A Big Girl

I find it hard to believe, but today is Blythe's fifth birthday.  She's five!  How did that even happen?  How did our wee Blythe suddenly become five?  She has been so excited for her birthday, telling me everything she wanted: she wanted to swim, a Rapunzel cake, and a horse pinata.  She had a long list of things she wanted by way of gifts.  The last time we went to Shopko, she told me she wanted "all the girl things."  There are lots of girl things at Shopko, and while she did get some of them, she certainly didn't get all.  This birthday is Blythe's golden birthday, but she hadn't requested anything really golden, so I didn't worry about it too much.  At the end of the day, however, Blythe said, "I didn't have anything golden!"  I had a response, however.  Blythe had a beautiful cake with Rapunzel's long golden hair.  Fortunately, she was satisfied.

At five, Blythe is as sassy as ever.  She's confident, graceful, lively, and smart.  She's beautiful, funny, and bossy.  She's imaginative, creative, and very, very bright.  She likes to dance, play, and swing, sing, do art, and tease.  She is determined and stubborn, and positively delightful.  She has grown three inches since her last birthday, and is long and lean. She has decided she wants to grow her hair long like Auntie Lala's, so she looks sort shaggy, but she is so self-confident, she doesn't even care. 

Rapunzel cake

Look at that long golden hair! 

In addition to cousins, Blythe invited four little girlfriends to come to her party.  

She led them around the yard flying.

I really tried to get a good picture of the girls.

Brandt photo bombed.

This one's better, except Cailin was only paying attention to Brandt.

Makenna in back.

Ashlyn, Shaylee, Blythe, and Cailin

Although I had thought we would swim, then do the pinata, then presents and cake,

Blythe insisted on doing presents first.

She hasn't developed a lot of patience yet, and she really, really, really wanted to know what everyone got her for her birthday.

So we did presents first.

This is the horse pinata.

Kila didn't like it--at all.

She barked and growled at it, and didn't want to get anywhere close.

Funny that the pinata is as big as the dog. 

Ashlyn and Shaylee

Ava

The boys played basketball.

They made lots of waves and noise and splashed a lot.

Brandt trying to catch up,

and on serious defense, working to strip the ball.

Brick hanging out poolside.

It's me, in the pool (and a picture!)

I've pilfered pics from Mik.

While the boys played basketball, 

the girls did cooking.

Cailin and Shaylee

Makenna and Cailin

Two pictures of Luke

Wow! A second picture of me in the same post!

Mikayla and baby Brick watching the action.

Someone was paying more attention than someone else.

Here are some pictures of pinata fun.  

And on to cake and ice cream.

The horse's head was pretty much all that remained at the end of the party.

I put it in bed on Kent's side, like in The Godfather.

We laughed and laughed when he removed the pillow and uncovered it.

Donovan and Collin wanted the balloons.

All the balloons.