Five

Ellie is five! I can still so vividly remember the day she was born. I was just in complete awe that we were being entrusted to care for this perfect, beautiful little baby girl, and yet, here we are, five years later. Words fail to adequately describe how that first birth day felt and how proud I am of what a sweet, smart, wonderful, funny, delightful, and beautiful young girl - and big sister- she has become!

Here's a peek of what Ellie is like at five:

Her favorite color is pink.

Her favorite song is "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts (from the movie "Cars"). She prefers it played loudly in the minivan.

Her current favorite movie is "Tangled", which happens to be the most recent movie she's seen and the only one she's seen in a movie theater.

I asked her how it felt to be five, but she only answered, "It's cool."

We had quite a weekend celebration for Ellie, which started with her first "kid" party on her actual birthday, Saturday the 15th here at the house; she invited two current classmates from preschool, two classmates from last year, and two neighborhood friends. I wasn't sure how long to schedule the party for and it turned out 3 hours was MORE than enough time. We started with a few games which didn't go over too well - the kids were more interested in just playing.

Then we had pizza for lunch - which the kids scarfed down in record time. Opening gifts took mere minutes, and then I'd baked cupcakes inside ice cream cones and figured the kids could spend some time decorating their own cupcakes. That too didn't last long. I had also found an idea in a magazine to make bird feeders out of pinecones covered in peanut butter and then rolled in birdseed, and I thought that would be a fun and easy craft to do with the kids. I don't think they were all that thrilled with doing that either. We finally just let the kids play until it was time to go, and they seemed to have fun doing that. Ellie said she really enjoyed the party, and I guess that's all that matters! Though next year, I think we'll shoot for something off-site. :) And shorter.

The Karnowskis and Daniels then all descended on our house Sunday afternoon to celebrate Ellie's first five years with a big lasagna dinner and more cake!

Ellie and the littles had a blast playing with their cousins and while it was a little noisy and chaotic, it's also a little more enjoyable to just have the family over. I just wish we lived closer so we could get together more often!