And suddenly she's 5

And suddenly she's 5.  When did this happen?  I swear just last week I was changing diapers and warming up milk in a bottle.  My girl is growing faster than I can believe and while I'm proud of every accomplishment she makes, I so want time to stand still, to keep this moment from passing. 

Grace had a great birthday, or should I say birthdayS.  Actual birthday, family birthday, friend birthday, anticipating the birthday, planning the birthday.  She pretty much gets the month of August!!! lol

Here's the highlights!

Grace was so eager to wear her princess dress for the party.  What a fashionista!

On the "real" birthday day, we took a trip to Santa's Village with Grandma and Grandpa and cousin K.  What a great place for young children!  Santa was great.  Walking around the village all day, we bumped into him several times making it so much more comfortable for the kids when they finally got a chance to see him in his house and while Grace still wanted me close, she confidently went up to Santa and shared her wishes.  For months now, she has not wavered on what she wants Santa to bring her for Christmas.  A microphone and a violin.  Yep, a microphone and a violin.  She can't play a violin yet, but my music loving girl just loves her music!

Love this photo!

Ice cream for breakfast of course!!!  How else would one start a birthday??

We are so lucky to have great neighbours.  They are like a second set of grandparents for Grace and they love it when she comes for a visit.  Grace was so proud to be able to go next door by herself to bring them over for cake.

Trying out the water balloons!  Somebody's going to get wet!

Time for the chicken story.  Sometimes I feel like there are things that happen in the world that could only happen to me.  Seriously.  The chicken story is one of those things.
Let me set the scene.  It's relatively early in the morning, the day of the kid party.  Grace is finishing breakfast, I'm getting a few things out and ready.  I peer out the kitchen window and there it is.  A chicken.  Like a real live chicken in my back yard.  Now, we live on a small property but we are by no means in farmland.  Yet, there it was, a big beautiful chicken wandering around my back yard! 
After trying without success to coax the chicken to move on to a neighbour's yard, I decided to try to make the best of it.  All I had to do was tell the kids not to go near the chicken and the chicken will leave them alone.
So, Grace had invited one boy, an energetic, quizzical, curious boy.  He's well known for his energetic curious ways and I had all my teacher tricks ready to go to keep him on task at the party.  What I didn't plan for was a chicken. 
And it couldn't have gone better!  That chicken was a blessing in disguise for that little firecracker of a boy.  He chased that chicken around, fed him his hot dog bun and "played" with the chicken for 2 hours!!!  
(before anyone who might be concerned for the chicken's well being gets bent out of shape about this post, rest assured, the chicken was perfectly fine and safe)

For all the work I put into planning games and activities for the kids to do, what was the big hit?  Grace's dress up basket!  I could have saved myself some time and money if I had just let kids be kids!

All the princesses and decorating their own cupcakes

Doesn't that look yummy?

Designing their own water bottles

And in the end, a good time had by all, even the chicken.