Birthday Weekend

Since Elaine talks about her birthday every day, I asked her a month or so ago what she would like to do for a party. Normally, we have a family party and maybe something special--like go to a movie with a friend--rather than a big "friend" party. But on certain years, such as when you turn 5, you get to have a party.

"Well," she told me, "I want Mrs. Hogan, Ms. Deb, Ms. Kittie, Mrs. Pope and Derek and Dylan, Mrs. Brauns and Mary Beth, Lily and Keelyn, Jack and Andrew, and all the Villacortas." That's quite a list there, with a lot of adults thrown in, when I was expecting her to just list a few friends from school. So I decided that we'd have an open house, and the kids could decorate cookies and make cards while the adults mingled and did crowd control.

The morning of the party, Elaine woke up with a bad attitude. I gave her a little attitude adjustment, but then she came into the bathroom where I was getting ready, holding Catty close to her and laid down on the bathroom floor. OK. This is not surprising. Every time there is some sort of big event, somebody gets sick. She didn't seem too bad though, so I gave her some Motrin and went ahead.

At 2 o'clock, her friends started arriving. The party started out quietly at first. Here are children, decorating cookies.

This little doll is Elaine's friend Keelyn, from school.
These are her cookies. I bet her parents were real happy when they got her home after the party.

Here are my future sons-in-law, Jack and Andrew. Their mom and I have a deal, except she told me that some little girl had the temerity this week to say she's going to marry Jack. I said, "Oh, we will take her down." Dibs on these boys.
When the party started, it was pouring rain, which then turned to snow. But then more people started to arrive, and kids abandoned all sedate activities and just ran around the house.

Here is our dear friend Kathi and her two boys, Derek and Dylan. Kathi was Lucy's first Sunday School teacher and babysitter. Derek loves to eat...anything. At the party, he ate two handfuls of cat food.
Here's Elaine and her beloved Ms. Kittie (Kay Lynne):
Elaine and Mrs. Brauns, who pretends to be a cat with her:

Elaine and Mrs. Villacorta, who E has adopted as her second mom:
Elaine and Lucy with Sarah, Stephen, Isabella, Andrew, and Lucho. Elaine made me call them two times to make sure they were coming:
Her teacher, Mrs. Hogan, and her Sunday School teacher, Ms. Deb, couldn't make it, but they both called her to wish her a happy birthday.

I just love that she has had these wonderful adults in her life who have reached out to her--especially in this year that's been hard for her--and that she wanted to invite them all for her birthday. It was a great party, and afterward, my in-laws drove through the snow, just to deliver her presents--clothes and a pink Barbie VW Beetle with doll to drive it.

Sunday, which was her actual birthday, Elaine was pretty wiped out. She woke up with an earache, a scratchy throat, and a low grade fever (I'm sure all the party guests are loving me for exposing them to this).

It was snowing and blowing and a lot of roads were closed, so we spent a quiet day at home. Darren made everybody pancakes, and we gave Elaine our presents. We had planned a family party for the day but called it off the night before. We'll try again next week for that.

Lucy gave Elaine a Bitty Baby that we found on ebay. They currently fight all the time over Lucy's Bitty Baby, so it was time she got one of her own.

Some practical things and her favorite movie from Mommy:

A silver cat necklace from Daddy, and this is what the rest of the day looked like:

Somewhere on the day of turning 5, Elaine also discovered that she has her first loose tooth, which she now tells us about approximately every 15 minutes. She is home from school today with me, but she's at that annoying stage where she's probably not well enough to be there, but she's tired of being stuck here--birthday toys notwithstanding.

Then she told me this morning, "I think I need to have another birthday party, you know, since I was sick on my birthday." I told we are having another party soon. It's called Christmas.

I meant to write a birthday post for her with baby pictures through current pictures, but with getting ready for the party then getting up in the night to rock a sick little girl, it just didn't happen. Maybe later this week. But now...my baby is 5! AND HAS A LOOSE TOOTH!