Ila’s Birthday
Ila turned 5 on December 8th. She started the day off by helping me make Poppy seed muffins.
Thomas kept me up most of the night before Ila’s birthday. He finally fell back to sleep as we were having breakfast, but it didn’t last long because Nicole started yelling right next to him! Luckily he wasn’t too much of a grump the rest of the day.
We let Ila open up a few presents before the big kids went to school. You can see her new play-doh toys and her Daniel Tiger set in this picture.
Ila helped me make chocolate cupcakes. We always use Grandma Cochran’s “Wacky Cake” recipe and make them from scratch.
For lunch, Ila wanted to eat at the new Dairy Queen that’s just a few blocks away from our house. She said that it was the best chicken she had ever eaten.
Next we went to the library. Ila loves having a new stack of books to read. Here she is trying out the Puppet Theatre at the library.
On the way home we picked up 5 orange balloons and a stuffed Pinkie Pie (Ila’s favorite My Little Pony).
Ila kept changing the theme she wanted for her party. I suggested a play-doh party because it sounded like an idea that would take very little planning. I rarely let the kids play with play-dough because it always makes such a mess, so the idea was a hit with Ila. Here’s our pre-party set-up:
Luckily the kids were also thrilled to decorate their own cupcakes because it meant that I didn’t have to do it ahead of time.
After the party we had dinner at Carl’s Jr. Ila choose it because it had a playplace and she couldn’t remember what star-shaped chicken nuggets taste like. Then we came home and opened the rest of her presents and had cake with her grandparents and aunts.