We have a 5-year-old!

Submitted by Sara on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 4:18pm

Eliana has officially turned five! On her real birthday she asked me if she was going to get a "real birthday cake." Excuse me? It doesn't get any more real than the cake I made for her birthday party on Sunday, the day BEFORE her birthday.

She had a bunch of friends over. She and her girl friends played play-doh, princess games, and read stories. The brothers were also invited, but they quickly scampered up the stairs to William's room for some boy time. The grown-ups had their own little party down in the basement. After some cake and ice cream there were a couple of presents. I've been so scatter brained, I forgot to make my usual "no gifts please" request and a couple kids had already bought presents by the time I remembered. They were great gifts, of course, and Ellie loves gifts. I just don't want my kids' birthday parties to be about getting a mountain of gifts. It's enough to have a fun time celebrating with friends. The family members who give gifts is plenty. She got some cute, sparkly, girly outfits from her grandparents that she has enjoyed showing off to her friends this week. We got her a few things, most notably the "write-on teddy bear" that she has been wanting so badly since three days before Christmas. Maybe now Santa can be forgiven for not giving it to her. Ellie also has more family than your average kid. We celebrated with her birth family the week before and she got a princess sleeping bag which she has been sleeping in every night and some fun Merida toys from the movie Brave. As you can tell, this five-year-old was spoiled plenty!

This has been a week of ups and downs getting back into the routine of school. We have gotten to do some fun things, like go toy shopping for Eliana's "real" birthday (she picked out a gumball machine), show off some of our new things for show-and-tell at co-op, do science experiments with William's new science lab from Mamie and Poppops, and get back into piano lessons with some new non-Christmas songs like Fur Elise and the Star Wars Theme Song.

Starting tomorrow we will be kicking into high gear getting the house plans into the next phase. We are beginning to look at bids from general contractors to make a decision on moving ahead. We've been working hard on our current house to get things presentable for selling, but it's a big job. There is still a lot more to do. It's hard to believe we will be in a new house by fall!