Hannah's actual birthday isn't until November 26th (falling on Thanksgiving this year,) but we decided to have a little family party for her while we were here. Her dad will not quite make it back in time for her real birthday, and I was hoping this would make up for it. I think it just might have worked. She had a great time! The down side was that none of the kids in the family could make it due to illness and other things. I had already made the favors when I got the cancellations so we sent them home to the kids that were supposed to come anyway. There were still lots of people including my aunts, cousins, and grandmother that were able to come.
We decorated with My Little Pony balloons and streamers which somehow didn't quite make it into my pictures. The cake, per Hannah's request, had a My Little Pony sitting on top of it. I found a pastel rainbow ribbon to go around it and piped some pink flowers and added a few flower sprinkles to finish it off. It looked pretty, but we won't discuss the taste. Let's just say while making the cake I got distracted, and it turned out to be sugar-free! That was not on purpose. And I didn't quite notice until after the party was over because that's when I finally got around to tasting it. Thinking back over the process, I realized then what was missing. Yuck, and how embarrassing! God bless my family for not saying anything! After I realized what happened and told my mom, she teased me that I should have used a box cake instead. I had, of course, previously balked at the idea of not making it from scratch, but now I wish I had listened to my mommy! How many times in our lives, do we end up saying that! My sweet birthday girl told her Aunt (who had missed the party) that is was delicious, even though I couldn't even finish my small piece because it was so awful! It's OK! I'll just pick my pride up off the party floor and carry on because we're not discussing the taste, remember? :)
I was so very proud of my big (almost) five year old for being so gracious during the gift opening. After each gift, she ran over to the giver and hugged and thanked them thoroughly! Then at the end she stood up on the fireplace and made a mini speech to thank everyone again without being told. While she was up there, it was requested that she perform, of course. So she did a little ditty she learned in German school about a train. Then Genna, feeling severely left out and "stuck in the middle" by this point, got up there and sang
Twinkle Twinkle. As the party wound down and people began to leave, Hannah sat with my cousin,
Zach, whom she adores, and he read one of her new books to her.
Here's Genna performing Twinkle Twinkle on the fireplace. I wish I had reached my camera faster to get Hannah giving her speech!
Zach reading to Hannah
The kids all tyhree played together multiple times this week without anyone getting left out! My friend, Elizabeth, commented on a previous post that as Isaac got older, they would be able to play all together nicely. I had my doubts, but I have already seen an inkling of it this week. The photo above is Genna playing teacher and Hannah and Isaac are her students. I was very surprised Isaac was interested in this game. He sat on the couch just like he was supposed to and laughed at the girls as they tried to teach him how to do things, like say his ABC's. Funny how fast things change. I still want an even number of kids though!
