Birthday Girl!

 
The tale of our birthday girl really started last night -- or rather yesterday morning.  Before school started for little miss Kindergarten, I took Jane {and Alex} with me to Old Navy to let her help pick out some new clothes for back-to-school and her birthday.  As the last week of getting dressed for school has gone by, I've noticed and come to the conclusion that all of her clothes are REALLY shabby.  And stained and worn and (in some cases) falling apart.  I guess that's what happens when you're the third girl in a row to wear something!  Hahaha.  Needless to say, a few new things were in order for my cute little Kindergarten girl.  

She FELL IN LOVE with this polka-dotted peplum top and these leggings at Old Navy yesterday, and when I went to check on her last night before going to bed, I saw that she had carefully laid them out over the railing of her bed. Which is where she put things these days because she's super freaked out that ants will crawl over them if she lays the clothes out on the floor.  Hahahaha.

I was a little worried that today would be a bust for her because we weren't planning on doing a full shebang birthday celebration until her friend party in a couple of weeks.  {Which I haven't technically started planning yet.}  When she woke up this morning, I soon found out that she was fully expecting to be able to open her presents and have us sing happy birthday to her before the day was out.

I managed to appease her once the older kids were off to school by taking her to Target and letting Alex pick out a present for her and giving her the go-ahead to get some candy while we were at the check-out as well.  It sufficed!  Hahaha.

About halfway through the afternoon, I made the executive decision to make the most of her birthday day, and decided it would be easiest (and possibly funnest) to go out to eat for dinner.   Panera seemed like a great choice and it would even allow for her to get a cupcake so we could sing to her at the end.

It was only the funnest option in theory.  In actuality, EVERYONE was a little out of sorts this afternoon/evening thanks to late nights all around, and the drive TO Panera featured a knock-down-drag-out-fight amongst certain older children in the back seat and our ARRIVAL at the restaurant was not much better.  I think that hunger and fatigue are the worst possible combination of being for my children.  Once food was being shoveled into faces, everyone was MUCH more pleasant and in the end, I think everyone was glad we went.  Especially after I let them all pick out a treat with Jane's cupcake as well.

She came home from school with this cute little birthday crown from her teacher.

Mac and Cheese!  Her favorite.  :)

Once we were home, we lit some candles, sang to the birthday girl, and gave her the present "Alex" picked out at the store this morning.  All she's been wanting for her birthday for months now is an Elsa doll.  Hopefully this miniature one will be enough to make her happy until her "real" party.  :)

And that is a wrap! I can't decide yet if I'm thanking goodness that tomorrow is Friday or not.  Time {and the kids' weekend behavior} will tell.  Hahahahaha.  Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.  :)