FIVE - cont'd

Just when you thought you were done with the birthday talk, here we go again! After this one, I'm done. Promise! Five came and went. And guess what...I survived! Instead of my heart being in a thousand tiny pieces, it's only in about a hundred. Not that Towns' birthday is all about me, but I sure have had a hard time with it. Actually, I had a hard time with it until I realized that literally over night she's turned into my mini best friend. I think I can embrace this new age. I'm kind of digging it! We have fun conversations like she's a little adult, we plan outfits together because she wants to match me (right down to the gold Gap flip flops she had to have so we'd be twins), when I go to the store to get a Vitamin Water I know to get her one too because that's "our thing"...and just like I was so sentimental and distraught over accepting the fact that she was turning 5, I'll be even more of a disaster when she leaves this stage and enters the "don't talk to me in public" phase. I'm going to hang onto a good thing while I've got it. I didn't think I could possibly love her more, and then she turns into this brand spanking new 5 year old and everything changed. And hey, she's loving her new found maturity so much that all I have to do is mention the birthday fairy turning her back into a 4 year old and she'll walk a straight line til the cows come home!
(Look that one up in the Urban Dictionary, B...it's there! Ha!)

Monday morning when she woke up, she didn't let a minute pass before she remembered that I promised her make-up before school. Truth be told, I wasn't going to send her to school. Birthdays are so special to me that I wanted to spend every minute of the day with her. But give her the choice of being the line leader, wearing the birthday hat, and having birthday cupcakes for snack at school and I come in 2nd!
Not only did she get a little make-up, but she got to pick out a color for a quick homemade mani/pedi...

Lime green!
And I'm starting to get the feeling that that's the official pose when you're 5 and you're having your picture taken. Hopefully it won't last the whole year! Not quite used to the attitude there!

She had a few early morning birthday treats waiting on her...

Every morning I lay her clothes out on that little chair in our room. Right down to socks, shoes and a bow. She wasn't expecting the selection to be more than the usual! And bless her, she thought that's all she was getting for her birthday and couldn't have been happier.

Bebs and Daddy got a quick picture with her before they hurried out the door...



Then it was time for a candle in a bagel with strawberry cream cheese!

Cate and I sang Happy Birthday to her and she blew out her candle...

Buggy realized how much fun the process was...so we had to put the 5 in her bagel, light it, sing Happy Birthday to her even though it wasn't her birthday, and let her blow it out. That continued all day long. Maybe by next year she'll understand. And Towns was incredibly sweet about sharing her day!
They held hands and said the blessing...
(while I should have had my head bowed instead of taking pictures)

And after the morning rush, we finally made it to school...

(Side note: The shirt Cate is wearing is her treat from J when he came back from a business trip to Orlando on Sunday. She put it on that afternoon and didn't take it off until Tuesday morning. I tried. But some things just aren't worth fighting, you know? And of course, it thrilled her Daddy's soul!)

The birthday girl was super excited to get to school and see this...

And when it was snack time, I took cupcakes to her class. Talk about some happy children! You'd think I was giving them free college vouchers. Ok, that's something we would be excited about. But, apparently cupcakes do the trick for 5 year olds! I was hesitant to take something so ordinary, though. I kept asking myself what my crafty friend Andrea would do since she's the reigning queen of taking precious goodies to school. But a plain old cupcake was all I could come up with! Maybe I'll get a few pointers from her for next time.

I know I've told you countless times how much I love her class and her teachers. And I was reminded why I love it so much when Mrs. Glenda asked the class to bow their heads so that they could pray for Towns and thank God for her, as well as for the food they were about to eat. There really is nothing much sweeter as a parent than hearing that.

After snack, she got to pick a treat from the Birthday Box...

And before I left, I took a few sweet pictures of her with her friends...


I'm so thankful she doesn't mind loving on her Mama while her friends are around...

One day I'll miss that!

My dad drove up from Dothan to pick Towns up from school and take her to a birthday lunch. Her pick? Taco Bell! He was only here for an hour or so, but the girls loved every minute of it...

Towns and PawPaw are excited about the big birthday...


Everyone was a little upset about him having to rush off, so I had to bring out the big guns to get their minds off of it. Cupcakes and crafts! If you had to guess which of the two each child picked, you'd be correct if you guessed that Cate picked cupcakes...




And Towns picked crafts!

Being 5 opens a whole world of new things to learn...one of those is how to fold paper in half and cut it to make fun shapes!
I made the yellow birthday cake for her that really resembles anything but a birthday cake, but she got the idea and caught on quick...


Cate even tried her hand at it...

But I was pretty afraid of what those hands could do with scissors, so I was thrilled when Daddy and Bebby walked in the door with a cookie cake so that I could sneak them away from her!

Sunday afternoon, we went to our friend Gray's gymnastics birthday party. She had the cutest cookie cake to go along with the theme and Towns wanted one just like it for her big day. Who could say no to that? Sorry Amy!! We'll have a lesson in being a copy cat! :)

We let her pick a dinner spot and we were blown away by such an odd choice...the Mex! I'm kidding. We eat there approximately 7 times a week. Do the math.
With an order of cheese dip the size of Mexico itself on its way, these two were grinning ear to ear...

We had a fun dinner, but a certain blondie was dying to get home.
After waiting so patiently all day long, it was finally time to have a party!

I vowed not to give her a single toy. If you could see the girls' room right now you'd understand why! I wanted to give her something special that she could hang on to. Something that she'd have when she was older and could possibly pass down to her daughter one day. After spending an hour with the jeweler in town, I decided that an add-a-pearl necklace was perfect. They just so happened to have one with 4 pearls. So we bought a 5th pearl and had it wrapped separately so that she'd understand the concept of getting it added to her necklace since it was her 5th birthday. Much to my surprise, she really loved it! And when the jeweler made the comment that by the time it's filled she can wear it on her wedding day I wanted to faint all fall out right then and there. I'm just now learning to cope with 5. Can't really picture the wedding day just yet!!
Opening her necklace...

I think it's a keeper! I can tell by that smile...

Another first for her...

Her first Webkins!
A hot pink and orange weenie dog. Oh wait, what's the official name for it, B?! HA!
I think B might have been more excited about this gift...before they went to bed she spent a good hour or so on her laptop trying to teach Towns all about Webkins. I didn't buy it for her with that in mind. I just thought it was cute...and in the back of my mind I was thinking about how she's almost at the age where she can spend the night with friends. She's had a lovey she's slept with since she was a baby, and I thought she might like something a little more grown up to get attached to so she could take it with her to a spend-the-night party. Since she's that old and all now. Sigh...
She opened a few more gifts...

Including an art portfolio that B had to explain to her - and she was in utter disbelief that something so amazing could possibly be sitting right in front of her...

By this time, No Nap McClendon was on the floor using my foot for a pillow...

But talk of cookie cake had her back up and at 'em!
We lit 5 candles and sang to the birthday girl one last time...

Right before we had to relight them and sing to Cate...

And then light them again since Towns accidentally helped her blow out the candles when it was really her turn. And she says she doesn't need naps anymore. I beg to differ!
Thank goodness Towns is so patient and understanding with her!
We ate cookie cake until we were miserable, talked a little more about how fabulous it is to be 5, excused Daddy so he could get a tired Buggy put to bed, and took a few more pictures...



And then I crawled in bed with my birthday girl and we sang "You Are My Sunshine" - our favorite song - until she couldn't hold her little eyes open any longer.
Two days into being 5 and life couldn't get any sweeter!