She's Five?

Wow, how we've come this far so fast is baffling. Elle turned five today on 10-10-10. What an absolute joy she's been for us and we're so grateful to be this spunky little girls parents. Elle recently told me that her two favorite things are Annie and Shirley Temple. She LOVES to sing and sings along to the entire Annie soundtrack, insisting each morning that I "go for a little drive" after dropping off the big kids at school just so she can keep singing in the car. P.S. that shiner she's sporting in the picture is thanks to my makeup artistry.

Naturally she wanted an Annie birthday party which at first was easier said than done. After a lot of brainstorming we finally came up with as Annie of a party as you can get. We invited our guests come dressed as orphans. Elle and her friend Cali got especially into the whole "tough kid" role. ...It was pretty entertaining.

We started off the party watching a few of the songs from the movie and the girls were encouraged to act out the scenes. They had a bunch of fun jumping around like the orphans do. Then we played Ms. Hannigan Says (think Simon says), orphan-orphan Annie (duck- duck goose), had a gunny sack jumping contest and a sweep the balloon relay race.

Here they all are, the whole crew. The party favor bags (or Chinese take-out boxes rather) were so much fun for me to put together. We found feather boas, giant old fashioned lollipops, a little toy mouse (hamster?), and a classic Hershey's bar; along with very l-o-u-d party horns (my apologies to the parents).

This little girl was pretty lucky. At the last minute I sent out the call to two of my friends who happen to be excellent seamstresses. Could they make an Annie dress in less than one week? My friend Sabra came to the rescue. We bought the fabric Tuesday, and she handed me this dress on Friday. Awesome, and it made for one happy 5 year old Elle. Thank you! Oh and that white dog she's holding? She named it Sandy, of course. :)

Elle's other big surprise was that she'd mentioned wanting a Barbie Jeep for months now. Every time she talked about it I told her they were just too expensive. I did however begin to check the local classified adds just in case. I found one with a new battery but the owners warned it was very "well loved". When I arrived to pick it up I was pretty disappointed with how sun bleached and worn out it looked. The woman selling it caught a glimpse of some school fundraising coupon books in the back of my car and offered to trade the jeep for one. I agreed and gave her the one I had bought. Long story short. The little jeep got put through a restoration and redecoration and it turned out fabulous! She was so surprised which made it all worth it.

After these quick five years have flown by, I still cant help but think of this little one once in a while, and remember how not too long ago she was still my little baby.

Happy Birthday Beautiful!