Isabel Is 5!

Happy birthday to our best girl! Our resident princess is 5 years old today. And how does a princess celebrate? With a swim party, of course! We've been alternating the types of parties we do for her, family-only one year, school friends and family the next. This year was friends and family and it seemed overwhelming to have everyone over to the house. After some research into different venues (Chuck E Cheese, Kingdom of Bounce, etc.) we decided on a swim party at the Westerville Community Center.

The staff there did a great job with set-up/clean-up. Once pizza, cake, and ice cream were consumed, the birthday girl opened gifts. Afterwards, she got to lead the squirming line of sugar-happy kids to the pool. And then, something happened that I've never experienced before: Isabel took off with her friends and I barely saw her until the party was over. She had a great time but it was disconcerting to watch her spend more time with her pals than her mommy. However, that gave me more time to play with Zak, who gave up his nap time in order to attend (and who let *everybody* know about it as the afternoon went on!).

Today, Isabel's actual birthday, she and I put coats on over our pjs and picked up donuts for the family from the Tim Horton's drive-through. Kyle decorated the kitchen for her while we were out so she had a nice surprise when we returned home. Our gift to her was a pair of tickets to Disney Princesses on Ice. We let her dress up in her royal best and then it was on to the show. It was a girlie glitter overload and she loved every minute.