Catching up...

Well, I meant to blog about Grace's birthday the whole time we were in Utah, but never got a minute to do it. Now, I'm behind on the whole trip and Easter too!

I will start with Grace's birthday. Turning 5 was a pretty big thing for her. She has wanted to go to school since we can remember. She has wanted to ride the school bus since we moved here and she saw the school bus picking up the kids across the street. Here, the bus comes right to your house! Turning 5 means that she is getting very close to this big fun thing. Kindergarten registration is this week!

Her 5th birthday was celebrated, um, 6 times. Celebration #1... She had a GREAT birthday party with some little friends. She invited 7 kids over from pre-school, church, and town. It was her first real birthday party with friends.
This is what they did at her "somewhere over the rainbow" party:
1- decorated their own puzzles to take home (along with a new set of crayons for each kid.)
2- had a treasure hunt to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
3- tried very hard to break her rainbow "5" pinata (see post below for pic), but eventually, daddy had to step in with the bat and break it to get the candy out
4- had pizza and rainbow birthday cake.

Grace was pretty funny. She insisted that I make her cake at home and buy ice cream to go with it. She helped me make it (which was why she wanted a home-made cake), but she didn't eat any of it. She didn't eat any ice cream either. Weird kid. At least she really liked her cake and her party. It was exhausting though. I thought after teaching 30-40 high school kids at a time I could handle 8 five-year-olds in my house, but I was WRONG. There is a big fat reason I never taught elementary school - I don't have those SKILLS! Still, it turned out pretty well and Grace had a blast which is all that counts. Grace's favorite present: the wii game "MaterNational" which is a Cars racing game. She's playing it right now.Celebration #2... we failed to mention that we had Grace's party on David's birthday, so after the party, we went out to celebrate with Daddy. Grace and David wanted to go candle-pin bowling so that's what we did. Then we came home to have some good soup and more presents for Daddy. Daddy turned 33. Good number.

Celebration #3... took cupcakes to pre-school so she could have a snack-time birthday party at school.

Celebration #4... went out to dinner with her friends at McDonald's after dance class on the day of her real birthday.

Celebration #5... move the party to SLC! We left the day after Grace's real birthday. Last year we went to SLC for Hattie's birthday, so we figured it was only fair to go for Grace's this year. We had our first party there with David's family. Grace and Grandma made cupcakes and they all gave her a very nice party with presents and good food. Grace requested salmon and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner.
Celebration #6... have a party with Aunt Jessica at my parents' house. Jessica's birthday is 3 days after Grace's, so we were in town for it. We wanted Grandma Primmer to come and make it a three-some since her birthday is 2 days later, but things didn't work out for her to make it. Grace and Aunt Jess had a great little party with a Tinkerbell cake and, of course, lots more presents.

Even Grace was tired of having birthday parties after it was all over.
Well, Gracie, you're officially 5 years old! Watch out for big girl stuff!!!