Caroline is Six!

To say that I have a lot of catching up to do is a gross understatement.  Here goes an attempt.....

 July ended with my sweet girl turning six.  A couple months ago she came with me to the fabric store to pick out fabric for a baby blanket.  Now, I didn't start making baby blankets until my pregnancy with Nora, so Ezra and Caroline don't have a "special" blankie made by Mommy.  Caroline decided to ask for her own special blanket for her birthday.  I let her pick out her own fabric.  She liked this one because it seemed "mature" to her.  She was very excited to open it on her birthday morning.

 We all enjoyed watching her get excited about presents from Mommy and Daddy first thing in the morning.

 Later that evening, the Tractors met up with us to play in the park and have supper at Red Robin--Birthday Girl's choice.

 Uncle Brettskis and Uncle Heffay were both there.

 I think Heffay was mad because Miss Kaitlin sat by her new bestie, Nora, instead of him. 

 The next morning we got to work on an art birthday party for Caroline.  There was food...

 And fun place mats made by Caroline.  We checked out Fancy Nancy Tea Parties from the library to use for decorating and food ideas.  The marshmallow/lollipop place cards and the butterfly place mats were both found in that book.

 Strawberry lemonade and summer seem to be synonymous.  They are also alliterative. 

This was to be an "art party" so we had lots of different stations and activities.  First of all, each guest had to collect his/her "passport to art".

 

 Each page of the passport book had a different activity listed.  After participating in the activity, the guest got a "stamp" for their passport.  They also got to choose a prize to add to their goodie bag.

 

Making the goodie bag was the first activity in the passport booklet.

The bags were pretty simple to do--we just used iron on patches and fabric markers. 

After the girls had collected their passport booklets and decorated their goodie bags, they headed off to the different stations to...

Paint their nails,

 Color....

 "Blow paint"--simply drop blobs of paint onto paper and then blow it around with a straw...

 Play with sidewalk chalk...

 And water color paint (not pictured).  The stations were a bit crazy and chaotic.  I couldn't have survived them without the help of Miss Jennie and Miss Lisa--thanks a million, Ladies!  I hope that the girls had fun. 

 After the art fun, we headed inside to enjoy cake and presents.  Caroline requested green frosting with blue stripes this year--easy enough!  The flavor was strawberry lemonade--a vanilla cake with strawberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting.  I knew that I would be tired after the party, since it was just 4 weeks before my due date...but I under estimated just how tired I would be.  Ezra and Caroline's help setting up and cleaning up saved me! 

 My Little Girl is quickly blooming into a Young Lady.  It's so sad, and yet, so fun.  Tonight at bed time she asked me "Mommy, when I sign up for college, do I have to sign up to be something, or can I just be a plain Mommy?"  First off--I LOVE that she recognizes Mommyhood is not easy and it seems that it should require a college degree.  Second off--NO college course could ever prepare a woman for the extreme craziness of Mommyhood : )  And I am so very happy that my girl wants to be a plain old Mommy some day.