In which I give the people what they want…

It has been brought to my attention that I “PROMISED pics and birthday details!” and if I’m going to say “The post will be up tomorrow!” than it it damn well better be up tomorrow. Because if its not?  The whining begins. Oh, the whining. (Yeah – I’m looking at you, Suz.)

So here it is.  The birthday post.  Complete with pics and details before I “forget everything!”  (She has zero respect for my short-term memory.  Honestly – it was just a couple of days ago.  Sheesh.)

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When I asked Jayne what she wanted to do for her birthday, her response was “Well FIRST, I want cake for breakfast!  Oh, wait!  Actually, FIRST I want to dress up in my prettiest outfit. Then cake for breakfast.  Then presents.  Then…..”  So that’s what we did.  “Prettiest outfit” ended up being pajama top, dress-up shirt over it, new “princessy” skirt I made her, valentine tights, red shoes, and lots of jewelry.  The kid knows how to rock the accessories.

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Hmm.  Jewelry inexplicably absent in this photo.  Did she take it off to eat?  Who knows with this kid.

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 I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, and she was very precise.  Cupcakes, not a big cake.  Yellow cake with vanilla icing (such a departure from my usual chocolate lover!  Seems I’ve been a good influence!) Some pink, some yellow, some purple.  Rainbow sprinkles and mini-Smarties on top.  Her wish is my command.

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She wished for “more dress-up stuff”. That kid has excellent birthday wish karma.

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After our very healthy breakfast of cake and cream cheese frosting (surely that cream cheese had some calcium in it?  Perhaps some protein?   Practically health food!) the present-opening commenced!  Never have I seen so much Disney Princess stuff in one place.

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Princess umbrella.  (Also – there’s that jewelry I was talking about!  I knew I didn’t hallucinate it!)

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Princess hooded towel.  I saw this in Target and thought it was hysterical.  She looooves it.

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Life sized Princess dolls.  Holy cow is she in love with these.  A big thanks to Aunty Suz, Mr. Matt, Grandma, and Grandpa Vic.  She always has at least one with her, and the 5 of them sleep together every night. (Good thing she’s in the queen.)

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Is it?!?!?!

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Its the MULAN OUTFIT that I kept ASKING AND ASKING FOR but you WOULD NEVER BUY ME!  (She was pretty impressed when I told her I bought it and she never knew.  She has new respect for my sneaky skillz.)

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The parade of Disney stuff motored forward.  A princess rain poncho.  Belle and Aurora Polly Pocket dolls.  (Those little shoes are going to be the bane of my existence, I can tell.  )  More princess dress-up clothes.  Had I known this was the way it was going to go, I would have bought stock in Disney after that first ultrasound showed girl parts.  We must be causing it to go up with the amount of licensed stuff we buy – at least that way we could get a little back.

After everything was opened, it was time to  put on that Mulan outfit and have a little photo shoot.

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With her “daughters”.  Ok, so they’re not quite life sized – they’re close, though.

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This one cracks me up.  She’s been practicing this “Who, me? But I’m just sweet, innocent little girl!” face a lot lately.  (Notice in the background – a plant that I have not yet managed to kill!  I’ve had it for WEEKS!)

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 After she was done trying on every dress-up outfit she got (ridiculous pics for a later post), it was time to move forward to phase two of the birthday extravaganza.  We had been willing to drive to Rome to take her to the zoo.  Downtown Naples for the aquarium?  Check out a castle maybe?  Nope.  The one thing she really really wanted to do more than anything else and it was HER birthday so SHE got to decide?  Swimming.

 

So Joe and the birthday girl headed out to the indoor pool that’s open all year long.  He’s been harassing me for some time about taking the kids there (reason why I haven’t: its about 30 minutes away and I’m L A Z Y.) Well, my laziness instincts were spot on – apparently it was uncomfortably cool, relatively small, and divided into lanes where people were actually trying to do some serious swimming.  Not real kid friendly.  They played for about an hour (to the disgust and frustration of the lunchtime swimmers who hoped they would take the hint and get out of the pool) then called it quits.  (If you are wondering why only the two of them went on this little excursion – Jonas and I got the poop exemption.  No amount of bananas or rice in his diet seems to stem the tide, and the pool people don’t appreciate it when you drop a possible poop tsunami source in the deep end.  We stayed home and played with race cars.)

They had lunch and came home, where she slept like the dead for two hours.  Good to know turning FOUR! doesn’t mean she’s ready to give up the nap (aka: Mommy’s favorite part of the day.)

Also on Jaynie’s list of birthday things to do was eat at Applebee’s.  We offered to go out and get a pizza and she yelled “I don’t LIKE pizza for BIRTHDAYS!  Its not a BIRTHDAY FOOD!”  I don’t know what parties she’s been going to, but how does someone get such a wrong idea in their heads?  Not a birthday food?  After cake it is THE birthday food!

When asked what *is* a birthday food, she said “Quesadillas!” in a voice that clearly added “DUH!”  (This is cute because its what we had for lunch on her first birthday.  Nobody remembers this but me, but trust me.  We went to the zoo, then we went to lunch at Taco Bell and baby Jaynie had a chicken quesadilla.  It was cute because every time we said the word, she would blow us a kiss.  She was hearing “Kiss-a-dilla”.  My little Twink.  Sigh.)

We asked if she wanted to go to Taco Bell then, if quesadillas was what she was after.  She said no, because she just “really likes the word Applebee’s.  Its a fun word!”  So off we went.

She ordered chicken fingers.

Because it was her birthday, we let her wear whatever she wanted, and bring whatever she wanted. So this is what I had sitting across the table from me…

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Nice grip she has there on that crayon.  Geez.  What did it ever do to her?

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Augh!  The Beast!

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After dinner our very fabulous waiter brought the whole damn staff over to sing the birthday song and clap.  She. Was. Mortified.  I thought she would eat up the attention, but she just had a little polite smile and freaked out eyes.  She was looking at me like “If that guy gets any closer, I’ll be under the table.”

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Deer in the headlights eyes.

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And that’s it.  The story. The pictures. The whole she-bang. We got home, had baths, read stories (“FOUR stories because I’m FOUR years old! “), and then we tucked her in surrounded by her “daughters” and she slept until 8am the next day. Turning four can really take it out of you.

This Saturday is the party.  Stay tuned for pics of that.  (Note I didn’t promise WHEN I’d put them up.  Ha.  Take that, Suz.)