Happy 6th Birthday

(A special thank you to my talented father -in-law for editing this photo for me.)

My darling daughter, the girl who made me a mother turned 6 today. 6! I can't believe it. It seems like yesterday I was laying in the hospital feeling like I had just been run over by a truck (side note to Bradley folks: you cannot relax through 2 days of natural birth) and Peter was walking around with our bright-eyed Miss E. Wow. What a six years it has been. A lifetime.

This morning Peter got off work early and was home by 7 with hot chocolate and a little pink doughnut for her and I gave her a necklace (see picture above) that she has been asking for for about 2 months. She was so happy and it was heart-warming to see her so thrilled on her birthday. It makes all of the hard work and effort put into planning a party worth it.

To celebrate her birthday we took my niece and nephew for the weekend and headed to the beach which is one of her favorite places. My parents also agreed to come along (thank goodness) and help out. So today was filled with the Marine Science Center, a 5 minute walk on a cold, rainy and windy beach, hot chocolate and french fries at Rogue, a Halloween video, swimming at the hotel and dinner at a restaurant on the bay. This was all followed by a princess party in our room.

And yes, this is the year I gave in on the princess stuff. I have been resisting all the Disney princess stuff for as long as I can but at this point a few things have happened: 1) she started Kindergarten with other girls who play with Disney princess stuff and Barbies and 2) she started asking for them. So, I have given in. At this point I think resistance would make all of it MORE interesting and fascinating to her and I do think it's important that she have what the other kids have to play with. However, I was pleasantly surprised when shopping for gifts that apparently, Disney is coming around as well. We ended up buying her two mini-doll houses, one was Snow White's bakery and the other was Belle's bookstore. That's right - 2 businesses owned by the princesses with no princes in sight. There are a couple of others in the series as well. She was thrilled and so appreciative. She kept saying how much she liked  her presents, and that they were the best ever for her birthday. To balance out the princess stuff she also got Battleship, Operation, a pile of books and an awesome talking globe of the world.

After cupcakes they got to watch a Halloween video and then bed time. And they all were asleep by 8:30 with no fussing or problems, which was much better than what I had been anticipating.

Happy Birthday to my Miss E.