Elizabeth's 5th Birthday

Where does the time go?

Our little girl turned 5 last week.  I think she grew up a lot during her first year of preschool.  Her 4 and 5 year old picture make her look like such a little lady.  Apparently the 3 year old years are tough, as there isn't a big smile in that picture.  I did tell another certain 3 year old today (Grant) that I remember telling his sister at this age, "it is hard growing up" because we are really butting heads lately, but this is all about our princess - which was loosely the theme of her 5th birthday.  We did the kids birthdays a little different this year.  Instead of having one big party, we celebrated with a few smaller intimate parties.  

One of her 5 year pictures

Her first party of course included her best cousin, Stella.  We celebrated with the Pauli family in Florida (as mentioned in the Destin post).  The girls packed their princess dress up outfits and we had some plastic jewelry, a cookie cake and hey it was a party!

 The next celebration was a breakfast birthday at home with us.  Daddy went into work late so we could have pancakes together and open presents.  VBS was the night of her birthday so a breakfast birthday worked out perfect.  She got her first girl Lego set (Lego Friends), which mommy was super excited about!  Grant gave her a princess doll and a Palace Pet (per her request/idea) and daddy picked out some special sugar free bubble gum flavored gum.  She has wanted to chew gum forever.  I tried a few weeks ago and she wasn't swallowing any of her saliva and it was gross, but she insisted she wanted to try again and so I told her she could try on her birthday.  She got the hang of it!  Maybe she preferred this flavor over spearmint! Her big day  ended with the conclusion of VBS, a trip to DQ and a sleepover with Lauren.

The gum! Although she didn't know was it was when she unwrapped it!

They actually slept together all night!

The next celebration was the ladies lunch at Maria's.  Maria's is a little cafe in town.  Elizabeth thinks this is the coolest place to eat lunch because they put sprinkles on the applesauce and bring your drink in a teapot with a little teacup.  We invited her friend Lauren and her mom, Ima, Mimi and Aunt Sandy.  It was a lovely 2 hours with my daughter :)  Below was the outfit she wanted to wear.  The dress was her tumbling recital costume from two years ago, but we have worn it many a times for princess shindigs!  The Cinderella accessory pack (sold separately) just made it perfect!

Princess Elizabeth

Mommy & Elizabeth

The last celebration was with Ima & Pops.  Sticking with tradition, I had to make a cake.  Princess theme....castle cake.  The blue is the moat and the sprinkles are fish sprinkles.  Pretzel draw bridge and an ice cream turret = you got yourself a princess cake.  I am sorry to say this took me two hours.  I am not terribly proud of it, but of course everyone said it was great (they were being nice & Brandon liked the price ;) )

 Elizabeth got a  new bike.  It is a little big and she was a little scared to ride, but once she got started she was good to go!  It is light blue with purple accents and the cutest little bell - it is so her!

The birthday day cards this year came with great stickers and crowns!