Happy 5th Birthday, Bree!

Five is such a big birthday! It's a whole hand and, in our house at least, is the first sign that kindergarten, and school, and all that big-kid stuff is at hand. Our second baby is five now...Bree has always seemed a little older than her calendar age, but still. Five is a big deal.

Bree....at nine days! Then at her first birthday party in Baton Rouge, right after her second birthday in Quantico, VA, then on her third and fourth birthdays in Emerald Isle, NC. This is one well-traveled little girl.

Throughout the course of Bree's life, she's had two birthday parties...since we've only twice been in a place where we knew people from the year before. This year was a family year, and it has been great! She had her first celebration last Wednesday with Uncle Pete and Aunt Amanda because they were going to be out of town this weekend. During the day, Bree and Carly got to go with Aunt Amanda's summer camp kids to the aquarium and then afterward we had an amazing pork sandwich dinner and a polka dotty confetti cake. Yummy! She is so loved and everyone has been very gracious to NOT sing her happy birthday because she doesn't like that very much.

 

This morning, our girl woke up to family presents! That dress in the background is from Oz the Great and Powerful (well, technically it's from the Disney Store) and our fancy princess wore it all day except for the hour or so we were at the library. She wore it TO the library, but it was getting to many comments and questions so we changed over. She did keep the shoes on, though.

 

I know, heels. But they're dressup shoes so they don't really count. =)

In the afternoon, MomMom and PopPop came over for dinner! Paul grilled up some chicken, and we all enjoyed a dinner the menu of which was all the birthday girl's choosing. She wanted that soft chicken on the grill, macaroni and cheese, peaches and a salad that consisted of croutons, black olives and salad dressing. No lettuce. No tomatoes, cheese, cucumbers...just croutons, olives and "dip." =) And a lemon cake.

 

This might be the second or third thing I've ever actually made directly from a Pinterest idea! So I googled a lemon cake recipe that turned out to be a lovely, dense cake with lemon curd and probably the best icing IN THE WORLD (lemon curd plus whipped cream...divine), made that in a rectangle pan because none of our circle pans made it to New Jersey...then covered it with some white Wilton pre-made fondant (which I still suck at) and then! They make food-safe markers! What??? So fun. Bree got to decorate her own cake with hearts, smileys, squares, an alien and a butterfly. Paul and I wrote notes...this is my favorite cake EVER.