Another year gone by

Just over two weeks ago my baby turned 5. I guess she's not really a baby anymore, as she likes to tell me all the time, but to me she will always be my baby. I still find it hard to believe that she is already 5. There are times when I look at her and wonder where the time has gone, I have been with her every day but sometimes it still feel like there are all kinds of things that I have missed over the years. It's scary how fast they grow, before you know it they start school, and I'm sure that it just goes by even faster with each passing year.

I have always tried to make her birthdays something that she will remember, something that she will enjoy. I want her birthdays to be special days, days she will always remember. T*'s 3 birthdays were huge affairs, tons of people, tons of food, tons of planning. There just seemed to be so much work involved. For the last 2 years I have tried to make them a little a smaller, so that there isn't quite so much money involved. Last year worked out really well, she a wanted a princess tea party, so we just invited a few girlfriends, it was nice a quite and easy. This year there was a little more involved. We have a lot of friends who have kids and it's hard to know who to invite and who not to. Then I always feel guilty when I don't invite everyone. It's just so hard. I try and make the birthdays about T* and not worry about the rest of it, I figure now that she is 5 it makes more sense to invite her friends and forgo ours. Still I always feel bad for not inviting everyone, (I would like to say sorry to all our friends that weren't invited this year, I really wish that I could invite everyone but it would just be too big) but really it's about T* and her friends. This year took me a while to figure out what to do for her birthday. I wanted it to be special, as always, and I wanted to do something with just T* and I and a friend for her. I finally came up with taking her to get a manicure and pedicure, I figured it would be something that she would totally enjoy (she is always asking me to paint her nails) and something that would make a special day. So on the date of her actual birthday, I invited a friend of mine and her daughter (a very good friend of T*'s) and we all went to get our nails done. I swear, it was the best idea I ever had, T* absolutely loved it! She must have thanked me at least 5 times that day for taking her to get her nails done, we had such a great time. It was great, they had her up in the massage chair with her feet getting soaked and everything, T* got to pick out the nail polish color, they put little flowers on her thumbs and big toes, it was awesome, they ladies were totally great about doing her nails. It made that day totally special that she got to do something new that she really liked. I think it's going to become a tradition every year now, it was really the best idea I ever came up with. I love finding things that mean so much and that T* will remember. I'd like to make it a tradition just so that through the years as she gets older there is something that we can always do together, and it will grow with her.

For the party itself, we invited family with children and a few friends of T*'s. There are just a few kids that she sees all the time so there weren't tons of kids, it was nice and easy, just a BBQ, though it was still a lot of work, lots of running around the week before and making sure that I had everything. It's funny, pretty much every year I plan to put out the kiddie pools and let the kids run around in them, I've never actually been able to do it though because each year I plan that the weather doesn't cooperate. I don't know what it is, it will be nice the whole week leading up to party day but the day of always seems to get cold or rain, unless the plan is just to stay inside, it's the oddest thing.

The birthday went really well though, the kids had a lot of fun and the parents enjoyed themselves as well (at least I think they did, everyone seemed to have a good time). There was enough food, enough for the kids to do, they all seemed to get along the whole party, so it went well. Now I have to figure out what to do next year lol.