Dora Attack!

Well, Eva survived and I believe really enjoyed her party at home.  We had a Dora adventure party.  I had set up Dora themed stations.  There were six.  There was painting on the fence, ring toss from Swiper, filling water for Boots, hula dancing, dressing up as Diego to find monkeys, and blowing bubbles with friends.  When we went outside to do the stations, Eva could not contain herself.  She was bouncing from area to area saying "dea-ra".  She even grabbed a paint brush and was "painting" the fence.  All went really well for about 25 minutes until it started to completely downpour buckets.  Our fence painting - ruined - our Dora printouts - ruined - all activities - finished.  So, luckily, nobody seemed upset to have cake and ice cream a little earlier than expected. 
When we had the cake, everyone was singing happy birthday and Eva was just looking around, sitting at the table.  Then when everyone said "EVA", she was flapping her hands up and down and gave a cute and happy shout out.  She just knew then that all of our friends & family were here for her. 
When she was eating her cake, she did NOT use her hands but rather a fork and I must say, she was much cleaner than others at the table.  After cake it was present time.  I think the other kiddos here are not as patient as her sisters were while she was in opening progress.  Eva opened all her cards, even the sealed ones, and every gift bag was looked through the mounds of tissue paper.  She had a great time. 
I have to add an emotional side note.  Eva has changed so much since her last birthday.  She has grown to become a loving, busy, empathetic, active, technologist, and a social bee.  She makes us see the world in a more curious way than our other three girls did.  Her mentality has become stronger and is starting to stand up for herself.  Her curiosity and desires to do what she wants to do is much more prominent. Although she is starting to become more aware that play fighting and aggravating between her sisters for fun, she still is empathetic if somebody pushes the limits.   She is just as active as any other toddler.  Her energy level when not focused on a passionate task is squirrel like.  Her new choice of toy would be her iPad.  She can sit down with it and scroll through pages, do games through the applications, look and take pictures.
Eva has grown not just physically but mentally as well.  She has also taught us patience, the willingness to believe that if a goal can be accomplished, it just takes time.  She has taken us on a road that was never expected but now, I wouldn't know what life would be like on the highway.  I love you Peanut!