It was a huge day for the birthday girl. Pedicures and a new outfit with Mommy...
Late lunch at the Rainforest Cafe on the River Walk. The staff sang Happy Birthday and brought out her gigantic volcano cake....
When we got home there was a flower cake and balloon waiting for the birthday girl from Grandma and Grandad. A real flower cake with candles! It was perfect because after the giant chocolate cake at lunch, we were sugared out. It was perfect to blow out candles. She also got a new art easel from us and Papa gave her some glitter glue and tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam which to this girlie girl trumped the cake, the balloons, and the easel ... :)
We ended the night, playing with sparklers. Can you believe she's 6!!!!
We have been busy and my mini-me loves to play photographer.
As usual, Spring came early in Texas and we've been enjoying the green grass, blue bonnets, and warm weather. Papa came for her birthday and we dragged him out to the flower fields too ...
This farm is just down the street from us and in February, Ella and some of her friends from school met up for a play date. My little adaptable girl... in Hawaii she was a total bare foot beach bum and here in Texas she's become quite the little cowgirl. She loves animals and has no fear of them.
She's also a natural on a horse. And seriously, she rides like a pro too :)
She also has no fear of older kids. Two boys and girl were playing king of the castle on a hay pile... all were about 8-10 years old. Ella watched as the two boys pushed the girl off the top and jumped up to claim victory. Ella watched for a few minutes and evaluated the situation. Once she knew the gist of the game, she took her bad self and pushed the boys off the top, climbed up, and offered a hand to the girl. That's my girl! Of course before I praised her for her courage I asked her if she knew why she was allowed to push the boys off. She said, "That's the game Mommy!" I just wanted to know that she understood it to be a game rather than not playing nice with other kids. Ha! I love that she instinctively sided with the girl and wanted to play regardless of their obvious size and age difference... but maybe not obvious to her :)
This year I went a little crazy with this holiday thanks to Pinterest. Are you on Pinterest? You should be! It's chalk full of amazing things to do. Ella and I had a photo shoot for her Valentine's cards....
Thanks to Pinterest, Ella woke up to balloons in her doorway and in the bathroom door, and a banner on her mirror, and heart-shaped cinnamon buns for breakfast.....
And finally, cupcakes for the Girl Scouts party....
This winter has been very mild. It's been fluctuating back and forth between the upper 60's and 30's. These were taken in January, during an exceptionally warm week....
And on days we are inside avoiding the random cold weather, she will make anything into a drum set.... don't get any gift ideas! hahahaha
The Tooth Fairy has been very busy lately. Ella has lost a total of 6 teeth. Her other front tooth was knocked out when she took a header into my knee while I was tickling her. She jumped on me to wake me up and I retaliated by saying I was going to tickle her. She tried to avoid me and flailed herself across the bed and face planted into my knee cap. It was almost ready to come out anyway, but knocking it out made a mess. It was quick and after a few tears of shock, the thought of the Tooth Fairy's arrival made everything better!
Not 10 days later, another top tooth (that was loose already) was knocked out. This time by a classmate's foot to the mouth while they were climbing the monkey bars at school. That tooth was lost in the abyss of playground mulch but the Tooth Fairy always delivers. :)
A few days ago, Ella lost her 6th tooth! This kid is not going to have enough teeth to chew if she keeps loosing them at this rate. Her dentist appointment yesterday showed no signs of cavities... yay! And apparently it's normal to loose a lot of front teeth in a short amount of time.
We spent New Year's Eve with our friends Marisa and Daniel, and their kids Mia and Max. They moved north of the city and have a beautiful new home so the three of us went up there for the night and stayed over. It's nice to be able to drink, have fun and not have to drive anywhere. We got sparklers and played around with them. Experimenting with my camera got these photos:
