Chloe turns 6!

Chloe turned 6 last Thursday. Am I really old enough to have a 6 year old?? I know Ben is, but I don't think I am! :)

Boy has it been a fun six years. This little ball of energy has brought so much life into our home. She always has something to say and always wants to be doing something. She is the world's biggest helper- I really do not think that any 6 year old does quite what she does. She truly is the second mom in this house. She can successfully get the babies out of their beds, put them in their high chairs, feed them a complete meal, change their diapers (no poopy ones, though and I don't blame her), buckle them in and out of their car seats, supervise them while I am occupied, reads books to them and plays with them and loves them like no one else. She recently sat next to Leah on a 2.5 hour car trip back from Portland and entertained her the entire way home. It was the best car trip with Leah to date!

She can pretty much do anything for Mitchell that he requests of her and although she gets tired of being his slave sometimes, she mostly is quite happy to oblige to his demands.

(I know what you all are thinking- if Chloe does all this, what do YOU do, Carrie?)

Some of her favorite things right now:

*School- this girl loves kindergarten. It is the best thing that has happened to her and she couldn't be more excited that it is every day. We got very nice reports from her teacher at parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago. She is doing very well academically and in the top reading group. Her only struggle is accidently blurting out in class rather than raising her hand (that came as no surprise to her parents). Her teacher said she loves to talk and needs to be reminded occasionally to get back to work, but other than that is doing great.

*Riding her bike- she loves to ride bikes, scooters and anything else that moves, especially since she learned to ride 2 wheels this summer.

*Loves to read and be read to. She is picking up new words daily and loves to sound things out and write every word she knows on paper.

*Loves playing with her baby sisters.

On Chloe's birthday, we started off the celebrating by going to Red Robin, Chloe's favorite restaurant. We all love that place, and it doesn't hurt that they give away free meals to the birthday person for their birthday.

Chloe ordered the mac and cheese and apple slices with a root beer. Cheesy smile for a cheesy dinner!

She and Mitchell were thrilled when they saw "Red" the bird coming around to pass out balloons to all the kids. Here is Mitch waving to him.

The waiters came and sang Happy Birthday to her at the end and gave her an ice cream sundae. She wasn't quite as embarrassed this year as she was last year, only because she knew it was coming this time. She still didn't make eye contact with anyone during the singing, though.

Notice Lexi and Leah's shirts- covered in mac and cheese sauce! Lexi's hair is even crusty and sticking out because she rubbed cheese sauce all over in it. Mac and cheese without bibs in a restaurant is very messy. (You should have seen the table). But they were happy.

Chloe got to hand out birthday "treats" at Kindergarten. They aren't allowed to bring in any food, so she took little Christmas erasers instead. Her teacher also made her this birthday crown to wear as well.

We headed upstairs to open gifts this year (instead of downstairs). This is what Chloe found waiting for her in the loft- her bed sheets covering her gifts.

Underneath (as you can see in the background) was a new craft table and storage drawer for all her crafts, paper and games. She loves coloring, drawing, cutting, painting and doing anything with paper. Inside the drawers of her storage bin were a few small gifts.

She loves it!

We decided to let Chloe have a friend party this year as well. She had one when she turned 4 two years ago, and I think once every other year is plenty (for me, anyway).

We hemmed and hawed over a good "theme" for the party- Chloe came up with literally 50 themes (most of them very random and off the wall). I finally suggested a Pizza Party theme and she loved it.

For the invitations, we went to a local pizzeria and got mini pizza boxes, then decorated the outsides of them.

Inside we put a paper pizza invitation

Our stack of pizzas ready to be delivered!

On the Saturday after her birthday, the 4th, we had her pizza party. Welcome to Chloe's Pizzeria!

Watching for the guests to arrive!

7 little friends came, plus Mitchell.

We started off by giving each girl her own individual mini pizza dough to make their own pizza just how they like it.

Everyone put cheese on and the most popular toppings were pineapple and pepperoni. I don't know why I bothered, but no one touched the green peppers or onions (except me).

While we were waiting for the pizzas to bake, the girls played "Pin the Mushroom on the pizza." After being spun around 6 times (one spin for every year Chloe is) the girls were a little off balance and some headed far away from the pizza with their mushrooms.

It was quite funny to watch each girl put the mushroom where she thought the middle of the pizza was!

In the next game, I timed each girl to see how quickly they could put a wooden pizza together, put toppings on it, then cut it apart.

We also played "I'm going to make a pizza and I'm going to put ____ on it." Each girl had to name a topping, then the next girl in line had to name all the previous toppings and then add one of their own, trying to remember what everyone had said. I told the girls they could use real toppings or non-edible ones. At the end, our pizza had onions, pepperonis, pineapples, an elephant and some hair, among other things.

FINALLY it was time to eat. And these little girls ATE. Wow- there was only 2 girls that didn't finish their pizzas.

Chloe opened her gifts next and got lots of cute, fun things. I love how excited each girl was when their gift was open and they'd yell "That one is from me!"

Before cake and ice cream, I had the girls do some jumping jacks and push ups to make room for dessert.

Cake time! Here is the "pizza" cupcake cake.

After eating so much pizza, I didn't know how well the girls would eat dessert. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but they ate and ate again. Lots of second helpings on ice cream and cupcakes. That's my kind of girls!

With just a few minutes left before their parents were due to arrive, we put on a Tinkerbell movie and the girls spread out and relaxed until their rides came. Notice the birthday girl plopped herself right in the middle...

We sent the guests home with mini pizza sugar cookies, and their left over pizza (which wasn't much). Chloe spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening playing with her new loot.

What a great 6 years it has been with our busy, beautiful Chloe. Happy Birthday to my BIG girl!