Festivities of a Five Year Old

Today, we finished off a four day fiesta of fun with a celebration of her actual birthday. Is was a wonderful sweet day and I'm just so thankful for my sweet middle child.

As is tradition, we started the day with a donut and a candle.

Then, we sent her off to Preschool and I worked on her cupcakes. These little cupcakes are suppose to look like ice cream. Turned out super cute and were pretty easy to make.
So here she is in her class. We brought her lunch from Panda Express because she loves their noodles :)

After Elle got home, we opened all the gifts we had gotten her that we didn't give her at her birthday party. She has wanted this book for quite a while.

Her favorite present was press on nails.

She was also SUPER excited to get Pocahontas since our last copy was eaten by the VCR. I found this copy for 50 cents at Goodwill :) If the VCR eats it again, it's time to bite the bullet and buy the DVD.

Papaw and Carolyn sent her a cute coffee mug with an "A" on it and a matching notebook with a pencil and paper inside.

After we got Levi up from his nap, we headed to the pool for the last time before next summer. It was too cold for me and the girls shivered the whole time, but they loved it.

Love this picture

She was too busy swimming to eat dinner. She would eat a few bites, then swim some, then a few more bites. Happy 5th Sweet Ava.

We all scream for ice cream!

Today, we had Ava's 5th birthday party. I'm not sure words can really do it justice. It was wonderful. It was perfect. It was enjoyable. It was awesome. Every single thing went off without a hitch and all of the little girls had a wonderful time! Planning and doing birthday parties takes a lot of effort, but it is so worth it, when you child feels special and has fun! Okay, I really am at a loss for words for how great it went today so enjoy some of my favorite pictures from the party!

First, the girls started by decorating a bag...pictures of final product later in the post.

After that finished that, we sang Happy Birthday to Ava and let her make a wish!

While we cut up the cake, we let them essentially have a free for all with candy and ice cream. Things they had access to in order to make the perfect cup of ice cream included: pop rocks, marshmallow, peanuts, M&M's, cherries, sprinkles, gummy life savers, gummy bears, whip cream, chocolate syrup, blueberry sauce, caramel sauce, hot fudge sauce, Root Beer flavored syrup, coconut, brownie bits, and candy corn. Oh and the ice creams included, Neapolitan, Vanilla, and Ava's personal request of Mocha Java Chunk.
I believe I stopped Ava at 7 cherries. She was shoveling them into her cup like there was no tomorrow!
Everyone say "Sugar Coma!"
She received some wonderful gifts and I think I counted somewhere around 15 headbands. Obviously her friends know her very well :) The only thing she has told me specifically and consistently that she wanted was a lady bug pillow pet, so of course she got one :)
I think she liked it?
Last activity...the pinata! Everyone got 2-3 hits with the blindfold on and all did actually quite well whacking at it!
Then we let me hit it 2 times each with no blindfold. Elle went last and on her second hit, WHAM! It went flying and so did all the candy!
All the cuties grabbed their cute little bags and started filling them up!
Such a cute picture of Shawn and his mom :)
The birthday girl with all her sweet guests, showing off their little ice cream bags.
Ava's finished bag
Elle's finished bag (love that she took her own creative spin on how to put the ice cream on there :)

Mother's Day Out...but not really.

Today was a day this household has anticipated for months and months! Sweet Ava began going to a Tuesday/Thursday Mother's Day Out Program. We knew last year, when we realized that she was 13 days past the cut off for Kinder this fall, that she (and I) was going to need something to preoccupy her for the year before she got to go to real school. I started hunting around and found a preschool that immediately upon entering, was sure was the one for her! She was beyond excited for this day to get here! Last week we got to meet her teacher and see her classroom and all anxieties (which really their weren't any from any of us!) were cast aside. She absolutely loved her first day of "school." She said that her favorite part was playing on the playground and doing the monkey bars. She also proceeded to tell us exactly, and I mean exactly what each person brought in their lunch. (She's always been a little obsessed with food.) lol Anyway, we could not be happier that she loves this place and are so excited to give her a chance to grow. So, you may wonder....what did Emma do with this new found freedom? Well, that's where the title comes into play. It's called Mother's Day Out, but Levi prefers it to be Mother's Day In. He likes to nap from 10-12 every day. But, that's not a bad thing at all. My goal is to begin catching up on scrapbook pages. I already finished two since yesterday and that 2 more than I've done in the last almost year! So, I will enjoy the quiet, the peace my brain is allowed, and let my creative juices flow...oh and do some housework too. That's what I'll do with my time. And I'll also cherish those Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that she's with me, because I know next August is going to be here quickly and then life will change yet again.

Of all the stickers she picked out to stick on her face at breakfast, I thought these were so appropriate. They read "Smart" and "Funny."

All ready to go, with a new shirt, new backpack, and new lunch bag.
Love this shot.

One last picture with Mommy...I made her do this. She was ready to be done and go play with cars.

Miss Liz, the teacher for the "Giraffes"