Happy 4TH to Anna!

Anna is 4 years old!

At age 4, Anna weighs 31 and is 3'4" inches tall.

Here are some pictures that capture Anna's personality these days. She is still very girly, obsessed with wearing dresses, lipstick and accessories. She carries a purse everywhere and begs me to put makeup on her (ah!). On the other hand, she loves adventure, festival rides, spicy foods, playing ball, being outside, running, tackling, and action movies. (She's never seen a full one, but if one happens to be on, she BEGS to watch it. Weirdo.)

Shooting hoops in her dress.

Things she is up to at 4.   First of all, if you ask her her full name, she declares it's "Anna Marie Mielcarek Flowers" every time. We try to ask her where the "Flowers" comes in but she just looks at us like WE'RE the idiots for not knowing it is part of her name. So. That's that.

Then, there's her imagination. If you sit down to play with her for a few minutes, be prepared to role play. She will immediately assign you a character. These days, it's mostly Disney princesses, but you also may find yourself a teacher, mom, sister or doctor. Lately I have been Snow White a LOT, and if I forget and break character, she gets very upset. Dad somehow gets out of it, but occasionally we make him be a prince. Or Olaf.

This is how she will often come downstairs in the morning, fully "dressed".

She is acting so old and has become superbly independent. She takes great pride in doing her "chores," making her bed and cleaning up her room.  She asks to do everything I do. When we went for haircuts together she was upset that hers was not as short as mine, so I had to cut it when we got home. Then she asked to get it "painted" like mine. (I did draw the line with that one.)

Even her teachers at school say they are amazed at how far she's come over the past year. She is very talktative and not nearly as shy as she used to be. Next week she starts an active fall schedule of swim lessons and soccer skills camp. She says she is very excited for both.

We are so excited to see what this next year brings.
We love you Anna!