Nicole’s Birthday
I am finally getting around to blogging about Nicole’s Birthday, but better late than never, right?
We started things off with a special breakfast of sausage, heart shaped eggs, and birthday juice. (I almost never buy juice for the kids because of the sugar content, so the juice was extra special—it was Nicole’s favorite part of breakfast)
Once everyone was dressed, we walked Isaac to the bus stop, only the bus was early. We were a block away when we saw the bus slow down a little as it passed our stop without stopping. 
We took our time walking home.
Once we got home, we loaded up in the van and took Isaac to school. On our way home we decided to stop at a store to buy some birthday balloons. Unfortunately the first two stores we stopped at were completely out of helium. We bought five purple balloons at the 3rd store. Nicole was so excited when she finally saw someone fill up her balloons! She kept trying to look up at them as she rode out to the car, only it was raining a little so she kind of had to squint at them until we got to the car.
We decided to give her presents one at a time as the day progressed (instead of what we usually do which is to make the birthday kid wait until the end of the day and then send them to bed shortly after they open presents). The first gift was the biggest—a play kitchen (thank you craigslist). I put it in the playroom the night before, but she didn’t see it till after we were home from the store and had a quick snack.
I helped her set up a pretend birthday party for Curious George. She gave George “birthday juice†(see, I told you it was her favorite).
Zach came home early from work and we had a babysitter come at 1:30 so that we could take Nicole out for a birthday meal with just her mom and dad. We went to IHOP and she had a lunch that she could dip.
We also took her to an Asian Market and let her see the fish and pick out a treat. Back at home, we decided that it was time for more presents.
She opened finger lights. . .
and a little doll house (which was purchased at an after Christmas sale in Ohio).
The kids played for a little while before we introduced our last present for Nicole:
She drove it around the living room and kitchen and had a grand time (it was too wet and rainy to take it outside).
Family came over starting at 6:30. We had Great Grandma, Great Aunt Margaret, Great uncle Gale, Great Aunt Charlene, Kaelah, and Caisa (Zach’s cousin and daughter) come over. They spoiled her with even more gifts.
Then we sang the birthday song over cupcakes with candles:
The kids went to bed on the playroom floor watching a movie while the adults played a little Yatzee and ate homemade hummus and pita chips.