She's FIVE!!!

Friday, February 24th Lilly turned five!  We are so amazed with what a compassionate, goofy, friendly girl Lilly is becoming.  It was a whirlwind weekend full of birthday, three days of fun in fact.

Friday morning, Lilly awoke to fives up all around the house.  It is fun to see her excitement with each one she comes across.  I also greatly appreciate having students who are willing to make them for us.  After breakfast, she had time to open presents before going to Tree Top.  My favorite moment of the morning, "Greta, it's okay, you can help me open my presents."  Such a generous big sister (most of the time!).

Greta playing with the new Magna Tiles.  She realized
she needed another diamond piece to finish her snowman.

Greta had a slight fever and was really upset at nap time on Thursday, so I rushed and picked her up and took off Friday to stay home with her.  We think she was actually just super bothered by her incoming molars, but sub plans were super easy (have them read and then watch Romeo and Juliet) so it wasn't stressful taking the day.  Greta and I did stop off at Tree Top at morning snack to hear Lilly's friends sing her happy birthday and enjoy the doughnuts she brought for her treat.

After witnessing the party, Greta and I headed to the library.  Then we went home and slowly worked on cleaning up the house in preparation for Lilly's first birthday party with friends on Saturday.  Lilly hates the vacuum cleaner.  She plugs her ears or asks to be in a totally different area of the house.  Greta on the other hand loves the vacuum cleaner.  Greta sat on a chair, her babies on her lap, and watched me vacuum.  She also did some vacuuming of her own.

We need to buy her some harder puzzles.  She dumps them all out, then
picks up a piece, finds the right puzzle, then the right space

Lilly had a great day, with very kind friends all very excited for her big day.  We picked her up, came home and Tim and Elizabeth came over.  Then we all headed up to DaLou's for her birthday dinner.  Super delicious food, with incredibly yummy dessert coming home with us.  Lilly had some fancy chocolate torte for her bedtime snack, we sang her happy birthday and she blew out candles.  Tim and Elizabeth got her the first three Judy Moody books for her birthday and she even had them read to her and put her to bed that night!

Building her new vet Legos

Yummy!!

Saturday morning, the big day, the day of her first birthday party.  We let her have four friends over, one friend never RSVP'ed, so it turned out to be a nice group of three friends along with the younger sister of her friend Magda (and two five month olds but they were napping and pretty unnoticeable during the party).  It was a pretty fun party, the girls played in Lilly's room with her Legos, had any multitude of cereal for their snack, played some more, had cupcakes, and then played pin the fin on Dory and pin the tentacle on Hank (a HUGE thank you to my dad, who on a moment's notice drew them for us and sent them in the mail).  

The party unintentionally became a Finding Dory themed party, but fairly loosely.  Just some decorations and gift bags characters from the movie on them, and the game.

Saturday morning "reading" Judy Moody

Lilly and Alma, her first guest to arrive

Playing in Lilly's room

Cereal for everyone - and most kids had at least two kinds

Present opening - not sure how much Lilly was able to open on her
own and how much work her friends did.

I opened the dress up drawer to find a bandana for pin the fin, and then
princesses

Greta kept herself a safe distance away all morning

The birthday girl!!

Lego Creations - the second and third on the day.  She is obsessed
with Legos, builds them using the directions, then recreates them her own way

It was a great birthday, she had a wonderful time, got nice gifts from her friends and a nice short gathering.  I'm trying to remember what we did Saturday afternoon besides FaceTime with my parents and build Legos, but that's all I have now.

Sunday, it was time for another party, this time Alma's.  Alma had a bit more of a theme to her party, PJs and Pancakes.  Kids wore PJs (Alma told me I had to wear regular clothes when I asked her on Saturday if I was supposed to wear my PJs or regular clothes), everyone had pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles, and lots of playing.  It was basically the same crew as Saturday, only adding in Luke.

Present chaos

Happy birthday, Alma!!

Pin the pancake on the pig!

It was time to go, but there was a story being read.
I wasn't getting Lilly out of there until that was done.

It is amazing having a five year old.  Lilly is such a great kid - creative, hard working, kind, safety-conscious, and eager to learn.  We look forward to watching her grow and all the fun challenges that come with being a five year old!