Happy 5th Birthday Lyds!

Incredibly, I have a five year old. It's unbelievable to me. She'll be starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks and it's rocking my world. This sweet, thoughtful and mature (in so many ways) little girl is growing up. I'm sure I've mentioned this a time or two before, and will surely mention it again, but it feels like we just brought her home from the hospital.

The Sunday before her birthday (May 22nd) we got to celebrate Lydia and Uncle Lance at Mom and Dad Frazier's. Aunt Stacey had set Lydia's gift by her plate at the dinner table and Lydia couldn't stop talking about it all through dinner and long afterward. She absolutely loved the little poof ball that Stacey used to decorate the gift.  And she was really excited about the nail polish inside too. She's excited to try out the soccer goals she got from Grandma and Grandpa Frazier too!

On her actual birthday Lyds picked out what she wanted to eat for each meal that day. I stayed up a little later Saturday night to make her cinnamon rolls for breakfast while Jon decorated her impressive Dalmatian cake.

She wanted sloppy joes for lunch and Grandma Blackhurst asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner and promised burritos once the request was made. At church she was sung to in Primary and got some birthday gumballs reminding her to "chews" the right. Her regular primary teachers were gone, but she loved her awesome substitutes. Jon measured her on her growth church after we got home and then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Blackhurst's.

We got to Google Hangout with Uncle Nate in Suriname, Uncle Jon (whose birthday is the 31st) in DC, Aunt Jess and Uncle Derek in Oregon and the Heiselts in Brooklyn. It was awesome to catch up with everyone and spotlight the birthday girl and boy. Lydia opened Auntie Abby's gift in front of everyone. Strawberry gum and $5.00. A dollar bill birthday!

Lydia helped Grandma get dinner on and just before we sat down to eat Lyds got to open her presents on a special chair that Grandma let her choose. She was so excited and loved opening her presents. She was sweet with all of them and is especially excited about Lucky (a new addition to her Dalmatian collection), some Littlest Pet Shop toys and her ballet clothes. I guess I'm the one who's excited about her ballet clothes and the classes she'll be taking in the fall. Yay!! She loved the puzzles from Aunt Cathy and family. She's an incredible puzzle put-er together. :)

And the cards from Grandma and Grandpa and Isaac and Amber were spot on and so appreciated. After dinner we sang the special (extended version) birthday song, Lyds blew out her candle (after making a wish) and we enjoyed some funfetti Dalmatian birthday cake. When we got home that evening Lydia got to open one more card from Grandma Steed. A great way to end the day. She requested we wait to read her new book, I had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew because she really wanted to stay up and see what happened and she knew she was supposed to go to sleep, but we did read The Berenstain Bears and The Truth. Another gift for the birthday girl. It was a lovely day and we loved spending it with family.

Tuesday Uncle Tophe stopped by to make a special delivery to Lydia. A troll from FROZEN! It's super cool. It rolls up like a popple (remember those?!), or actually like a rock (which makes a lot more sense) and all three girls LOVED it!! Mia left her mark on it (a slobber spot) once given the chance and the girls promptly took in outside to play with on the playground.

Other noteworthy things about this growing girl is that she has Hopeless Opus love. She heard Imagine Dragons and fell in love with the cherry bomb song. We love singing to it in the car. She also perks up when she hears Firework by Katy Perry. She loves Madagascar 3 and Firework is featured on it. She has a great ear. We were shopping at Kohl's weeks after we'd seen The Peanut movie and she heard a snippet of it and knew it was from the movie. I had no idea, but was duly impressed. Her favorite primary song is "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam." Her favorite bedtime story is Hop on Pop. She plans to name her daughters, Olivia, Molly, Passa and Nema (incidentally Sophie wants to name hers "Lucy, Wilma and some more..." she says). Lydia loves her Primary class and her teachers. Each week she takes a little tiny friend with her to class. She says that it comforts her. With a class full of boys I'm sure it helps. ;) Last Sunday her little dog, Fancy, lost it's tail. Lydia had been wiggling it back and forth and it eventually couldn't take any more. One of her teacher's texted me last night. "just checking in to say how cute Lydia is and wondering how Fancy is doing without her tail?" It made my night. Happily I let her know that Fancy's tail had been repaired and all was well with the world. Jon is pretty awesome to mend things like that and the girls sure appreciate it.

Lydia has also been having the time of her life at Lagoon. I'll for sure be posting more about that another day. She got to ride some rides with her Pyne cousins the other day. Seeing Conner, Eric, Lydia and Sophie spinning on the teacups was adorable as well as nauseating. I got to ride on Bombora with Lydia the first time we dared try out a big kid roller coaster and she LOVED it! And then she sat by Conner the second time. They were in the very front of the train and the music was blasting and she wished it hadn't been. When we rode together we were much farther back and didn't really notice any music at all. Riding with Conner was awesome. They'll for sure be doing that again.

We love Lydia and look forward to this years adventures and making more memories with our little family.