Carousel, you're five--holey moley! In a few days you'll start kindergarten and there probably isn't a more excited kid on the planet. I'll really miss you but I'm proud of the way you're growing. You can read and write. You love math and science. You confuse your friends by bringing Ancient Egyptian mythology into your pretend play. You take responsibility for your actions and are sincere in your apologies when you make mistakes. You love to dance to cheap Disney teenager shows and to roll around purring like a cat. You wear a cat hood that you've decorated with hair bows to bed every night (with slippers). Fashion is very important to you and I'm often presented with sketches on the topics of what Eloise should wear, what I should wear, what our future dog should wear in Paris and what dessert should look like. You tell me you're moving to Paris to be a designer, but not until you marry "Max" in the Disneyland temple. You sing Nintendo themes in a breathy, earnest voice when you think no one's listening. You make the world a more sparkly place. I love you!
I needed to practice a tiered cake for a wedding I'm doing soon so I made a half layer tier for Claire and she thought it was very awesome. It's strawberry inside.
Happy Birthday Little Doll! You can blow kisses, play Peeky-Boo, wave Hello and Goodbye, point to the things and people you want, say "Snack!", color with crayons, pinch the ever livin' daylights out of me, and eat daintily though constantly. You still hold my hand when you nurse and you cross your ankles like a lady. You've got lovely red hair that flies all over the place stick straight no matter what I do! You're above clips and headbands and prefer to decorate your face with colorful bruises. You are so fast with your belly crawl--we race to the top of the stairs while I fumble with baby gates. Everyone who knows you loves you to bits, Bunny. We're so glad you picked our family!
Birthday Lunch at Mo's in Newport with the Schmutzes.
Hooma took this but you can see everyone else seated and happily chowing down.
Eloise seems to be a southpaw. She will sit for five minutes at a time just carefully coloring and she only wants to use item specific colors--it's spooky!
Then we're silly again.
She hung quite a mouse on herself just three days before her birthday.
Uncle Chris gives Soap a lift to the beach and helps her recover her precious "Scooby Bucket."
Hooma! We can't get enough of this gal. Her name is always pronounced with an exclamation mark.
Ok so the dunes at Agate Beach were a little more intense than they looked from the car...but the water was great when we finally made it there.
Senior Antonio.
Telling me all about the fashion palace she's about to build out of sand.
Hannah laughs as she brings more water for the castle she and Claire are building. This is Claire's precious "Scooby Bucket"---thank goodness a second garage sale had another junky little bucket. They adore these stinkers and fight like cats when one is missing. So much for haute couture...
Daddy was Soap's castle partner.
Uncle Chris collected shells for Soapy's castle and she was delighted to decorate with them.
"My castle's done! Yee haw!"
"Mother!"
A flock of pelicans came by for a visit. Probably on account of our awesome castles.
I was here too--just behind a lens and carrying a very tired birthday girl.
Aunt Hannah
Uncle Hans joins us for a present melee via Skype from West Virginia. He's our favorite Country Mama.
This drum was a gigantic hit with Eloise. It's pretty and noisy and interactive. Plus it hurts when you throw it at your dang sisters!
The big girls loved their early birthday presents too. Claire got her dream fashion design kit with accessories and Sophie now has a ridiculously cute plastic play castle with resident princesses and fairies.
Ready for cake--or is that cheese on her face?
Since it was technically Eloise's birthday, although we celebrated all three Burch Ladies.
