Happy Birthday Lydia!

Due to scheduling conflicts, we celebrated Lydia's birthday today instead of Saturday. And, to her great joy, she got to have a "real" party this year. I told her she could invite three friends, but of course I neglected to get a picture of them all together. Here's the rundown of the much anticipated day!

#1--The Girl

Happy as all get-out as you can see. The child had been planning this "birthday celebration" for three weeks, I kid you not. She's her mother's daughter, planning things out in advance! :)

#2--The Cake.

She wanted a heart themed birthday party, which I thought was fabulous being that her birthday is so close to Valentines day. I went to the dollar store and went crazy with stuff for the goody bags :) She dictated colors of frosting and chose the star sprinkles...not hearts...go figure. She helped me sprinkle them on her cake and loved it.

(Side note: I tried this frosting. It tastes superb. Give it a try, especially if you don't particularly like frosting.)

She was also particularly insistent that she have a checkerboard cake once she saw it in the JoAnn's flyer. The cake picture is actually what got her planning her birthday party three weeks in advance. The cake is supposed to come out looking like this:

Mine came out looking like this:

So much for using three colors and trying to be tricky. However, Lydia told me "It's lovely Momma. It has the checkers just the way I like them. And it tastes so yummy." What better endorsement could you get?

After having lunch, cake, and opening presents at our house, I took the five kids (I left Ian with a friend) to Pump It Up Jr. to jump around for an hour and a half. We had the place to ourselves when we arrived and only a few extra people showed up partway through. If you're ever heading there, I recommend going at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon!

The tour:

The party attendees in order of appearance: Erica (already at the bottom), Katelyn, Lydia, Ryan, and, finally, Luke. (My friend Megan and her daughter Piper were there too, but we were chatting so much I didn't get any pictures when they were there!) Of course, they scorned my motherly and ER nurse advice to not start down the slide until the child in front of you gets off. What fun would that be?

It was a fun, low-key birthday party and the best part was seeing the perma-smile on Lydia's face the entire day. I can't believe five years has passed since I first held my beautiful baby girl. She came out with her eyes open and hasn't stopped observing and learning since. I love her imagination and her spunk, and she certainly knows what she wants out of life and isn't afraid to push for it. Happy early birthday my dearest Lydia Jannon!