Happy Birthday to Anna!

Last week was Anna's 6th birthday. 6 is good, but it's also weird. She's like a full-blown kid now. She has left the toddler years far behind and is using words like "prevent" and "voluntary" all the time. She also corrected herself on the pronunciation of the word "invitation" last week, which is one of the words I was hoping would stick around for a while because she said it with a B: inbitation. So cute.

Anyway, her birthday was a delight—for her and for me. We had a lot of fun. (Although I did feel like I got sucker punched every time I looked at a picture of her I took that day because it seemed like she aged all at once that very day. She looks so old to me here!)

Just for fun, here's her at 5 so we have something to compare it to. 

Do you see what I mean? I can see it, but it could just be the loss-of-childhood tears clouding my vision. (Just kidding. I really am okay that she's getting older. I'm aware that she's aging at the rate everyone else does.)

So here's how the celebrations went down (there were many):

For months, Anna has been requesting breakfast in bed. I don't know where she got the idea, but after shooting down the idea several times, I finally told her that she could have breakfast in bed on her birthday. It was pretty awesome because she was totally awake before me but she had to stay in bed until I made her breakfast so it would be official. I did give her a few books to read so she had something to do.

For breakfast, she requested waffles and ice cream and strawberries, and I obliged. When else can you have ice cream for breakfast, if not your birthday? After breakfast, she finally emerged for presents. She got a lot of presents from so many people that love her and was probably genuinely spoiled, but she was also genuinely gracious about all of them. She called several of them "masterpieces" when she opened them and gave lots of thankful hugs. Giving her presents is partly for her and partly for me. It's just so darn fun to know what she would absolutely love and googly-eyed faint over (which she does often about things she's in love with) and then see it actually happen.

We were planning on having a cousin water party that afternoon, but since the Crazy Wind Storm of 2012 decided to make it super cold (and windy) earlier in the week, we bumped the party to Friday when temperatures were supposed to be warmer. (Friday was warmer, but it was still windy. Good thing I like the wind or else I would have been really mad that the wind made the little swimmers chilly. Instead, I was only a little mad.)

But back to Thursday. For dinner, Anna really wanted to roast hot dogs and make s'mores, so we just up and built a fire in the backyard. It was awesome. We also had some chips and sugar snap peas and carrot sticks (to, you know, balance out the hot dogs), and Anna also picked out a special can of pickled beets for us to eat. (By 6, I meant she was turning 86.)

The next day, we got ready for the party, which was basically kids playing in little pools and sliding down slip 'n' slides. They also painted rocks and beat a pinata to death. We had pina coladas and fruit kabobs, which I enjoyed as I laid back on a lounging chair and watched. Since Anna's birthday happened to be the same day as National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, we had chocolate ice cream sundaes. A delightful addition.

Anna LOVES it when her cousins come over, so I knew she would love this party. I think everybody had a good time. I know I did, sipping my pina colada on the patio. Some pictures to enjoy:

some of the cousins in question

I feel like this picture needs explaining. This is a horse trough that has never been used as a horse trough. (People are always concerned about this point.) It has, however, been our pool since before I was born, I think, and it's super fantastic. We generated some pretty great whirlpools in here, growing up. And I loved seeing it packed with 100 cousins that day.

love this one!

Anyway, that was the birthday. Lots of presents, lots of treats, lots of fun, and I needed lots of sleep to recover from it all. But it has been 6 years well spent. Happy birthday, Annabelle.

(And you know what next year means, since she was born on the 7th? GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!)