Melinda's 5th Birthday

Well, my baby girl is 5 years old, now. I wish I could say I was feeling more profound or poetic about it, then I could write something really nice and sentimental. But quite honestly, it was a day like any other day, only with a headache, not enough sleep, and particularly troublesome children. My most profound moment was when I was laying in bed, unable to fall asleep, feeling rather incredulous that 5 years ago at that same moment, I had been in labor for the very first time. That was a very odd feeling.

And although Melinda is the instigator in sizeable portion of the problems that we experience day-to-day, the truth is, she is my "right-hand man". She's such a big helper around here. Sometimes I think half the reason she's not in a preschool right now is because I'm afraid of what would happen if I were to go a full day without her to around home to help me out. She loves to learn and play, to feel free and uninhibited. She loves any grown member of the female population, perhaps to a fault (she latches on to unfamiliar women instantly, all it takes is to look friendly to her or be a mom). She loves playing the part of big sister, entertaining the younger kids. She's strong-willed and reckless. She's also artistic and imaginative. She doesn't name her animals or dolls, and rarely plays "princess", but adores playing in the mud and getting dirty, participating in sports, and playing any sort of video game she can get her hands on. When she dresses herself, she invariably picks stripes and more stripes, with polka-dots coming in a close second. She doesn't like to wear things in her hair, and prefers cutting it short so it's easier to take care of. She can't stand getting water in her eyes, but could stay in a pool or bathtub all day if allowed to. She makes big noises and big actions to evoke a response from everyone around her, never seems the least bit shy, and her eager laughter can make you think that everything is right and wonderful in the world.

I spent my morning baking a cake and cleaning up the kitchen. In the early afternoon, we went out to a couple dollar stores to see if there was anything that Melinda wanted to buy with her birthday money from Grandma. When we couldn't find anything just right (we were really hoping for a hula hoop), we decided to go enjoy some Italian Ice at Rita's instead. Melinda made a mix of Cherry, Lemonade and Mango. And complained several times of something I imagine was probably brain freeze.

Just as we were heading home, Jesse called to say that he was heading home. Yay! He's been so busy with work this week, it was nice to hear he was coming home early. I had told the kids that as soon as we got home, they had to clean up - the front room and playroom were both an absolute wreck, and it was making the whole day more grumpy for everyone. So when we all got home at about the same time, Jesse graciously helped them clean up while I moved on to cake decorating.

Melinda had decided a while back that she wanted a bird on her birthday cake, so I designed a bird sitting on a blossoming tree branch for her. The frosting, combined with the heat and humidity, didn't hold it's form very well, but I think it still turned out pretty enough.

Once it was finished being decorated, we headed out to the Rainforest Cafe to have a birthday dinner. Alex was big enough to sit in a high chair without any assistance this time! He spent almost the entire dinner just looking around, trying to take everything in. The thunderstorms didn't phase him, and Melinda was full of a million questions about why this animal did move, but that one didn't, and why did the gorillas shake the tree that way, what were they saying? And so on. Melinda and Jacob both chose to have mini cheeseburgers for their meal; Melinda with carrot sticks and ranch on the side, and Jacob with standard fries and ketchup. Jesse and I shared a big appetizer plate, and I got a ceasar salad as well, since I felt like I was starving. Melinda had really wanted to get a Volcano for dessert ... is it really awful that we talked her out of it? I don't think it is. She looked real pouty for a while. We explained we had cake and ice cream waiting for us at home, and would she rather have a volcano, or the pretty cake mommy just finished decorating? She compromised - I'll have the volcano now, and the cake when we get home!! Uhhh... no. Finally she gave in to just having cake at home, phew. But our lovely server brought us a couple balloons for Melinda and Jacob to enjoy.

Once home, it was present time!!

I love how she sticks out her tongue and really gets into it! It's not easy to unwrap a large box with cellophane and a sheep wrapped around it, either. But she did it, without any help!

It's a dollhouse!

She really was excited about the barbie + little girls to go with the dollhouse... this was just poor picture timing. She told me that her friend Ella has this same set, which makes it cool, I guess? Eventually we'll get a boy doll so the family has a daddy, but this was enough to get started with.

We ate cake and ice cream while Jesse put the dollhouse together. Here's the cake with lit candles! Melinda had a hard time blowing them out, and Jacob couldn't resist helping. But eventually, the job was done!

After daddy spent forever putting this monster of a dollhouse together, Melinda (and Jacob) finally got to play with it!

And finally, it was time for bed. That part couldn't come soon enough. I was feeling exhausted since about 5pm. Unfortunately Alex had different ideas than I did about bedtime, but at least once the kids were in bed, things were calmer and quieter.

Today, Melinda had a hard time understanding and accepting the fact that once you turn 5, you can't just run off to Kindergarten. You have to wait until the next school year. Big sigh. She's so eager to go to school.