Abby Turns Four (But Not Really)

Hey everybody, how's your Sunday?  Pleasant?  That's cool.  Ours is fine, too - just in case you were curious.

Our younger kid (Abby) just observed her 4th Birthday, almost two weeks early (it's not until the 21st) out of necessity, seeing how she's got a ton of relatives in town for the week and we wanted to do it on a weekend when lots of folks were around.

Nothing says 'lame' than celebrating one's birthday after school on a weeknight.

Anyway, here's a crap-load of pictures for you to quickly breeze through before returning to perusing whatever-the-hell-it-is you people do on Cyberspace.

Smurf it:

By now, you should all be aware of my wife's dedication to making birthday cakes from scratch, from home.  I think it has to do with a traumatic event from her childhood. . . say, when a store-bought birthday cake murdered her puppy in its sleep.  Or something along those lines.  Anyway, here's a shot of her showing off frosting the night before we were to celebrate Abby's birthday at Dad and Cindy's hotel.

Airbrushing the sides to make it look like ice (Abby, like every other girl in the Western world, demanded a Disney Frozen birthday cake this year.)

Initially I had suggested buying figurines to put in the top of the sheet cake, but, due to Frozen's ridiculous popularity, a cheap set of six, non-moveable, plastic figures was over $30.)  So, instead, we just bought one of those edible cake images off Amazon and called it good.

The girls had stayed at Dad and Cindy's hotel the night before, in order to give Kris time and privacy to bake and decorate Abby's birthday cake (while I played Assassin's Creed IV on the Wii U.)  We called before heading over to the hotel late in the morning in order to make sure my folks had everyone down at the hotel pool so that we could decorate the room for when Abby came up.

While they were down at the pool, Nana had the girls decorate some Mother's Day presents for Kris from a local craft table. . . (did I mention that today was Mother's Day?!)

Decorated.

Of course, seeing how this was a tourist resort, these Mother's Day crafts cost $2 apiece to make. . .

Does that look like it was worth $4?  'Cause that's what it cost.

Abby walks into her surprise party.  Everyone is excited but her. . .

. . . she's more excited about the blue slushy she got from the pool bar (I didn't check to see if there was rum in it - maybe that's bad parenting, I don't know.)

Balloon on the toilet = hilarious.

Kris bought a Frozen poster to put up for the party, but ultimately it is to replace the Tinkerbell/Perriwinkle poster currently hanging up in their bedroom back at the house.

Due to Abby's lack of interest in the party, her presents, cake, what-have-you, it was decided that we'd all go back down to the pool and swim for a bit longer until the kids were hungry and ready for cake, presents, and all that crap.

Elevator Hough Family Selfie

Walking out of the parking garage towards the pirate ship pool. . .

. . .Get it?   'Cause there's a pirate ship?

Margaritas and squirt toys.  That's how Houghs do pools, folks.

Shooting Papa

Standard-issue Bradley picture

This kid likes to wrestle.

Nana really enjoyed these water squirters.

Floating is as about as athletic as my family gets.

Kris and Jill are big fans of people-watching.  Down here, that's a pretty enthralling activity. 

Margaritaville

Hot tubbin'

I'm about funned out with this pose.

Just so you know, this is far from historically accurate.

Abby's Surprise Birthday Party, Take 2

Kris' Frozen birthday cake

Wish contemplation

Alayna's waaay too excited for her sister

A new pink dress, which was purposely purchased by Kris in order to match the purple one Alayna wore at her school's Daddy/Daughter Dance.

A new Barbie car (featuring a ghetto-fabulous Barbie by the name of Trichelle. . . . seriously.)

Yes, she's still obsessed with Lego Friends.  Creepily so.

Jill was nice enough to buy Alayna a purse identical to the one Abby opened, as she's still at that annoying age where she gets pissed watching someone else open a ton of presents without getting one herself. 

Captivated by a new Book-on-Tape CD.

Trying to get into Trichelle's box (heh.)

Technical difficulties?

Dad's got this feet-crossed-in-a-picture thing down to a science.

Bradley and I spearheaded the effort constructing Abby's Lego Friends yacht.

Kris and her Mother's Day gifts.

The Cannonball offers her assistance. . .

Another loving Hough family get-together

Photobomb'd

All signs point to my kids, who think this sort of thing is totally awesome.

- Brian