Andrea had a crazy birthday last weekend, starting with a Pirate birthday party with friends on Saturday. She had been so hyper all week just counting down the days. I tried to calm her excitement by putting up a new pirate decoration each day, or letting her help prepare an activity for the party. But I don't think she ever thought my plans were adequate for what she had planned in her mind as a huge party.
She spent a couple days hauling around her Lego Barbie set in the pirate cupcake holder and I was just hoping it would hold together by the time her party actually came.
I allowed her to invite five friends since she was turning five, but we compromised on six when we factored in cousins. She invited Brigitta, Roland, her cousins. Ryan's cousin Rusty, his girlfriend Crystal, and his daughter Cambria where able to make it from Draper. She also invited Taylor, her friend from swim lessons, and Emyli, and Addy, her friends from church/preschool. And I was so thrilled all of them were able to come because she was pretty concerned that not everyone would be able to come.
We started out the party with bandannas and eye patches and played hook the pretzels on your pirate hooks. But of course some of the kids figured out how to cheat pretty quickly and would just scrape the pretzels out of the bowl instead of actually hooking them.
Next we opened presents and she got some great and thoughtful presents from her group of shy buddies. After eating pizza the kids got to go a treasure hunt that ended up with a treasure of party favors. Of course the cheap fans were ripping, and everyone traded different color necklaces, but, hey, that's just how it goes.
After Andrea's party and some relaxing time with Rusty, Cambria, and Crystal we headed into Salt Lake to with Grandma and Grandpa Lee. They wanted to take Andrea to dinner, and Ryan and I wanted to take Andrea to Build-a-Bear which was our gift for her. I think she liked it as much as we hoped. Of course she said "yes" to everything... "Do you want your dog to have a scent?" "Do you want to add a sound to your dog?" Plus not only did she pick out an outfit and shoes she also suckered Grandma and Grandpa into buying a dog bed and pillows for her pup.
This was her kissing the heart before putting it in the dog.
And giving the dog a shower
She named her dog "Tessy", I know what a sweet girl, and this pup actually carries another baby pup in his mouth and the baby's name is "Dolly". It's a little strange hearing things like "do you know where Tessy is" in our vocabulary again! She even took Tessy with her to the doctor to get her five-year-old shots to help her be brave.
Andrea got to pick where we went to dinner, and she chose Cracker Barrel. I'm pretty sure her motive was to pick out another prize in the country store while we were there. But when the waitress found out it was her birthday Andrea also got to pick a free dessert. She picked a strawberry sundae, and as you can see she wore her eye patch all day.
The next day on her actual birthday it was stake conference so we stayed home and played. Andrea and I worked on her birthday cake and we all played with her new toys. That night after dinner we invited both sets of grandparents over for cake and ice cream.
Then the next day was my day to volunteer in Andrea's preschool class, and it worked perfect since I could bring treats for her birthday. She got a special birthday hat, five hugs from her teacher, and got to pick two prizes from the prize bag. She has the cutest preschool teacher, Mrs. Christensen, and I've come to appreciate her even more since I've been there on Mondays.
