Baby's Birthday ReCap

Baby revealed to me that her dream was to have breakfast in bed.  Having her eat breakfast in bed is not my dream, however.  She makes enough of a mess sitting at the table.  But dreams are dreams and I was determined to make this happen for her... even though it meant having to wake her up extra early to do it.  We settled on a first course of fruit in bed followed by our traditional family Trader Joe's Chocolate Croissant birthday breakfast at the table.

 Breakfast in bed was worth it for this crazy bed head and bewildered face alone.  Awesome.

 She still looks kinda crazy at the table.  We got out the birthday ring and her rose.  I put up the banner and streamers and balloons.  

 Did I mention that I let her take a day off of school and we could have SLEPT IN?!?  

 But traditions run deep and she still wanted to have breakfast with her sister.

 Then I took her to see Frozen for the sing-along version.  

 We had the theater to ourselves and I told her jokingly that it was a private showing.  She took me seriously and I've been going with it ever since. Why take that awesome memory away?! 

Then we met up with my mother for Afternoon Tea. 

 Please... I did not have the heart to discourage her crazy self stylings with the bangs this morning.  

 She mostly just ate the whipped cream off of the desserts.  Needless to say I was off my diet today.

After our outings we came home and I spent 4 hours trying to bring her cake visions to life.

 It was to feature green grass, a sidewalk with paw prints, a cat & a dog on top, 

and Happy Birthday Charlotte written in squiggly letters.  There was some give and take this year... I was able to successfully talk her down from the multi-tiered cake drawn. But I really do try and recreate all of her elements.  It is not easy, my friends, and it sometimes makes me wonder why I ever started this with her!!  But I'm always happy when I'm done and I think I was able to deliver.

People, I do not even play around.   

Then we went out for Korean food for dinner.

 Baby purposely scooped up more on her chopsticks so that you all would be sufficiently impressed with her skills!

Then, much too late, we came home and I unveiled the cake.  

Truth be told I was a little nervous when I presented the cake to her.  

She has been known to be a very exacting critic.  

 She liked it.  

She accepted my changes (playmobil cats & dogs, not the ugly bento picks that she specified)  

 Mission accomplished.

Pretty awesome birthday all around.  

FIVE

Breakfast table is set...

For our traditional Birthday Breakfast (Trader Joe's Chocolate Croissants!)

First Five little presents... (just turned out that way, but I am pleased)

Which contain these...

Most awesome Ebay score of all time. You may recall from Halloween that she is obsessed with Robin Hood (of course all Robin Hood Disney merchandise is vaulted so this was a challenging b'day quest)

Again the Disney vault issue strikes again... this movie is technically the library's (her really really expensive copy is in the mail)

Outside of Robin Hood, one of Baby's favorite things is gingerbread men. So a birthday theme was born. I scoured all the Christmas sales and stocked up! So glad I did, and that I bought that cute skirt fabric while I was at it.

Cute... (I wish she'd let me cut those darn bangs! She only left that clip in for this picture!)

You can't tell from these pictures, but this birthday has been really hard on her. She's been sobbing over it for a couple of weeks. Cried herself to sleep, and woke up crying this morning. You'd think she was turning 50! She doesn't want to be 5 "or 8 or 9 or 13 or 20 or grownup!!!". We told her that we didn't have to celebrate, that she could skip this year, but nothing helped assuage her worries. "But I'll still be 5!!!!" She'd wail. "My body will still be 5!!!" And she was right, so there wasn't much we could do, but try to be loving and patient and understanding during her LONG, LONG bedtimes.
Hopefully the presents will help.
And the fact that she didn't wake up bigger ;)

It's Her Birthday, Yo!

The absolute first thing she did this morning was tear off her PJs and put on something a bit more fitting for the occasion...

Last night, after Baby was in bed, Kid and I worked our decorating magic...
We put streamers and balloons all over the house, starting with Baby's doorway and leading all the way to the table.



We bought this monkey cupcake fabric to top our table and some cute reusable plates and cups for the table.

She seemed to enjoy it...

First gift of the day...


And now we're off to see Tangled!

Oh and this is what happens when you let your 4 year old design their own cake...

It wasn't easy to incorporate the requested angel, bride, roses and Kit Kats... but I did it.

Oh, and it's strawberry cake inside... so... high potential for nasty I'm guessing.

First thing she said when she saw it?...

"Where is the teddy bear?"

I'm sorry, folks, but I pretended not to hear the "teddy bear" request the first time round.

I mean... angel, bride, roses, and Kit Kats posed enough of challenge without the bear.

So I said "Oh...I'm sorry... I'll have to put that on your next cake."

Thankfully, she is easily distracted.

Happy Birthday Baby

Happy birthday little one.

You are the light that dances across the water.
You are the perfect gift I never thought to ask for
and yet can't imagine living one more day without.
You are a fearless explorer, a glinting eyed mischief maker.
The world is at your feet and you revel in it.
And now I revel in it with a new found wonder.
You may not have mended by heart,
but it was mended so I could hold you in it.

I love you.