Princess Maca-Ramoni, age 4

Last week was Ramona's fourth birthday, and to celebrate we threw her a macaroni-themed party, inviting lots of little friends.

Although I usually think of Ramona as my Springtime baby, the morning of this particular birthday dawned with about 8 inches of snow in the backyard and looked a lot more like January than April.

Below is the birthday girl with her macaroni tiara, eating Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.

She wanted her hair to look wavy and styled like Belle's from "Beauty and the Beast."

She seemed in kind of a daze for most of the party, but received her guests graciously. One guest even brought her flowers.

We began the festivities with three crafts:
1) Macaroni glue art

2) Macaroni bracelets

3) Macaroni & playdough sculptures

Forest took a couple of hours off of work to bring Ramona a balloon and serve as the palace chef.

After crafts, the kids did a quick macaroni M&M hunt (find and eat the M&M's in your cup without dumping the entire contents out) . . .

. . . then used the leftover macaroni as markers for a round of Pasta Bingo. Everybody won.

Next there was "Pin the Noodle on Yankee Doodle"(I know, I was really stretching this macaroni idea here) . . .

. . . and a spin-off of Duck Duck Goose: Mac Mac Cheese.

I am so glad we split the kids into two groups to do the latter two games, or there would have been some painful collisions, for sure.

By the time those games were over, the Palace Chef (with the help of several moms) had lunch on the table for all of Ramona's guests.

We delayed dessert by inserting just one more activity--a cupcake walk with no numbers, just pictures of either macaroni or cheese. Once again, everybody won.

To keep children entertained for the last few minutes until it was time to go home, I dumped out a box of bubble wrap on the floor and dragged out a giant wardrobe-sized moving box that Ramona calls her "spaceship." I didn't have to say a word before little feet were pouncing on all of our old packing supplies. Through it all, the birthday girl waited patiently for her guests to be out the door before opening her gifts from us and Grandma.

Thank you Grandma, for Cinderella and all the goodies in the Princess backpack!

On Saturday we had another party to re-celebrate Ramona's birthday with some family members and congratulate Christie for finishing her dissertation & defense. Ramona and Mika were thrilled to see Cousin Ella--although in this photo she doesn't look terribly thrilled to see either of them.

Dan and Christie gave Ramona a cyclist toy from Kenya. Big hit.

And Teresa brought her a giant slinky.

Also, big hit.

Thank you Aunt Crissy for the LaLaLoopsy doll and Cousin Aubrey for the handmade card . . .

. . . and thank you Maria, Josh, and Caleb for the pink poodle.

We wrapped up the party with a cake and four candles on top.

Now Ramona is already talking about her fifth birthday and anxious to make plans for that celebration. Can't she just stay four for a while?