Five!

5 years ago my baby girl was born.

5 years ago I became a mama.

And though it is becoming an annual tradition for me to lament about how sad I feel on Lucy's birthday because time is passing too quickly and my baby is growing too big, I think I'll mix it up this year and just focus on the lovely lady who is now a "whole hand"- that's right, 5 full fingers.

The birthday extravaganza began on Friday at Lucy's school.  She was the Little Miracle and got to wear a special birthday crown.  And she also got to bring a special sugary treat- strawberry, marshmallow, donut-hole kabobs!

For her party this year, I decided to go easy on myself and keep it small and simple. 

We invited three of Lucy's closest friends to come over for a Barbie themed party, and Lucy requested that they all dress in formal dress-up attire.

My mom was here visiting this week, and she was a big help in the party-planning.

And Aunt Merry made a masterpiece of a birthday cake.  Seriously, it was a work of art- the photos don't quite do it justice.  And it was yummy too!

And we did some finger-nail painting.

And Lucy opened gifts,

while the rest of us politely watched,

except for Max, who was all up in Lucy's personal space, trying to help her unwrap the gifts and trying to get his hands on all of Lucy's loot.  Finally Lucy made it clear, "Max! I don't need your help!" And with that, Max swung his arm and landed his hand open-palm right across Lucy's cheek.  It was like a scene from a movie- the open-palmed face slap, with the perfect slap sound.  The room was silent.  If you've ever parented in front of a crowd, you know that it isn't an ideal situation.  I wasn't sure what to do- remove Max from the room and discipline him, or give Lucy a big hug and make sure that she is okay.  So I just grabbed both kids, told Max that he was in trouble, and then said, "Oh, how I wish I'd caught that on video!"  It was so appalling and awkward that it would have made for great home-video footage so that years from now we could watch it and say Remember when Max slapped Lucy across the face on her 5th birthday while she was opening her gifts?

Once everyone recovered from the face-slap incident, we ate some lunch and cut into Barbie's gown.

The birthday girl had a great day, surrounded by some of her favorite people.

And she enjoyed all of her gifts, and even shared them with her brothers.

And once daddy came home from work, Lucy's fabulous day was complete!