Happy 5th Birthday, Julia!

I can't believe that Julia is five! - it seems like it was just the other day that I felt the fluttering excitement of discovering I was pregnant with my first child. It is amazing to contemplate the fact that I have now been a parent for FIVE YEARS. No longer a rookie, I suppose, although each day both girls certainly present me with unexpected surprises.

The birthday girl started the morning off with presents, followed by chocolate chip pancakes. Among her gifts were the coveted Rapunzel doll she has been asking everyone on earth for (which means I was secretly telling everyone on earth not to get it because I already had), the movie "Tangled," and some long-desired Littlest Pet Shop figurines. Poor Rapunzel has been forced to fight off a few unwanted advances by Madeleine, who seems to think it's her own birthday as well and that the gifts are really for her. While Julia has managed to (mostly) hold it together during her sister's attempted grabbings of her new toys, she did explode with this very clear and comprehensible statement in response to Madeleine touching Rapunzel, "MOMMY! I DON'T LIKE when things that I DON'T LIKE happen!!"

Madeleine was content enough to look through the Littlest Pet Shop brochure that Julia pulled out of the box to give her, which allowed Julia a chance to play with her new pets uninterrupted. As she ate her lunch, she played with her new figurines, and even took the time to give them names befitting ancient Roman emperors:


Sealius and Kittius

As is our birthday tradition in the house, Julia got to choose a fun family activity for the afternoon, and she chose a trip to Kids Fun Stop, just like last year. The girls had a ball, and were both too busy playing to stop and adequately pose for a picture for me:






Of course, no Julia birthday would be complete without dinner at Blue, her favorite restaurant, where she can get an exquisite, gourmet dinner of mac 'n cheese:



As a special surprise, our waitress arranged for her dessert to come with a birthday sparkler, which Julia was utterly terrified of (although she did smile nicely for a picture with her face a few feet away from her dessert):



Once the sparkler was extinguished, she was perfectly happy to put her face near her ice cream:


Vanilla ice cream and m-n-m's - Julia's two favorite desserts!

When Julia picked up her sugar wafer cone, she did exactly what any typical child would do with an ice cream cone: held it out to me and announced, "I'm going to take this cone home for Thanksgiving and it can be my CORNUCOPIA!":




HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my sweet Julia!