A perfect gift for the birthday girl!

Curly celebrated her Sixth Birthday this week.  As a child, I remember being so excited for my birthday and the magic of that day!  As a parent, you hope that you can make your children's birthdays as magical as yours.  

As is tradition, Curly woke up to her birthday display and was very excited to open birthday cards from grandmas, and a few small gifts (a box of band-aids and a new bottle of Aqua-fresh toothpaste).  The toothpaste became even more exciting when she got to decorate it with stickers.  Curly also requested her favorite meals.  She chose sugar cereal for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch, and macaroni and cheese for dinner.  She did not want home made mac n'cheese- she wanted the boxed kind.  I can't decided if I should be offended that home cooked meals are not a favorite or just happy that boxed mac n' cheese is so out of the ordinary for her that it is a treat.  Either way, it made my life easy!

We told her that on her birthday she could do pretty much whatever she wanted.  She chose to stay in her pajamas almost all day and to go swimming.  Our trip to the pool was fun, but short.  After swimming for twenty minutes, the lifeguards all started tooting their whistles and holding two fingers in the air.  When everyone was out of the water, they announced that the pool was closed as there was an undesirable floater in it... so we collected our free swim pass and went home.  Lucky for us, our neighbors gave us permission to use their pool while they are on vacations, so we walked next door and finished our swim.

The finale to the day was the Birthday gift treasure hunt and Ariel birthday cake.  I think this was the first year that we actually got her exactly what she wanted and surprised her.  A week ago when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she began to describe an item that I soon deciphered to be a plastic sheet protector.  She and her friend Heidi each have a "binder" that they always take when they play.  I am not sure what they do with these binders, but their pretend play revolves around said item.  She wanted sheet protectors for her binder.  So I stealthily stole her binder, put in some sheet projectors, dividers, and a pencil pouch filled with her own tape, glue, mini stapler, paper clips, and sticky notepad.  I also added a mini calendar that had been kicking around the house for good measure.  Then Fisher wrapped it with his tasteful brown paper grocery sack stapled closed on top.

When Curly opened her gift, she was speechless for a few moments and as she began to discover the contents of the binder she said, "This....is....amazing!"

It was great!

Good morning Birthday Girl!

Decorated toothpaste - Who knew
it would be such a hit?

Curly and Heidi (the binder friend) with
soccer ball friendship necklaces
(a birthday gift)

Tummy time party

Birthday dinner

Happy Birthday Curly!  We love you!