Princess Ava is 5!!!

Ava turned 5 last Tuesday, April 6th! She had a fabulous day, felt so loved...she enjoyed the entire "1 whole hand" experience!

Above, Princess Ava is dressed in her fancy twirly skirt and her Princess Presto shirt. Princess Presto is one of the "super readers" on Super Why, a PBS show for children....it was fun to have 2 princess parties in back to back years, yet have them be SO different!

Below, is a collage of Ava's morning--remember, you can click on the collage to see the photos bigger. There is the traditional "wake up in the morning" picture on the upper left as well as random photos of Ava with the girls. The big girls got Ava a snow globe of a ballerina--something she had picked out in a catalog and thought I would never buy her. She also got her very own sleeping bag (princess, of course)...very timely for our spring break trip! She immediately asked us if she could sleep in it that night (this is 9am when she asked) and then after dinner, we were in the van and Ava said "Dad? Is your answer still "yes" for me to sleep in my sleeping bag?!" Such a sweetheart.

The "cake".....consisted of a tower of cupcakes--they were rainbow (see the upper right corner) with a gigantic amount of pink frosting on them. Each cupcake for the party guests had a take home ring with a Super Why character on it. There were also 5 random cupcakes for the candles to be blown out. Yum....the birthday girl doesn't like cake, but she really loved the frosting! ☺
The party....we invited all the preschool friends and the got to: make pretzel/chocolate wands, make a crown, make a princess necklace, eat, and play games....2 1/2 hours of pure fun. It was fun and Colin slept for almost the entire party! When he woke up the girls were playing musical chairs and duck duck goose...and Colin jumped right in and sat in the middle of the duck duck goose circle!

Eating at the party:
The many faces of Colin on Ava's birthday--since we have removed the paci from his life, his vocal expressions have been taken to a whole new level of happiness/volume! ☺
And Ellie and Jayna.....we couldn't have pulled off the party without them. They were FABULOUS helpers...we had a lot of fine motor stuff to do in a small window of time...it took Andy and I AND the 2 big girls to keep things moving. They were such a blessing and loved every minute of it!
And finally.....birthday supper. Ava said "I want BBQ pizza from Luigis." We were all set to order one to be delivered and then we'd just make a safe pizza for Ellie. I made this comment to Andy "I wish so badly that we could just go eat there--to not mess up our house, to just sit down as a family....but no, we can't because of the milk allergy. But it's ok....you have a job and that's more important than being able to eat at a cheezy joint anyday.....". Andy then got on the phone, called up our favorite cheezy joint and explained our situation. Turns out, the spaghetti is safe for Ellie! I took many deep breaths and then said "Let's do it!" We ordered her the regular size spaghetti (her favorite meal!) and what do you think? Do you think she liked it?!?!?!?
It was a VERY fun day....and when it was over, we switched gears again, to pack for our Spring Break trip, which started the next morning!