Princess Paige is 5!

Let's catch up on some birthdays, shall we? We have had five of them around here that have gone regrettably unblogged. Paigey girl turned 5 on us this year! She was so excited that she didn't even notice it wasn't our usual birthday fare. After being in Utah for a month, Brandon and I decided we'd had enough time apart. He was here in Texas working and staying alone in a two bedroom apartment that the company provided him. They had no problem with us coming to stay with him, so we did, the first weekend in April. We figured it would be helpful for me to join the house hunting, and good for us all to be together. A month apart from Daddy was rough on us all!

I will note here that the drive from Utah to Texas was incredibly long. Two twelve hour days in the car, (and we don't make stops longer than a few minutes). Not only is it incredibly long, but horribly boring. You have to drive all...the...way...across...New Mexico, which by the way is a place I would never want to live. It just looks gross. Sorry New Mexico! (Ashlee, I'm sure Ramah is a magical exception to this rule. If you ever have reason to make it out that way, I could come and find out!) So needless to say, it's not going to be a drive that takes place often!

Anyway, back on track. So we'd been in Texas for about two and a half weeks when Paige's birthday rolled around. In this two bedroom apartment, we had a kitchen, but it wasn't really set up to cook in apart from a few dishes to eat on, and one sorry pot to cook on the stove in. No knives, etc. We hoped from the get go that it would all be temporary, and didn't want to either purchase a lot of unnecessary stuff, or go digging through our stuff in storage to find things, so we were pretty much eating whatever we could keep in the fridge and assemble easily, or what we could find that came prepared in it's own oven safe baking dish. We did have our Vitamix for morning smoothies thank heavens!! We also were in pretty tight quarters at the apartment. There was no playground, so we had to drive to the park to get our wiggles out. The apartment was in a busy part of the city, and for me, (after having lived in the middle of nowhere for so long) it was really intimidating to get out and about much. I kept hoping that I wouldn't have to get used to this part of town, and so really didn't venture out as much as I probably should have. Looking back I wish I would have made more effort to take the kids out and keep them occupied, but we were all, myself included in a bit of survival mode with so much uncertainty. So needless to say Paige's birthday was not what it should have been, but we still did our best to show our girl how special she is to us.

We made sure to stick to our usual tradition of decorating for the big day in the birthday girl's favorite color. My kids have come to expect this, and honestly I think it's even more fun for me! Paige's birthday breakfast was jumbo sized Costco muffins (we did splurge for some chocolate ones) with a candle in it of course.

 These cuties love each other so much and it melts my heart to see how honestly excited they get for each other.

 From Grandma and Poppy Smith, Paige got some princess Duplos, (Aurora) to add to her collection. Those continue to be a huge hit for our girls, and other than a few dress ups and stuffed animals, are the only toys the girls keep in their room. She also got the new Tinkerbell Pirate Fairies movie.

 Isn't she so beautiful?! I love this picture! She sure loved being the center of attention.

 From Mom and Dad she was given Aurora dress up clothes. She wasted no time in trying them out.

 Then she got to open her outfit for Sparkle from Grandma and Grandpa Morgan. She was so excited about that!

 She was so sweet about her cake. I normally make the kids' cakes myself and was feeling sad I wouldn't get to for her, but she was all sorts of excited about picking out a grocery store cake. I've got to be totally honest and say that it looked nothing like the picture they promised and was a bit sorry in real life, but she thought it was fabulous and still has all the figurines from the top. At least she was happy!

We did some shopping as a family, had facetime with the grandparents and had take-out from our favorite Carabba's as a splurge for dinner. It wasn't much, but if nothing else, my girl knows she is loved.

A few things about five year old Paige:
She is our super socialite. Whenever we go anywhere she is always looking to make a new friend, and usually succeeds!
She loves to sing and dance, and color, color color. I'm constantly refilling the paper and she is always looking to fill up wall space with pictures. She loves to send pictures to people, or make cards. In the last few months, she's loved to try writing notes as well. She did take some convincing that her name is spelled P-a-i-g-e and not P-A-J, but we've got that down now.
She loves to play pretend anything. Sometimes it's a game of Mommy/babies, sometimes it's princesses and pirates, sometimes it's copying a show she has seen. My girls can entertain themselves for hours this way and for now, I don't usually interrupt it. Not even for school. I love to see them play so well together and be so creative. They are easily lost in a world of their own and it's adorable to watch.
She is a quick learner. She has officially joined our school this year as one of the big kids, (last year was the basics of reading and motor skills like cutting). She loves to read and takes no convincing like her brothers did at that age. She loves to write and keeps at it, even when it's hard, or she spelled something wrong. She soaks up like a sponge whatever her brothers are doing and it's been hilarious to sit down to a math lesson only to realize she already knows whatever is being covered that day. Right and left? Duh, mom. Two cubes and three cubes makes five? She can do it in her sleep. She is excited and hungry to learn and it is a joy to teach her.
Paige is a party animal. She's always trying to plan a tea party or a girls' night. She does get a little grumpy if things don't go exactly the way she imagines them, (lemonade and cookies in the girls' room doesn't exactly keep with house rules around here) but she's always up for a good time.

We love love love our exuberant little Paige. She's still a BIG personality in a  SMALL package, and we are so grateful she is ours. She is a good example to her younger sisters and a great friend to her Mom. I couldn't be more proud.