{A Fifth Birthday Party}

It's been a week since Merrill's fifth birthday party, kinda poor blogging turn-around on my part, but honestly I think I needed the week to recover!  (not to mention the fact that I spent time this week putting together Merrill's thank you notes, Teddy's birthday invitations as well completing a couple of projects for my nephew's birthday party today and of course all of the daily 'stuff' that comes with a family of five).  So, that's my excuse :).  It was a fun party (three hours of semi-controlled chaos as I was fond of saying.  I like to think that a party full of 3-6 year-olds is enough to wear any mom out) -- Alice In Wonderland themed.  Better than the cake, the decorations, the activites, was the smile on Merrill's face the whole day.   

It amused me greatly to open the fridge the night before the party and see the Cheshire Cat grinning out at me.  I learn more and more each time I attempt these cakes.  I'm slowly getting better.

The finished cake.  I joked several times that weekend that someday I'm going to just bake a 'regular' cake again.

...and cupcakes to represent the rose bush in the Queen of Heart's garden

The March Hare come to hang out too

Before the chaos :)

Cheese and tomato 'mushrooms'

Alice even came to the party!

In the mad-hatter's workshop making hats

Story time

Painting teacups and mushrooms (and a couple of cupcakes).  It is AMAZING what a craft like this does for the kids.  So much calm and concentration -- for the boys, the girls, the little kids, the big kids, the energetic kids, the quiet kids -- instant calm.  

I loved this mushroom painted by one of the guests

After that, the kids were ready to move again!  Time to swing and enjoy some water play outside in the 'pool of tears'

Then on to pin the crown on the Queen of Hearts.  Millie made the Queen for us.  I absolutely love it.  She also did a great Cheshire Cat to put in the tree outside, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it.

Time for cake!

So many smiles -- I love it.  Though, I will note that we couldn't find Millie when it was time for cake and she missed the singing ... she was not smiling.  Mommy fail.

The chaos of present time...

A friend and I were joking that by the time my kids are 16 they are going to expect an MTV style party :).  I think we may be adopting another friend's tradition of a friend party every other year.  Not that I don't love doing this for my kids, but well, it may be a little much.  It's hard to not just go all in though -- especially when surfing the internet and Pinterest for ideas.  Although I do also think, how many times are we going to get to do this for them?  Eventually they aren't going to want all of the party games and family around -- they are going to want to hang with their friends.  So, maybe it's okay for now.  

Cousin Swap

On Friday, my sister took Merrill to the American Girl store for lunch and to pick out a birthday gift and Charlie and Peyton stayed here to play with Millie and Teddy.  I think everyone really enjoyed the swap!  Millie had fun doing nails with Peyton while Charlie and Teddy played kitchen and trains, then we all headed outside to enjoy the mild temperatures.  Merrill of course had a blast with Lauren and really enjoyed her special afternoon out.

of course Teddy did not want to be left out of the fun ;)

Peyton's pretty nails

Soup train

opening and closing the oven door was pure entertainment for Charlie

Teddy was having a hard time keeping his shorts up!

Merrill was all smiles at the American Girl Cafe with Josephina -- Thanks, Lauren!

Turning Five

We had a lot of fun celebrating Merrill's fifth birthday on Wednesday.  Scott and I planned a few surprises for her, so while she woke up very excited for it to be her birthday, she didn't know what we were going to do.  Her day started out pretty normal -- play with Millie and Teddy followed by swim lessons.  Lauren, Peyton, and Charlie met us up at swim lessons and then came back to the house for lunch and Merrill's first birthday surprise -- cupcakes from a local bakery.  Millie was excited to help with that surprise.  After cupcakes Merrill got to open her gifts from the family and spent much of the afternoon playing with the gifts she received.  Dinner time brought the big surprise -- dinner downtown followed by a baseball game.  It was a perfect night for a baseball game -- beautiful, clear, cool weather.  That being said, it was a night game so it was a late night, which always makes things a little difficult (and we didn't even stay for the whole game!); our seats were literally the last seats at the top of the stadium, which, while they were right behind home plate and very good seats in some respects, I think being that far from the game can make it harder for the little ones to pay attention; the kids were VERY wiggly -- I don't think any of them sat still for more than 2 minutes at a time, Scott and I could only take being climbed on for so long :).  We made it to the bottom of the 6th I think -- it was already almost 10:00 by then though, it was a bit of a drawn out game!  We did enjoy ourselves, just in different way than going to a game without little kids :).  

 a sucker AND a cupcake ... geez, my mothering prinicples are really starting to slip ... (the sucker was from swim lessons, the cupcake was a surprise and we all split the cupcakes and had half each ... I'm trying to make myself feel better here...)

 So happy to be 5!

 trying to figure out how he can get more cupcake ... oh, just ask Millie fora bite of hers (and be really persistent!).  

It was Star Wars night at the stadium, which didn't really mean much except that there were random Star Wars characters that showed up on the field from time to time

sporting new Cards gear -- another surprise for the evening