Officially a Kid

Jill is five! Her birthday was last Sunday and it was was a great day. Bryan and I had been out the night before at her school auction and we brought back a bunch of balloons from the event. Jill was thrilled with them and the chocolate chip pancakes we had for breakfast.

After church, Jill skyped with Grammie and Pa. Then Bryan assembled Jill's birthday present in the basement. It was her first big kid bike. She loved it and was so brave on it. It has training wheels but she still took a couple of spills each time jumping up saying, "I'm OK! I'm going to try again!"

We spent an hour or two playing with the kids in the yard before enjoying the dinner and pink frosted chocolate cupcakes that Jill helped me make. Once we got the kids in bed, Bryan went out to brew and I stayed up getting everything ready for her party the next afternoon.

On Monday morning, per her class tradition, Jill got to bring a special snack to share with her friends (munchkins), and I was able to read a book to the class. Before I read, Ms. Pearson announced Jill's birthday and then had Jill hold a globe and walk around a model of the sun five times. After every turn, she asked Jill a question, "What did you learn when you were one?" "I learned to walk," Jill said. Jill knew this was coming so she had asked me all these questions over breakfast so she'd be prepared. "What did you learn when you were two?" "To color," Jill answered. The answers to three, four, and five were: "I came to the Yellow Room for the first time," "I learned to swim," and "I learned to ride my bike," respectively. While Jill did this I sat on the floor in circle time watching with her friends Brigitte and Helena. They whispered and chatted with me about the things Jill was saying the whole time. Helena said in wonder, "I don't know how to swim yet!" And I assured her, "Jill is still learning, too, but she took her first lesson when she was four." Those girls were so cute!

Next I got to read Jill's favorite book, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. The kids sat in rapt attention, inching closer to see the pictures. It was so nice to visit Jill's class like that. It's a wonderful environment and Jill was out of her mind excited to go through the birthday ritual there.

And finally... at four o'clock... was Jill's party! I tried to write that dramatically, because the kids asked me if it was four o'clock yet about two hundred times that day. Jill wanted a crayon and paper themed party. She had helped me, days earlier, put together pencil boxes as favors for her friends. The boxes had crayons, markers, stickers, pencils and a character eraser. Jill selected each item specifically for each friend coming. "I think Hannah likes Sleeping Beauty so let's give her this eraser. And she'll like this pencil!" She was so into the process and lined up the items in precisely the same order in every box.

I'd say she was kind of a nut about it, except that I stayed up until 1:00AM the night before cutting out pieces of construction paper to turn the party hats into crayon tips. A friend of mine asked if there was anything she could do to help with the party and I said, "Just this. Please, when you see them, tell me these hats look like crayons!" Of course the transformation had been lost on Bryan when he came in the night before.

In all 23 friends came to Jill's party. It was at Amazement and the kids had a blast. My very talented friend, Robyn, made a crayon themed cake and it was beautiful! As you can see, Jill loved it.

We had a WONDERFUL two days celebrating Jill's birthday. I am so lucky to have this beautiful, sweet, and funny girl as my daughter. And those characteristics are just the tip of the iceberg. We love you, Jill!