spring is here

St. Patrick's Day

After having four friends invite us to their St. Patrick's Day Parade Party, we decided we might as well join in the festivities. We spent the morning at EB's friend Sophia's house, playing in the yard and watching the parade.

Need to find the photo, but EB wore this dress for the St. Patrick's Day parade exactly three years ago. Pretty proud of myself that I remembered it was in the attic the morning of the parade.

EB was proud that she located a Narnia lamppost.

We ended up having a good time with friends and meeting new people. We did decide, however, that this might be our last parade year, as too many of the adults on the floats seemed to be having too much fun. 

Later that night, Graham and I actually went on a date and met up with others from our Sunday School class for a social at "Painting and Pinto" -- where you pay a ridiculous amount of money to paint a canvas and have a college-aged teacher lead you through the painting step by step. Thankfully, they were ok with me choosing my own painting to copy (the bird was for one of the girls' rooms) instead of the Bourbon Street scene that was selected for the class.

All in all, it was a fun weekend!

She turned 5!

On Miss EB's actual birthday, we woke up to beignets for breakfast. She had asked her daddy the night before to sneak out  before she woke up so she's be "surprised."

After breakfast, she opened presents from us and CC. She had been asking and asking for a baby doll that smelled like baby powder that she'd seen at the store. She loved it!

Too bad we didn't think to get Lydia one, too ...

Oh, how there was wailing and flailing about. She would not be satisfied with any other baby doll. Don't know why we didn't see this coming. Thankfully, her older sister was willing to share after a minute ...

CC and I were able to join EB's class for snacktime in celebration of her big day. We took Cuties tangerines and watermelon for the class to share.

In the theme of getting to choose all her meals for the day, Miss EB chose McAlister's for dinner. We couldn't believe we had a five-year-old at dinner.

She keeps us on our toys with her questions and keeps us smiling with her dances, songs, and adult-like conversations. We can really see a change in her this past month and have heard the comment from more than one person lately. She just seems to growing up into a real little girl -- still full of curiosity, questioning, and silliness.

Happy birthday to our little girl!

.....................................................

Earlier in the week ...

 ... we spent time playing at the mall and getting ready for the big day.

getting things ready

The day before EB's 5th birthday party, we had a little assistant arrive in town along with his parents ...

The girls were so very excited to have their cousin and Aunt CoCo and Uncle Britton in our house, all the way from Oxford! This year, EB told us she wanted to have "the box castle from her 3 birthday" and "the pink cake with sugar pearls form her 4 birthday." So, we obliged. After being at home in Oxford last year with little Winters on the way, we were happy that Uncle Britton could resume his role as box-castle co-builder. The building went on for a number of hours late into the night, and the girls woke up to this ...

Needless to say, it was the hit of the party. We also decorated the house with home-made polka-dot banners, made goody bags with 5 of EB's favorite things, baked a cake and cupcakes, Graham made a great spread of food (with homemade humus that was a hit with the adults!), and we cleaned and organized the house. All the while, the kiddos played ...

the big party

Before her party, EB had requested the pink cake with pink sugar pearls and randomly one day added that she wanted a "princess cake" with a dog on it -- which she had seen at her friend Sophia's party. So, I grabbed the cutest little doll I could find at the store, used her Lego doll, and bought an Olivia family in case she changed her mind. She did. No princess dress for the doll, and she wanted ALL of the friends on the cake. Pretty perfect if you ask me ...

All week, I was checking the weather, since 40 people just won't fit in our house. We lucked out with warm weather and no rain! We let the kiddos play for the first hour ...

The girls wore their new birthday dresses; EB was in love with the skirt!

Then we all had lunch ...

I got all the kiddos to agree to a photo by promising them cake if they sat down ...

Success! On the ground - Lydia (she would not sit with anyone!), Front row - Sophia, Caroline, EB, Camille, Rebekah, and Rylan; Second Row - Keegan, Josie, Elle, Conner, Thomas, Brian; In the back - Olive, Rylan's brother Liam, Rebekah's brother Stephen

singing Happy Birthday and attempting to keep the candles lit in the wind

oh, such sweet girls

presents followed ...

and then passing out the favor bags ...

All in all, a party that was just what she wanted.