High Five!

My baby is 5, I can't believe it.  Korinne loved every minute of her birthday.  It fell on a day when she didn't have preschool so while Britton and Jenna were at school Korinne had 3 friends come over to help her celebrate her big day.  The party planners of America will cringe when I confess that I had absolutely no plan for her birthday party.  Even when the girls arrived I didn't have an agenda or any idea what we were going to do.  Fortunately the day before a friend of mine told me that she liked to make birthday cakes for fun and if I wanted her to make one for Korinne, she would.  As a matter of fact, I would like that very much.  When she asked me what kind of decorated cake I wanted I just said, "surprise me" as I handed over a pink cake mix and frosting.  Yesterday about 30 min. before the girls were set to arrive I went and picked up an adorable strawberry.  Korinne loved it, and couldn't keep her hands off of it.  I couldn't even get a picture before Korinne had left several finger marks.  She just couldn't stop tasting the yummy frosting.

The girls arrived at lunch time so we had pizza and then I got out some fingernail polish and they all insisted on painting their own fingernails and toenails. I blew up a few balloons which they had a great time trying to keep in the air. When the heating vents turned on they squealed with delight while watching the balloons hover over the vents in mid-air.  We had cake and ice cream, opened presents, and then I sent them off to play for 2 hours while I read a book next to our fireplace (it was very snowy outside, after all).  Here are the girls ready for cake and ice cream.

At the end of my non-planned birthday party one of the girls said, "This is one of the best parties I've ever been to!" which told me that I should never plan a birthday party again. Food and free play time, that's all the kids want anyway. (Of course, this only works with a total of 4 girls.  If you want to go bigger, you'll probably have to plan)

Last night we had a family party.  We put the 5 candle back in the remaining birthday cake and she blew it out all over again. I took Britton and Jenna to the dollar store to pick out some presents for Korinne.  She loved them.

 For our big present we got her a guitar with a microphone headset. Judging by the fact she has played with it for several hours since last night, I'd say it was the perfect gift.  She's actually got some rhythm and looks so cute when she is really dancing and singing with the guitar.  She loves music and is always listening to music on Adam's phone. She walks around with it dancing and singing to the songs she knows.  She likes Hannah Montana, of course, and other Disney music people.

This morning she went around and took down all of our birthday decorations and signs. "It's not my birthday anymore, don't 'cha know?" Wow. She doesn't mess around.

Today I asked Korinne how old she was.  She passed the test when she declared enthusiastically that she was five.  Just for fun I thought I would ask her how old she thought I was.

"Sixty!"
"Um, no, I'm not sixty. How old am I really?"
"Sixty-one!" [Uncontrollable laughter]
"No, I'm thirty four"

10 second pause

"Korinne, how old am I?"
"Forty-four!"

She was laughing too hard to continue. Yup, we love our Korinne.  Happy Birthday, baby!

Here is the video montage I put together for her first five years.