Stuckey Rhymes with Cookie: Aubrey's 5th Birthday

My tiny little baby. My little mouse. On January 15, she turned 5.

Aubrey wanted a calendar in her room this year..."just like Tyler." She picked out a Disney princess calendar and was thrilled to have it hung in her room. She loved having this in her room, especially as she has been counting down the days until her birthday.

Aubrey loves to play pretend and a frequent theme over the past few months has been to play that we are married and have a (stuffed frog) son and a (Ariel doll) daughter. It is always some one's birthday and the parent (who is not having a birthday) gets up early to make a cake, put up streamers and get presents ready.

On the morning of her birthday, I woke up bright and early and went to pick up birthday donuts...with a quick stop for a few groceries, I rolled in around 7 am. She met me at the door, rubbing her eyes and asked "where are my friends?" I explained (again, as I had tried to prepare her) that her friends would not be here until Saturday for her party, Then, "where are the streamers?"

So, after a sleepy birthday girl ~~ate her donuts~~ licked the frosting off of her donuts, we hung streamers. :)

That morning, "hmmm, Mommy. I don't feel like I'm 5. I still feel like I'm 4."

Then later, "I feel like I'm 5, Mom! Now I'll sleep by myself!" (Of course she wasn't so excited about that sleeping by herself proclamation when bedtime rolled around).

I was home on her birthday, and between playing Frozen and trying to make her feel special, I tried to get things ready for her birthday party. She had a hard time waiting for Tyler to come home from school to open presents, so we let her open her present from the Showalters. She was in love and wore it all day. In fact, she told me she wanted to throw away the dress up dress we had gotten her for Christmas because she loved it so much. Silly.

She was equally thrilled when a handmade card from Jillian arrived in the mail that afternoon. Shrieks of joy.

That evening, we let her open presents from us.

Friday, she took cookies to school. I didn't take any pictures, but we just made some easy drop sugar cookies (that are quite yummy), I put some pink buttercream frosting on them and she put sprinkles on top. It was especially fun that she could help make them.

Saturday afternoon, we had a few of her friends over for a birthday party at our house, per her request.

I had asked Aubrey whether she'd like cupcakes instead of cake for her party. We picked out a Reese's peanut butter (chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling) cake mix. Later, she told me firmly that she wanted BOTH cupcakes and a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I don't remember asking her if she wanted any kind of theme, but on the day of her party announced she wanted a Frozen themed party - sorry, too late for that! I told Wayne that I feel like I burned myself out on decorating cakes when Tyler was younger. I went the easy route and just threw on some of her ponies (washed, of course). Sprinkles and edible glitter make everything fun, right? Sorry, Aubrey. Hopefully some day soon I'll get my motivation back. :)
I used an easy cake recipe, chopped up some chocolate to sprinkle on the frosting in the middle layer, and topped it with chocolate frosting.

(I took these pictures shortly before her friends arrived, because I was afraid I'd forget to take a picture after the party started).

A little less than an hour before the party, Wayne opened the front door, and the wind caught it and whipped it open, breaking the closer. (It snowed and was icy on Wednesday and on Saturday, it was around 60 degrees, but windy...what!?). He ran to the hardware store and was just finishing up installing the new one as the first guests pulled into the driveway.

I only had a couple of planned activities for the kids. The first was to have each child paint a picture with the first letter of their name. When I was prepping the letters/canvases for the party, Aubrey helped to pick the font for each person's letter which was especially nice when I could not decide. (We didn't like the same font for all of the letters).

I didn't think about taking pictures of the kids when they were all painting. Oops. Here are Aubrey and Tyler's finished products (paint dry and letter sticker removed).

Tyler was more thoughtful as he painted, and of course took a little longer than the younger ones.

Aubrey had a mix of friends from preschool last year (who she still enjoys playing with at school), preschool this year, and our friend's kids (who are her friends too, of course). She was nervous before the party of how to manage splitting her time with them. Early on, I saw her go sit behind the couch. As I tried to coax her out, she said she was trying to figure what to have her friends play. Oh my, she is growing up. I didn't expect her to worry about this stuff quite this soon. That quickly passed and the kids were playing nicely.

Excitedly watching the opening of presents.

They cracked me up. I didn't get any pictures with all of them looking at me and smiling, but I love it.

Then, they each decorated a cupcake. (I had made paintbrushes out of rice krispie treats too, but again, I forgot to take a picture. But, that's okay. Mine were not nearly as cute as the Pinterest ones I saw, so whatever). :)

Then cake and snacks.

It was a good day. :)

Today, Ted and Sue came down for lunch. We went to Lee's Chinese restaurant and discovered that Aubrey LOVES sesame chicken. (Tyler was not so thrilled as I let her try his dish which led to her pretty much only eating his meal instead of her own).

Sue had brought back the faces/masks that Aunt Isabelle printed at Christmas to represent our family in the family picture since we couldn't be there. Here, the kids were enjoying pretending to be Wayne and me.