As I mentioned in my previous post, my little baby turned five on November 20th and although I neither understand how nor gave my permission for her to grow up so quickly, here we are at age five.

This was the first year Breanna really got into the birthday party thing. She enjoyed her parties in the past but this year she kept a close eye on the calendar. Each morning for about a week and a half she would wake up, tell me what the date was and then she’d go out and look for it on the wall calendar. Then when she’d get in to bed she would tell me what the date was going to be the next day. She could hardly wait and the fact that her actual birthday and the day of her party were one and the same was almost too much for her.

She woke up at about 7:30 on Saturday and she was groggy for a moment when she suddenly realized – and announced – “it’s 20 today! It’s my birthday!” That was it for staying in bed; we were all awake and up in the living room to do presents having decided we’d give her our gifts before the party.

She wasn’t eager AT ALL.

Hayley had gotten her a tea party set for her birthday after I suggested it; the day before Breanna had been playing tea party with random items because some of the cups she had before had broken. Breanna loves tea parties with us or with her stuffed toys so she was pretty happy.

Then George and I gave her the gift from us. She has a good idea of what she was getting but she wasn’t 100% sure until she opened it. She was thrilled to get what her big sister got back in September.

The two of them immediately set up side by side to play Club Penguin on their laptops at the coffee table. This was great for me since it made it easy to clean up in peace for the party.

In addition to that, in the late morning my sister-in-law called because she was in town for a work conference. Having Saturday afternoon off she wondered if she could take them both out for lunch so I dressed them and happily passed them along so I could do more party prep in peace (well, if you count blasting Shakira as “peace”).

It was a very stress-free party. We decided to start it at 6:30 so there was no supper to prepare. Breanna had requested chicken legs in the oven, rice, and corn for her birthday supper so I made that and quickly cleared it away and once people arrived I set up the table with snacks. We served chips, pretzels, cheesies, cheese, crackers, pate, tomato pizza, a vegetable platter, fruit platter, and of course cake. There were also juice boxes for the kids and beer or wine for the adults.

Breanna was so happy to have her friends over that she barely even ate her cake (chocolate cake with blue icing and a dolphin on top, just as she requested) but I’m sure she’ll eat the rest of it over the coming days.

It’s fun to have friends for the kids and friends for the adults all at the same time. I love our parties.

She got some great gifts including a fuzzy sweater that she loves, a gift card to Toys R Us, some money, and the Littlest Pet Shop Rescue Center with extra animals on the side. I’d say she was a very lucky girl for her birthday.

The party went until past midnight at which point Breanna was literally falling asleep on my shoulder but before she nodded off I managed one picture with the girl who was once only 8+ pounds.

Happy birthday Breebies.

(Full set over here)