Elise's 5th Birthday, in pictures

[altarflame]

I felt like a seriously badass ninja for managing to dig those bags out of Isaac's closet, find that tissue paper mysteriously mixed into my sewing things, and - after tearing my entire house APART - locate that shirt that we used on Annie once upon a time (buried in the fabric pile in my armoire). All in between getting Grant to the train station in Hialeah and waking her up for preschool :) Pull out one fancy saucer and I looked downright prepared (do not ask about the other 7/8 of my dining table at this moment).


She loved (and has continued to love) that hat Grant picked out for her.






When I dropped her off at preschool, her teacher was like, "OH PLEASE BRING SOMETHING SO WE CAN SING TO HER!!" so I went home and got a couple dozen of the muffins I'd made the night before. They were full of chocolate and strawberries and a hit...I suppose it's a good thing that I make 4 dozen muffins at a time.


After I picked her up from school at noon, I told her she could pick lunch. She wanted to go to Mama Mia's and have bruschetta.


Getting full...before we left she even ate all the garnish lettuce off the plate, though. She is a freakin nut for tomatoes in any form.


The two of us drove aaaaaall the way to Daddy's job to pick him up and go out to dinner, and I had the surprise fancy outfit we'd gotten for her dinner in one of those same bags from this morning. Have I ever mentioned that I cannot wrap anything to save my life?

She was thrilled with the dress, and changed in the bathroom on his floor, and they slay me.








For whatever reason, this child takes off her jacket and puts her napkin in her lap, to eat. I don't even teach her these things. She ended up with her napkin in the collar protecting her shirt at Mama Mia's, too. And she changes into pajamas and lays her clothes for the next day out, before bed O_o

She took the jacket on and off like 5 times in between appetizers, dessert, etc. Very silly, but they sang to her and she had a great time.

The party was that weekend. She had used some of her birthday money for a slip n slide that was a HUGE dissapointment - it was like 10 feet long and a less than 2 feet wide and just the most pathetic dumb thing, didn't even really shoot water out of the sides like the box showed. SO, Daddy saved the day with a giant piece of visqueen and an old play sprinkler suspended from mango tree to privacy fence :D

That's Elizabeth, Elise, Darrien, Naja, Isaac and Jake...Brian is out of the shot.

Kristin, talking shit on our deck during the party.



Grant, Annie, Shaun, and Laura with Isabelle.

I think Aaron was off somewhere with Adrian, who had spent the night...

This year, I just ordered an edible image off of ebay and slapped it on a $17 BJ's cake. Take note: those images are like $8 shipped, and you can get them from anywhere. The same size Ariel cake ordered from a normal grocery store bakery is like $60! Highly recommended :)


And she wanted the entire Ariel.


A couple of her favorite birthday presents, in Isabelle's just outgrown newborn clothes :)

While we're talking thrift, a bunch of select (and pretty nice) 18" dolls are currently only $16 at Target, which is an AMAZING price.

My "baby" - time is really something.