Maggie's Birthday

Last Saturday was Maggie's birthday (and yes, I'm just now getting this post up. Sorry). She turned 5 years old, which is a stop-you-in-your-tracks age. I haven't felt so gobsmacked by her birthday since she turned 1. I think it's because 5 is seriously no longer a baby. She's a child now, and in a few short months she'll even be a schoolgirl. Yikes! I remember being a bit boggled like this when our niece, Ana, turned 5 and started kindergarten. Like, What? That little thing? She doesn't even have any molars yet, does she? Oh, she just lost her front tooth? OK, I'm going to need to go lie down for a bit.

We actually started her birthday celebration last Thursday with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Sadly, every year, Mags' birthday falls at the beginning of a school vacation week for the entire state. In an overpopulated area like ours, it means that even a simple trip to the local King Burger indoor playground is a suicide mission. Forget darkening the door of any business or public space that is in any way attractive to children because it will be packed - PACKED - with wild, sugared-up school age children and their defeated, glassy-eyed parents. And that's on the FIRST day of the week. By Friday, it's a surreal animated Disney remake of Lord of the Flies. So I hustled the girls out to our desolate local Charles E. Fromage on the last day before the madness commenced. The girls played games, ate pizza, and writhed around in the e. coli infested climbing structure. They had fun and I watched them have fun. And no one got elbowed in the face by a 12 year old whose mother is hiding out in the ladies' room on her cell phone.


Monsieur Fromage


Kate is sitting on Maggie's lap. They were being very sweet to each other the whole time we were there, so great was their cheese induced joy.


Not smiling. She was having a good time. Really.


Also not smiling, although she rode this carousel at least 9 times in a row.


They are sitting inside of a simulator ride watching themselves flying with jet packs. They both studied this video with great intensity and did not crack a smile the whole time. They were having tons of fun. Honestly.

On Saturday, her actual birthday, we hit up a party store for balloons and other birthday paraphernalia before Gram and Grandpa came over for dinner and cake and presents.


With her balloons and princess party hat. She's getting so pose-y in her old age!


This is a good representation of the present opening: a blur of pink and wrapping paper and curly hair and Legos.


Busy, busy. Kate, in particular, loves that little car and the bunny family that goes in it.

And speaking of Kate... I wrote about how challenging Kate's birthday was for Maggie back in January. Maggie's birthday was no easier for Kate. And yet, I know she had a great time. Gram brought her a little stuffed cat that she has since named Baby Kwazii. And here are some photos of her roller skating with Gram and Grandpa (those are her pink skates from Christmas, but we got Maggie the green ones for her birthday, so Kate needed to get hers out, too).


Roller derby, here she comes.


She doesn't actually move her feet yet. She expects you to drag her around by her hands. So fun!

Maggie chose a nearby Thai/Sushi/Pan-Asian restaurant for her birthday dinner (no, really), so we gorged ourselves on dumplings, edamame, spring rolls, sushi (Maggie ate almost a whole California roll by herself), fried rice, sesame chicken, and pad thai. Then we went home for cake.


As requested, strawberry ice cream cake (pink). Plus pink candles.


Plus pink princess cups, pink princess plates, pink princess napkins, and her pink princess party hat. Noticing a theme?


Sunday was all Legos, all day long. She got tons of Legos this year, and she loves them! (So does Mike!) She's actually quite good already at putting them together. It's no surprise that she's good at following directions and spatial/visual info.


Most of the sets were from the new Lego Friends line, which is girly and pink and purple. She really likes them, but she specifically asked for this dinosaur Lego set! I was very surprised as it does not fit in with her usual sparkletasticness.


But then I saw this... Maggie's killer T-Rex apparently loves pretty pink bows. Of course she does. Who is this child and how can I possibly be her mother?

And finally, on Monday, Mike had the day off for President's Day. So we went to Barnes and Noble to redeem our coupon for a free birthday cupcake (bad idea: it was ridiculously PACKED, of course) and let Mags pick out a new book (Meet Smurfette, seriously? Oh well, it cost about $3). Then we did some shopping at Wal-Mart (thrilling and not packed. Weird, eh? Dorothy, we're not in Oklahoma any more) and went out for Mexican food at 5 pm. The early bird gets the beef enchilada!

So we had a great time eating cake and putting together Legos and roller skating in the living room. And this week we've been rearranging the play room and sorting toys and stepping on Legos and admiring her first ever Barbie. The girls and I now have a bad cold, so we're using the week off to chill out at home and read books and eat snacks and watch movies and practice our agoraphobia while Mike frets about a bunch of big projects at work that all landed at the same time. I guess that means we're pretty much back to normal.

I hearby declare Festivus 2011-2012 to be over. See ya'll next year!