Over the weekend, we celebrated Sadie turning four and fabulous!
And my goodness, was the weekend fabulous. Just browsing through my pictures selecting which ones to include in this post made me feel so happy; We made some very special memories.
For Sadie’s birthday this year, she asked for a High Point Climbing Gym birthday party. Jamie took her and Hadley climbing back in November when I was in Savannah, GA visiting a friend, and Sadie saw some of the party rooms and kids having fun.
She immediately told us that she wanted a party like that for her next birthday, and she never let up. In February I booked it, and we were going to go all out.
We’re big fans of simple, enjoyable, extended family birthday “parties” around here and stuck to these types of celebrations for her first, second, and third birthdays. (Her first birthday was in Kansas and just the four of us, and it was a really precious day.)
At nearly four years old though, she’d been to enough birthday parties to know that she wanted one too with “aaaaaaaall of my friends, Mom!”
But obviously we needed to cancel her party and didn’t want to reschedule and give her additional false hope of when/if a High Point party would happen in the future.
Since her day was going to be more low-key, my mom asked if we would like to come over the day before her birthday for a small lunch/tea party. I thought that was the sweetest idea!
Their new home has the most beautiful yard, and couple that with the most beautiful Spring day, and we had ourselves a picturesque, most enjoyable lunch together. Thank you Mom! It was a real treat.
I like to take some intentional pictures of the girls around their birthdays each year, so we used this event to knock those out too.
Of course my goofy girl gave us 10 of these silly faces for every “normal” one we got. This is Sadie Rose DeSpain TO A TEE, ladies and gentlemen!
She has been dying to wear this hand-me-down dress from Hadley, but we were waiting for some excuse to do so. When I told her to pick a dress for Grandma’s house and pictures, she grabbed this one immediately! She calls it “the heart dress”. Hadley wore it to a father/daughter Valentines dance in Kansas in 2018.
That night, we gave Sadie her first present, this new book called The Night Before My Birthday. We read it right before bed, and then I crawled into her bed with her until she fell asleep. I usually don’t do this since I know it’ll create such an expected habit from her (I can’t lay with three kids for an hour each every night, imagine that LOL), but gosh did I enjoy it.
Sometimes the idea of just how little and precious she is hits me like a ton of bricks, where all I want to do is just wrap her up and hold her close to me so I can physically feel how tiny she is. Birthdays are so much fun and such special days but they sure do give me a good dose of reality that my girls won’t be little forever.
After the kids were all asleep, Jamie got to work putting together a couple big gifts and I tied up loose ends with wrapping a gift, making this quick balloon decor, and getting out her birthday plate.
The next morning, the birthday girl (and her excited big sister) were awake by 6:15. She was super excited to finally have her own vanity, though in true Sadie fashion, she immediately asked “Where’s my stool?!” (Backordered, my friend.)
She requested doughnuts for breakfast and rode along with Daddy for some one-on-one time to get them.
We spent the morning playing with some toys she’d gotten the day prior at my parent’s house and FaceTiming with relatives. Very relaxed and chill morning!
PS: I have to brag on my little brother David. When he called that morning to wish Sadie a happy birthday, he said to open the front door. Sure enough, there were two Target bags full with gifts that he’d order via his Shipt account. SO SMART!! I thought this was such a thoughtful way to get gifts in a timely way to someone out of town. Thank you Uncle David. <3
At lunchtime, we loaded up and took her new motorized “Elsa sleigh” (a gift from my generous in-laws) for a spin a few streets over to grab lunch from a food truck. It was cool and windy out, so we grabbed the food in a bag and headed home to eat it.
Sadie’s birthday outfit was a gift from Hadley. She asked me about a month ago if she could get Sadie a gift, and I suggested an outfit. She was all about it and hopped on Amazon with me to pick it out. She was so proud to give it to her!
Around 1 p.m. Sadie’s cake was delivered by the sweetest local baker, Veneranda Cakes.
And at 4 p.m., the big event was here: Sadie’s birthday parade! It was 70 degrees, sunny, and the perfect afternoon for a little bit of drive-by fun with friends and family.
Sadie technically knew about the parade but also didn’t really “know” because she had no idea what to expect. I think we exceeded her expectations!
(I’ve had some questions about how we set this up. Easy. I created a private Facebook group, explained the situation, and asked everyone to meet at our neighborhood’s clubhouse parking lot at 4:15. I explained that gifts and decor were not necessary because I didn’t want our loved ones in stores if they were uncomfortable. I told my parents to leave the clubhouse at 4:15 and that everyone would follow them. We weren’t really sure how it would work out, but it was so easy and perfect!)
We wanted to give out party favors as a thank you to our dear friends, and long story short, Jamie and I decided on pizzas. 😉 We’re so weird! Here he is with Jillian strapped on his back in our Ergo handing a pizza box to our friends as they drove by.
We had 21 cars filled with families that we could not live without. I asked them all to circle around twice if they’d like just so that we could see them a little extra.
Having all of our local best friends right there at arms reach and not having them just park their cars and stay for a cookout was absolute freaking torture. It broke my heart more than I expected! We’ve missed our friends. But seeing their smiling faces and extending love through car windows made me that much more excited to be together and do life together hopefully soon, soon, soon.
20 cars looping around two times only took half an hour on the dot. It was a wonderful 30 minute parade that ended in tears for Sadie when I lightly booty-bumped her and she fell to the ground, resulting in tears likely from just being overwhelmed by all the chaos. LOL. Some of our friends in the last car saw the whole thing and died laughing. Poor girl was getting a little overtired!
After the parade, we invited our parents to stick around out front for an hour or so for pizza and cake.
I had set up platters ahead of time with disposable plates, cups, silverware, a cake cutter, candles, a water pitcher, etc. so that all I had to do after the parade was run inside to grab the two platters and sprint back out front. Worked well! We are all still being hyper vigilant about social distancing, so I wanted to eliminate having our families together inside our home unnecessarily.
Right before we packed things up and said good night to our families, we heard the ice cream truck blaring Silent Night. LOL! Christmas in April! Grandma to the rescue with cash, who dashed off with them to get ice cream when me and Jamie initially rolled our eyes and stated that they’d had enough sugar. 😉 Grandparents are so much cooler than Mom and Dad.
My heart just explodes with love for this girl. My silly, smart, sweet little love who is nothing like me but so much of what I dreamed she would be.
One of the happiest moments of my life occurred in the middle of the night about 12ish hours after she was born. I was nursing her and holding her in the dark, quiet hospital room as Jamie slept nearby. I found myself choked up as I thanked God for this baby. I remember the emotion of that moment so vividly.
I thought about how now that I’ve held her, I couldn’t imagine ever living without her. Being her mom is a gift I’ll never be able to fully express my gratitude for. She is just a really, really special kiddo. And now she’s four!
More
A 1st birthday love letter to Sadie
Sadie’s first birthday (a quiet family day)
Her second birthday (a family weekday dinner “party” at home right after we moved to Alabama)
Her third birthday (another family weekday party at Chuck-E-Cheese).
Let’s chat!
Have you participated in or seen any local drive-by birthdays?
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo