Cricket has been talking about her birthday since, oh, December 26th. (I swear.) She had a vision for her birthday party theme, her preschool celebration, her gifts, and all the shenanigans in between. And, hey, within certain limits, it’s her day, so I *tried* not to argue too much. ;)
And so now it feels like we’ve been celebrating for a whole month, maybe literally.
It’s been a fun, energetic, exciting season, but today was like the closing ceremonies to the birthday Olympics (as in, we said goodbye with fanfare and prizes). And so, as our officially-five-year-old finally passed out in my bed (her last request of the day), I flopped down, feeling equal parts exhausted and happy. (Now if only her birthday came around just once every four years too, ha!)
The most important thing is that Cricket has the #bestdayever, so if she’s happy, so am I! Here’s how we spent Cricket’s FIFTH birthday:
This morning we woke her up to balloons and presents, which I posted along with my annual Dear Cricket letter here. Then I showed her the “cake” she would bring to school, which was actually made of blueberry, strawberry and lemon poppyseed muffins since our school doesn’t allow actual sweets for birthdays. (I am a rule follower, but I also love me a good loophole…) Cricket had specifically requested the SAME muffin cake and fondant LOL topper that I made for her last year, but of Queen Bee standing on an LOL ball. So there’s that. (Also, my children are me — super-specific and headstrong. Yeesh.)
Then it was off to preschool (for Picture Day!). For their birthdays, each child gets to decorate a special wooden pin to wear the whole day, and Cricket had been looking forward to making hers for weeks. She was so excited how it turned out! (“Mommy, I drew a heart on it with sparkles!”)
Ryan and I brought Chick-fil-A lunch in for her class, and we topped off the meal with some muffin non-cake. (Listening to a room full of five-year-olds talk to one another is hilarious. Just sayin’.)
I told Ryan that he’d be the Not-So-Mysterious Reader after lunch, but I didn’t let him preview Cricket’s book choice, “The Book with No Pictures.” He was awesome and played along, and the kids DIED laughing. Seriously. It was my favorite moment of the day!
After school, Cricket made slime with the neighborhood girls (which was WAY messier than I anticipated). A quick outfit change, and we were off to meet our Sister Squad to get their nails painted + eat dinner. (I offered to paint all the girls’ nails myself at our house, but apparently my five-year-old doesn’t believe in my nail art abilities!)
(So straight-faced!)
(Don’t worry, they got back at this stranger by window-photo-bombing his dinner!)
And now she’s passed out. I’m sure that there’s going to be some post-celebration depression tomorrow once she realizes it’s over. Lord, help me, haha!