Callie woke up at the crack of dawn on her birthday and therefore everyone else did too. She was so excited that she had to get her energy out by jumping onto the couch. We watched in a trance with bloodshot eyes.
You only turn five once!
Callie took her turn to have a Sunday birthday this year. The ward newsletter came that day and it had her birthday printed as the 2nd. At church someone said to her, "Happy Birthday yesterday." I said, "Well, it's today....I think...but the newsletter did say it was yesterday." The lady said, "I bet you are right, you are the mom!" But I checked her birth certificate just to be safe. There is a debate every year as to when her actual birthday is.
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| A little surprise awaited when we cut the cake, it was ombre inside. |
This package of peach rings at King's was my inspiration for the cake, but I couldn't find any pink ones. Note to self: Don't use King's as a source of inspiration.
Kei, Ademir, and Gio came over after church. Having company over for Sunday dinner made it feel like a party. They even stayed to watch Callie's request, "The Little Mermaid." It is so fun to watch Gio explore as he gets older.
Callie asked for a friend party this year. Oh boy here we go. I noticed there are a lot of little girls her age when I was substituting in Primary, so I jotted down their names. Ava walked with Callie to deliver what invites they could on foot and I drove her around to deliver the rest. She thought this was great fun.
I didn't put a lot of thought into what we would actually do for the party because of my focus on work and multiple callings right now. About an hour before the party I looked online for a princess bingo game and set the table (I was wishing I would have stashed some of those shower decorations;) Soon the house was bustling with 5 five-year-olds. The little girl who lives across the street is still a baby, she just walked around during the party gathering the balloons, "mine!" After the kids water colored they came to the table for the bingo game and then we ate jigglers, chips, and cupcakes with our punch. I asked Ava what she thought we should do next. I was thinking along the lines of a "pin the..." game. She suggested "...jewels on the crown." I drew a crown on newsprint and they took turns taping die cut shapes on. I didn't have any jewels, just random shapes: a snowman, a heart, a baseball bat. Ava and I worked together like Franck and Howard on Father of the Bride during that party.
Callie did well with the gift opening. I have had five-yr-old daughters and know they need to be told ahead of time the right way to act. Instead of saying, "I already have this!" you say, "Thank you!" The party only lasted an hour and a half and I had the girls shoes and coats already on for when their parents came to pick them up, "See ya!"
Lets see, what are some highlights about Callie I could share:
She is still a bag lady. She gets every purse and bag she can find and stuffs it chalk full of anything she can get her hands on. If one spills over it makes a mess and I'm constantly tossing stuff. I was tired of this routine so I pretty much put everything out of reach or tossed it. She found a way to make her own notebook by stapling toilet paper together and gluing Disney junk mail to the pages. Any time I am going through the mail she is standing there like a vulture, "Do you need that, can I have that?" One time I told her we needed to get rid of some of her papers because her shelf was overflowing, she said, "Let's just get a bigger house!" Sometimes if we are out on a drive and she sees a house she likes she'll say, "I want a different house. I don't like our house anymore." I said, "That makes me sad. Dad works so hard so we can have this nice place to live and I have worked so hard to fix it to be a nice place for our family." She listened and then said softly, "K, I didn't know that." The next day as I put a rug down that I had washed she said, "Now I like our house again, I just didn't like it when this rug wasn't here." Riiiiiight.
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| What do you get the girl who has everything? More of everything! |
And we love her.
