Recipe for a Perfect 4th Birthday Weekend

Ingredients:

3 warm, sunny days filled with sunshine, cool evenings, and very little rain

6 long-distance visitors (preferably 1 Aunt Col, 1 Poppie, and 4 cousins whose names all start with J)

1 mommy and 1 daddy (optional)

1 very happy, very tired, and very sweet Rusty

495 (approximately) pink and/or purple princess and/or Dora toys and/or outfits and/or videos

less than 12 hours of sleep (over the course of the WHOLE weekend!)

1 slip n slide

4 wet cousins

42 purple glow in the dark sticks, necklaces and balls

1 secret mission

100 pounds of purple sand-box sand

at LEAST 2 pounds of sugar ingested per day (even at breakfast...heck, even FOR breakfast!)

17 laps on the go cart track (Leah and I riding together!)

1000 licks (of ice cream cones)

15 popped balloons

45 minutes and about a million dollars worth of Fireworks (Thanks, West Seneca!)

45 minutes and a priceless amount of looks of wonder on your little girls face

5 precious minutes of snuggling with the birthday girl

2 hours at a local carnival

Hugs - as many as is humanly possible to get/give in 3 days

laughs - at least a dozen per minute (i have found that additional laughs added improve the recipe exponentially)

1 purple cake with purple frosting and an amazing likeness of Dora on top (artistically created by your 9 year old niece)

2 dozen hot dogs on the grill

12 ears of corn

42 trips to the grocery store (one at 2AM)

1 gourmet breakfast shopped for, prepared by and served by your hubby

72 arms and legs inside a 64 arms and legs capacity truck

3 digital cameras, 3 laptop computers, 2 web cams and a total of 375 pictures downloaded

2 accidental right turns and 3 extra miles driven to get to the restaurant that is one mile from the house....even on the same road (this must be done by the local resident, while the out of town guests follow unwittingly)!

1 tie dye kit

1 camp fire

1 bag of giant marshmallows (of which only 3 actually make it to the roasting phase)

15 to 100 bumps/bruises/mosquito bites/skinned knees/inadvertantly hurt feelings all quickly healed with kisses

100 requests to play (cards, swings, croquet, playground, bike ride, walk, sand box, slip in slide, barbie dress up, pricess tea parties) and 100 resounding "YES"s.

1 little girl turning 4

1 mommy wondering how her baby girl could possibly be turning 4 already

1 short visit with Grandma and Grandpa

1 trip to Unka's for swimming and chips with dip (what, no salsa??)

49 rounds of the "Sleep Game" with Poppie

7458 tickles

7458 giggles

90 powerfully delivered "Listen Sister!"s

2 Hours of cutting little plastic fasteners that connect toys to a maze of cardboard

a half dozen episodes of uncontrollable laughter (one of which is instigated by the birthday girl landing in a plate of guacamole mere milliseconds after my mad-mommy-mandate of "Alright, Everyone Needs to SETTLE DOWN!")

3 very late night chats with dad (and his carriage didn't even turn into a pumpkin!)

1 long conversation with your very grown up nephew with a very grown up heart

4 Happy Birthday Voice Mail messages for Leah (from Aunt Linda, Aunt Traci, Aunt Claudia and Grandma)

1 bag of really cute hand me downs from your best friend (and it doesn't hurt if she sends you "Eclipse" too!)

2 dozen attempts at catching up with your sister foiled by 3 dozen frantic cries of "Mommy?....MOMMMY!"

4 dozen kisses on the head followed by 4 dozen whispered I love yous

1 tearful goodbye and wave (if you experiment with this recipe, could you PLEASE let me know if you have found a way to leave this ingredient out?!?!?)

1 box of items left behind and shipped back to Argyle in the mail

Directions:

1 - Add the ingredients one by one.

2 - Stir/shake/twist/twirl/dance/bop/jump/skip or otherwise agitate gently for 3 days.

3 - Start planning for next year! (Pictures to Follow)

Dear Leah

It is 11:00pm and I am three hours in to a Golden Girls Marathon. I am home alone with Rusty because you, Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa are in Rochester visiting Aunt Linda and Uncle Frank. Daddy took you there because I have to work a lot of hours this week and he didn't want you to have to endure the long hours of being away from me. You and I have become