Sunday, June 5, 2011

One Very Blessed Little 5 Year Old

Ellie has had a very special birthday week. It started 4 days before her birthday when James took her out for their annual Daddy/Daughter date. This is something that my dad did with me, and James loved the idea and starts it with our girls on their 4th birthday. This year, he took Ellie to Cheesecake Factory. She got to have a big tall (virgin!) Strawberry Daiquiri and some yummy noodles. She was in heaven. Here’s a photo of them before they left:

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The way Ellie’s preschool works, they put all of the kids in classes by age. This makes perfect sense developmentally, but it means there’s a super heavy birthday season this time of year. Ellie had a blast the very next day at one of her friends’ gymnastics birthday parties.

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P1000909She got to do a zip line!

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Her actual birthday was the Tuesday after Memorial Day. After a long explanation about how her party was 5 days after her real birthday, she decided she wanted cake balls for her actual birthday. Here are her and Emma mixing the cake and the icing together. They thought it was fabulous they were just able to stick their hands in it!

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Her birthday began by her coming downstairs to the dots we had from Emma’s party last year all over the kitchen and our birthday banner up plus a card. I neglected to take a photo, but she loved it. For over a year now, I’ve been telling Ellie that she can’t crack an egg until she’s 5 years old. It’s a silly rule that we make up for a few various things to make her excited about doing things. Here is her first shot at cracking an egg on her actual birthday morning (working on homemade waffles).

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After breakfast, we went to the gym and then to our community pool. She then helped me finish the cake balls and then we went out for her birthday dinner. Turns out, she enjoyed Cheesecake Factory so much that she wanted to go again! James and I didn’t argue…

P1000929 The completed cake balls. They say Happy Birthday Ellie plus a few random letters she chose for Cookie, Crouchburger, Momma, Daddy, Emma, etc. :)

P1000931 Her Tinkerbell watch from us. All in all, a great actual birthday.

After five long days of waiting, her party finally arrived today. She wanted to have it at Chuck E. Cheese. This didn’t excite me at all, but kids love that place, and we decided we could use one that was a little easier. I just did her cake and the party favors, and the rest was up to Chuck. :) She wanted a Hello Kitty theme, so her last gift from us was a cute party outfit:

P1000939Goodness, she’s getting big…

P1000943With her school friends Alex and Ashlyn

P1000949Happy little sister

P1000951   Sweet friends Kyndall and Kate posing

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P1000965    Look at that happy face….

P1000966Hello Kitty Birthday Cake as requested….

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Ellie was so excited about the ticket blaster thing they do there where they go in a booth and get to grab the tickets blowing around. Unfortunately, we neglected to warn her that it might be a little loud/windy inside and it turned out to be a bit of a sad experience instead (check out the video below). Ellie’s friend Madi was happy to take her place instead. :)

P1000973 Here she is before it started – happy and all set to go

P1000975And here you can see the fear creeping in (again, much more evident in the video…)

P1000976Emma and Sara Paige had a blast together. I wish we’d gotten some of their antics on video, but they were playing with forks and full out belly laughing together – what sweet little friends they are! (Side note: This morning at church, Emma decided she didn’t want to go to her class. I knew it was going to be one of those mornings where I’d have to force her and she’d cry, etc. Well, Sara Paige was there and came to the door and as soon as Emma saw her, she went straight in, gave SP a hug and I was forgotten. Sweetness!)

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And here are some video highlights of the party:

Every morning this week when Ellie comes into our room, she says “Here’s the five year old!” LOL. She’s really exited to be five, and I can’t believe how fast the five years have gone. I guess all parents say that, but until you live it yourself… We went to a graduation party for a friend of ours yesterday. As I watched his picture video, I knew I’ll barely get to blink twice before that will be us with Ellie. We’re trying hard to soak up every second of these precious years when they’re little. Happy birthday, you precious, blessed, funny, happy sweet five year old of ours. We love you the mostest!!

1 comment:

The Cornwell Family said...

Ah, how sweet! That Chuck E. Cheese party sure looks familiar! Ryan actually didn't want to go back this year, so we are having a water-fun party. Whatever that means. :) Looks so fun and that she had a great party!

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