Catching up

I am playing a bit of catch-up since May has been incredibly crazy and so much has happened.  First, it was Anna's birthday.  It is hard to believe that she is five years old already, but I have to say that this last year has definitely been her best.  Getting her tonsils taken out was the smartest thing we've ever done and it has made Anna a completely different child...for the better.
Here is a picture of Anna's cake.  The bakery had never made one like this before and I was pretty specific in my request.  I think it turned out so well and I just loved the colors they put on the top - bright and colorful, just like Anna.  Our friends Marci and Tate are also in the picture.  Since we don't live close to our families, on the kids' birthdays they get to choose a family to invite to dinner.  The birthday girl also gets to pick the menu.  The Stevens were such good sports to go along with pizza, watermelon, and corn on the cob.

Here are a few things worth knowing about Anna, and they all relate to a jungle animal:

1. She is SO strong, we sometimes suspect she might be part monkey.  This kid can scale poles and do every monkey bar imaginable.  I have long since given up being scared of the things she does; it would make me a nervous wreck.  She gets this strength from her daddy, which is also where she gets the desire to use said strength to try potentially dangerous stunts.
2. Anna has an infectious laugh, perhaps like a hyena.  And she uses it often.  I can hear her giggle through doors and from rooms away.  It always makes me smile.
3. Anna has a memory like an elephant.  She will remember not only events that happened years ago, but exactly what she wore on certain days.  This has made it difficult to redirect her when necessary.  She just doesn't forget.
4. When she cries, it's crocodile tears all the way.  Anna feels emotions very strongly.  When grandmothers come to visit, Anna gets teary when she first sees them and then again when they leave.  That is the sweet side of tears; the not-so-sweet side is tantrums and discipline.  We won't talk about those.
   

This is a picture of Anna's friend party.  We had 10 five year-olds over for a good old-fashioned party.  They are the sweetest girls and we had a great time.  I really couldn't have done it, however, without my mother's help.  She came up with all the ideas for the games (we played donuts on a string, a cotton ball relay, and pin the butterfly on the flower) and helped with the lunch.  We learned that 5 may be a bit young for trying to eat donuts off a string with no hands (it was easy to tell who was cheating a bit because they had sticky hands at the end as well as a sticky face and sticky hair), but the great success was the pinata in the picture.  It was one of those that has strings to pull instead of having to whack it with a stick.  Only one string releases the trap door so the girls took turns pulling one string until someone got the right one.  5 is the perfect age for that kind of pinata (and what's a party without a pinata, right?)

The best line of the party was at the beginning when the girls asked about the strings hanging from my laundry line.  I told them that it was for a game but that I couldn't finish setting it up because I was worried that the birds might get it.  One little girl said, "That means it's food."  I told her that she was right.  Then I noticed that little Ashley had a worried look on her face.  She looked at me and said very matter of factly, "Birds eat worms.  Are we going to eat worms?"  I laughed and told her of course not... they were caterpillars.