A Farewell to Preschool

This past week, we celebrated a proud day for our family. Emily has completed all the requirements to graduate from preschool. While her major was snacktime, she also excelled in many areas including pasting, color identification and playground physical science.

Emily's excellent teachers put together a cute program in which the kids participated to varying degrees (Emily had a touch of stage fright that day).

I dare you to find anything cuter than Emily's little class all lined up.

The highlight of the day was when Daddy gave Emily a rose. Since then she has been carrying it around the house, sometimes in the vase, sometimes out of the vase, sometimes singing to it, sometimes pretending it is the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast.

I'm not sure who will miss preschool more - Emily or I. We are so grateful that she was able to participate in such a wonderful program with her amazing teachers. I am excited for her to move on, but we will always remember preschool with a great deal of fondness.

Running with the Wolves

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm getting to the point where I kind of like to just ignore my birthdays, but I have a great family who makes sure that no birthday goes uncelebrated. Among many wonderful gifts, I received this fabulous card from my sister:

Finally, my invitation to join the Team Jacob elite in the form of a temporary tatoo. I couldn't resist.

The results were stunning. Now, for those of you who don't read my blog closely and would spread rumors: THIS IS A TEMPORARY TATOO FROM A GREETING CARD. I WOULD NEVER, NEVER, NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS GET A TATOO.

Okay, now that we're clear on that, I'll let you see how awesome I look:

Jealous much? Yeah, I thought so.

Number 5 is Alive

Yesterday Emily turned 5. I still can't believe it. My preschooler has been replaced by a ready-for-kindergarten five year old kid. In just a year, she's become big enough to buckle herself in the car, pay attention while I read her a whole chapter of a book, order for herself at a restaurant, read a book and (most importantly) ride most of the roller coasters at Disneyland. As hard as it is to say goodbye to all the cute baby characteristics, I must admit that I love all the things that Emily is adding to her resume.

You can't turn 5 without a little recognition. There's nothing Emily loves like a blowout party. Unfortunately for Emily, she has a mom who is not a big fan of party planning or large groups of children. So after a lot of negotiation, we pared the guest list down to a few kids and threw a simple party the Saturday before her birthday. Her chosen theme was Toy Story (changed from Princess so she could invite boys)

This cake was my first foray into fondant. Thanks to Chris' help, it turned out pretty well... for an amateur.

Here is Emily sitting and waiting impatiently for her friends to arrive.

Once they did arrive, we had a rousing game of pin the badge on Sheriff Woody.

*Note: The one on Woody's nose is Jane's. We didn't even blindfold her.
 
And then some pizza, from none other than...

Pizza Planet!

The pinata took quite awhile to crack.

In this shot it looks like Emily had just given the star its deathblow, but let me assure you that the pinata had been wounded for a good 10 minutes and was still a good 10 minutes away from meeting its demise. Oh, and just in case you're wondering... A mid-May birthday in these parts means you have to hit the pinata in the garage rather than the backyard. A tragedy... I know.

The party was actually a relatively mellow success, and none of my worst fears realized themselves.

The celebration continued on Emily's real birthday with presents galore.

I told Emily she could have whatever she wanted for dinner. Her menu: blueberry pancakes and bacon with beignets for dessert. She must have been carbo-loading for something, but I'm still not sure what.

Happy Birthday, five-year-old girl!