The Van Mersbergens: Hailey & Brynn turn 4!!!

Our dearest firstborns turned 4 in December. Hailey and Brynn are growing up to be such sweet girls and we are so proud of them!
Hailey still LOVES to sing. She also loves pretend play -"let's do this" as she brings up ideas for something to pretend. This keeps Brynn and Klayton entertained as well as her friends. Once in awhile I hear Brynn say "I don't want to do that, Hailey!" but many times Hailey finds things or makes up a game to keep everyone busy. She loves to play "house", library storytime reader, teacher, princess (acting out the Disney movies), and daycare provider. If the other kids don't want to play she sets up her dolls to play along!
Brynn loves to play games - her favorite right now is a Dr. Seuss memory matching game and she and Hailey are both very good at it. Other games on the list include Candyland, The Ladybug game, Sequence for kids, and Boggle Jr. She also loves to do workbook pages and practice writing alphabet letters. Brynn will do somersault flips in the family room (her head doesn't touch the ground when she does them - not really sure what that should be called) and loves anything with jumping or running.
Both girls love to help in the kitchen. As soon as the utensil hits at least one ingredient, somebody is asking to lick the spoon! They are delighted to help with Makayla and can make her laugh so hard just by being silly.

Of course the girls have squabbles but they truly are best friends. If another child takes a toy away from one sister, the other is right there to defend her (unless of course they are stealing toys from each other which happens daily!). They whisper little secrets to each other and burst out laughing, they talk "after bedtime hours" and giggle in their beds, and they run around like crazy girls until Mama intervenes!

Four years ago we were nervous preemie parents and Hailey and Brynn have taught us so much about ourselves through this entire parenting journey. We love you girls!!

Klayton wanted in on the sister photos!

Our Family - November 2012

Jason took the girls out on a date for their birthday (thanks for the idea Craig and Laura!!). They picked out his pink shirt and a silver tie for him to wear. Jason took them to Red Robin because Hailey wanted Mac and Cheese and Brynn wanted Chicken Nuggets and they both wanted ice cream. The girls were glowing when they got home - I would call that a successful date!

On to Birthday party - we had their party a weekend early to get ahead of the Christmas parties. Hailey wanted a Sleeping Beauty cake and Brynn wanted a Belle cake.

I made the Sleeping Beauty cake the night before because I expected to run out of time if I tried to make both cakes the day of the party. Sleeping beauty's hair frizzed out while she slept in the refrigerator overnight - humidity never makes for a good hair day!?