a quick snapshot with each of her friends before she opened the present they brought for her ~

Megan and Antonio

Megan and Gabby

Megan and Tessa

Megan and Grady

Megan and Connor

Megan and Brody

Megan, with sisters Maddy and Sammy

Megan and Mercedes

We tried mutiple times to get a group shot of all of the kiddos at the end of the party, but it was a challenge to say the least...perhaps I should have tried to do the group shot before we loaded them up on so much sugar...lol :)

Of course, we had to do one "Silly Faces" pic before all was said and done! 

I was so thankful that everything went so well for this party!  Megan was in her glory with all of her friends coming to her house to help her celebrate turning 4 years old!  How a year changes things...last year this time, I think Megan would have gone into hiding if I would have told her 10 friends were coming to our house for her birthday party...this year...she couldn't have had a better time!!!

Happy Birthday, Miss Megs!!  Here's to many more years of fun memories like this one!  I love you so very much, sweet girl :)