Five years old!

Our girl turned 5 two Saturdays ago! I can't even fathom how this has happened since I was just slouched on our sofa in San Diego with newborn-Gracie propped up on my knees, but she has been waiting for this day pretty much since she turned 4. :) So you can bet we had a countdown going for at least two weeks before.

The day before we asked her what she wanted for her meals (we opted for a "family party" this year so we wanted to be sure her whole day was fabulous) and she had very specific choices--including drinking juice at two meals. I could tell she felt pretty awesome being able to request that. :)

When she woke up in the morning she was just giddy. We started off the day with blueberry pancakes and milk, per her request, cooked by Daddy. Then he left to help with a move and she told him, "When you come back, you miiiiight see lots of celebrations!" (Celebrations=decorations.)

I hadn't actually planned to decorate (is that terrible?) but she was so excited about it that I dug through our everything-closet and unearthed some streamers and balloons. She wanted to help with the decor:

When Steve got home we all piled into the car and hit the Y for some swimming. We haven't been much this summer, so the kiddos were pretty excited to be water babies for a while. We hung out there for about an hour, letting the birthday-girl get her fill, and then headed home for lunch, which was also just as the princess had requested:

Jam sandwiches (no peanut butter), blueberries, and juice.

It's hard to give your mom normal smiling faces when you have to do birthday poses.

She was pretty happy about the Happy Birthday sign, and struck many poses with that as well. :)

She also wanted a photo with Ellie-Brons (her most favorite elephant), and Pascal/Pasqual (the tiny green thing in her hand).

We tried to wait for Charlie to get up from his nap before she opened her presents, but Gracie had been up for an hour already and she was just dying of curiosity. So we let her go at it without sibling interference. She even took time to look at the cards, which I thought was impressive. Then again, she is five, as she kept reminding us. (And five means very, very grown up.)

We enjoyed dinner ("cheesy pasta" aka Annie's Mac and Cheese, watermelon, and more juice!) while watching a feature film of her choice--The Little Mermaid. Eating with a movie on, and not having to share movie-choosing rights with her brother were both great birthday coups for this girl.

And then it was time for cake--Charlie thinks birthday means cake. It is pretty important.

There was a bit of discussion about what kind of cake Gracie girl wanted. She was concerned at first with what her friends might like if they came to a party, so she started off asking for an elephant and then changing to a princess cake "because [her] friends like princesses." I told her they could have princesses on their birthday cakes, so she switched back to an elephant. Imagine her delight when I told her she could have it any color she wanted!

Obviously she chose pink frosting.

She also wanted strawberry cake, so her Daddy whipped up a strawberry elephant cake with pink frosting and a sprinkle-smile. 

She wanted to eat the whole head (there was a chocolate chip eye on there, too) so we gave it to her sans trunk (to keep the sugar high slightly at bay). It was a big hit--she especially thought the ear was very cute--and she named it Emma after her largest stuffed elephant. :)

Happy birthday baby girl!