5 Year Old Birthday

Birthday Eve selfie with out 4 year old, going on 5 year old. We gave her Frozen II as an early birthday present and watched it for our birthday eve pizza movie night.

Last 4 year old picture with her brother.

 I've learned over the years that the box is actually WAY more exciting than the cereal within when it comes to a special birthday cereal. (At least until a certain age, Shae has outgrown it and is now all about the most delicious cereals the world has to offer, aka, Reeses Puffs!)

 I've been saving this doll based off of the Magic Attic Club book series that I loved growing up for a long time. I saved up all my monies when I was younger and bought it, and then never really did anything with her, so she was still in really great condition. This year seemed like a good year to pull her out of my parents attic and give her to Belen. She was so sweet with her. It was the best.

 The disco ball in the below picture has also been a huge hit and has made for some really fun dance parties. 

 I've been wanting to get one of these adorable swing dresses that I see all over for Belen for quite some time, but they are just so dang pricey. I could never bring myself to pull the trigger. Thankfully, I have an awesome college friend who's got my back and let me know about an amazing end of winter clearance sale at Remie Girl. I snagged this dress and it took everything within me to wait to give it to her until her birthday.

 She was pretty happy to dance in it all day long.

Belén has been obsessed with the picture book Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao. She had been asking for weeks to make our own Bao and I kept giving her that mom answer of: We'll make it sometime. I shouldn't have been surprised when I asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner and her answer was: BAO!

We waited to have cake until her birthday party that weekend, so a candle in the bao seemed like a good alternative.

 We all loved the bao (although a bit time consuming) and she is already asking when we can make more.

 She was so excited when she remembered that Mrs. Clause had brought her a doll nightgown with her Christmas jammies.

 The next day, Megan came with us everywhere.

Belén decided that she wanted a Frozen II birthday party. We made a white, purple, and blue layered cake since they seemed like Elsa colors from the second movie.  

 I had been feeling really sick the week of her birthday with ANOTHER terrible cold. I was achy, weak, and exhausted. I was hoping that I could get through her birthday, but also feeling unsure as to whether we should have people in our house. Well, I woke up Saturday morning with pink eye and that made the decision of me not being a part of the party easy. I was SO sad to miss it. We quickly changed the party to the church. I snapped a few shots of her and her cake before Darin and the kids left.

 We had some games planned, but since we moved it to the church last minute, watching Frozen II with all the friends seemed like the easiest/best option.

There don't seem to be any pictures of the Elsa pinata, but I know that was the part of the party she was most looking forward to. 

Belén’s 5 year old favorites:

Food: Cheese Pizza ("pepperoni is too spicy")

Color: Blue ("b/c it's Elsa's favorite color") and pink and purple ("b/c they are beautiful")

Animals: Zebra and Giraffe

Movie: Frozen II and Descendents

TV Show: Paw Patrol--Mighty Pups

Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Audiobook: Whatever After series ("My favorite ones are 1. Sink or Swim 2. Cold As Ice 3. Sugar and Spice")

Numbers: 5 and 11 ("11 never changes, but my age favorite number does change every year")

Belén says, "Are you serious!?" a ridiculous amount of times throughout the day. She went through a phase of playing "Spot the American Flag" while we drove around. If there is music on, she will dance (we can't even turn on music while cleaning b/c her body can't stop itself from dancing and no cleaning actually happens). She asks just about everyday when she can have a play date and when she can do a baking competition. She sleeps in the crack of her bed, right up against the wall. She loves drawing and imagining she is one of the characters from her audiobook. She will never ever go down our stairs to the laundry room alone because it is way too scary. She wears about 10 different outfits a day. She is such a sweet, thoughtful sister, one that loooooves to wrestle and will fight back. We love her dearly and really really can't believe that she is 5!!!