Dorothy's 5th Birthday

Happy 5th birthday, Dorothy!  I didn't think having a birthday on Christmas Eve was a good thing, but I'm starting to really like it.  There are some positive things about being born on that day after all. 

 The birthday girl gets to open presents (nearly) first thing in the morning.

 She often has a bit of big brother "help."

 She got two Lego sets this year and the entire morning was spent building.  Malcolm helped (lots) and Dorothy took a couple of breaks to play with some new dolls too.

We all went out to lunch after a morning of playing hard.

 After lunch, we came back to have ice cream cake.  Culver's has discontinued their cakes, so we had to get her cake someplace else this year.  She chose triple chocolate, with chocolate cake, ice cream, and frosting.  Yum!

 Dreaming of eating cake, while we sing "Happy Birthday."

 It took a few tries to get all the candles blown out.  They were spread out, and not all the same height, so it was a little difficult.

 Eating cake is serious business.

 Her main gift from us this year was a new "big girl bike."  She's a little nervous to try it out, but I imagine that by Spring she will take off on it.  We had the bike next to her birthday tree (small Christmas tree where we put her birthday presents) and the first thing she said this morning was, "What is that bike doing here?"

It is a really cool bike, and I admit to sort of wanting one for myself, even though I just bought a new bike for me a couple of years ago.

Happy birthday, my big five year old!  I guess I really don't have any babies or little kids anymore.