Six Already?!

 A few weeks ago now, we celebrated the 6th birthday of our oldest child.  That seems so strange to say, but it's true.  We had a great time celebrating this fun and amazing child.  She really is a blessing to us.  So creative, caring, and funny.  Oh and a great big sister!  She often safes the day when the little babe gets upset when I'm in the middle of something.  You know how they inevitablly need you when your doing something like mixing up meatloaf with your hands or rushing off to use the restroom?  Big sisters are great for those times and she is no exception.
She's also a bit goofy!  And we love it.

 Her family party was the night of her birthday with my brother and sister in law, the birthday girl's favorite meal--bear spaghetti, it's true--and a delicious cake.  Shawn isn't a big cake fan and is even less of a frosting fan.  So this recipe with a light lemon sponge cake and a cool whip based frosting made him very happy.  He said it's one of his favorite cake recipes now. (And here's the recipe I used.)

 When the next weekend arrived, we had some of her friends over for a simple birthday party.  She even agreed to "no presents necessary" being printed on her invitations.  It was kind of nice and made the evening focus on just hanging out with friends.  She also chose to do something simple at home with a larger group of friens rather than a big activity (like swimming or ice skating) with a few friends.  So we decided on a movie night with pizza at our house.  It turned into a really nice (and easy) party to host.  We got some take n' bake pizzas from costco, made some cupcakes, popped some pop corn, and started a movie.  Simple, yet fun...win, win!

 The little man got to have a friend over for the evening too.  That was fun for him.

 These two have been friends since before they can remember anything differently.  It was fun to see them goofing around and still having fun together.

Butterfly cupcakes.  She's currently quite taken with butterflies and it was a fun excuse to try out an idea from the book Hello Cupcake.

Fun and cheerful cupcakes for a fun and cheerful girl.

 The movie watchers.  We're glad they could all come out to help make a special time for our special little miss.