Chloe is 5!

Chloe turned 5 yesterday and I'm still in a little bit of shock. Am I really old enough to have a 5 year old? (I know Ben is....) And where have the 5 years gone? We were so anxious for her to grow up and do new things all the time and reach new milestones, but the faster time goes, the more I wish it would slow down. You only have one oldest child one time and she is getting way too old much too quickly. I may have two new babies in the house, but my first baby is now 5 and I can't believe it.

And boy was this little girl excited for her birthday. We are just starting to learn the concept of time and for months before her birthday she kept asking, "Mom, when is my birthday?" My replies of "In 2 months" or "In 2 weeks" really made no sense to her and she was so glad when my response to her ever repeated questions was, "Tomorrow!"

The day before her birthday was a preschool day and her teacher lets the birthday kid bring a treat to share with everyone and makes them a birthday crown to wear. She was just as excited for this day as she was for her actual birthday!

We made cupcakes in ice cream cones for her class, and Chloe was very concerned about which kids would want which color of ice cream cone (I would have done all the same color if I had enough). Finally, after pondering this perplexing dilemma for quite some time she announced, "You know what? I will just tell the kids, 'You get what you get and you don't throw a fit.' " (Yes, we tell her this often). I don't know how it all went with who got what color at school, but I'm sure if Chloe announced her little statement, it was probably fine!

The Birthday Girl in her birthday crown, eating treats at school. (I do notice in the picture that Chloe got a pink ice cream cone and there were only 4 pink ones to go around for a class with 8 girls in it... I guess she didn't throw a fit over what she got because she got what she wanted! Oh well, she IS the birthday girl!)

To make her day special, we decided to take her out to eat for dinner. Usually we stay home and either make pizza or order it in, but we knew Chloe would be thrilled to be going out, especially to Red Robin. She loves that place, not because of the food, but I think because of the red bird and balloons. She is always asking if we can go there.

Chloe kept asking me during dinner to ask the waitress if they did something for birthdays. I asked the waitress and she said yes, they did do something for birthdays. A few minutes later, a crew of waiters and waitresses came out with balloons and a sundae to sing to the birthday girl. If any of you know Chloe, you know she gets embarrassed easily by people she doesn't know and putting her on the spot. Below I posted a video of her being sung to. Notice in the video as soon as she sees everyone coming to our table, she snaps her head down and pretends she doesn't see (or hear) them and intently colors her menu. When asked her name, she merely whispers it. She quickly takes the balloons, then she's right back to her coloring as if no one is there. It was pretty funny.

We had a great time eating out (our first time eating out with all 6 of us). Alexis slept the whole time (naturally) and Leah decided to be a little dramatic for the first few minutes, then calmed down right as the food came (and right after she filled her pants) and was happy the rest of the time. We only had one typical twin/big family comment on "wow, you've got your hands full," which is a record.

Back home to open presents. She got so many wonderful things from everyone- thanks to all who sent such thoughtful gifts. I have never seen her so excited for presents- she kept saying over and over, "Wow, that is JUST what I wanted!"

The Sisters

The gang

So..... the stressful part of the day. We decided on a chocolate cake (I say "we" because Chloe changes her mind every ten minutes when asked what kind of flavor she wants of things so I "helped" her decide on chocolate, for personal reasons). Anyways- I made the cake mid-morning on Wednesday and when I took it out of the pan, it fell apart immediately. It would have taken 6 tubes of frosting to repair that damage, and I had no other fudge chocolate cake mixes in the house, so I had to pile all 4 kids in the car and make an emergency run to the grocery store for a $1 cake purchase. It is times like this that I wished I had a live in nanny to watch the kids so I could make a 5 minute run to the store really last 5 minutes.

The second cake came out of the pans well, but when I went to frost it, it pretty much crumbled like the first cake. I didn't have time to do anything else, so I used more frosting than should be legal and threw a candle on it. My poor children and their sad cakes. I am no Cake Boss, for sure, and I will never be invited to be on The Ultimate Cake Off, but it was quite tasty and Chloe was so distracted by all her great gifts that she really didn't even notice (she was so full from dinner that she didn't even eat any, either. I, on the other hand indulged to make up for the stress of making it).

We had to light the candle twice so brother could blow one out too.

Happy Birthday to our grown up little girl! Kindergarten, here we come!