A rainbow kind of day :-)

My sweet Gabriella is un-fortunate enough that she has one of those birthdays that falls so close to Christmas. Ask anyone that has a Dec baby and they'll probably say that any day in Dec is too close to Christmas. You get the "combined" Christmas/Birthday gift, a birthday gift wrapped in Christmas wrap, or worse yet, completely looked over. When I found out the Gabby was going to be a Dec baby, I promised that I would put a little extra effort into making sure that she wouldn't be forgotten or have any bad feelings about her special day.
Well, as luck would have it, my body was nowhere near ready to have her when we went for a check up on the 27th. With my due date 2 days away, the doctor's decided to put me in the hospital and "start the process" THINKING that it would take two days for my body to react. NOPE!!! It only took 4 hours and my sweet little girl was here.
Her first 2 birthdays were spent with immediate family, her third birthday was spent with extended family at a cousin's baby shower (they had everyone sing happy birthday to her which made her feel special), and her fourth birthday was, again, with the immediate family. When her fifth birthday rolled around, plans were already made for a family day but it dawned on me that she had never had a real/bonafide/surrounded by all of her friends birthday party. This being her last year of preschool with friends she's been with for 3 years, we decided to have a party.
I asked her if she would like to HAVE a party instead of being the one that has to GO to a party and her face lit up. She thought for only a second and yelled out (literally) that she wanted a R A I N B O W party.
My reaction???? How in the world was I going to pull this off ?????
I immediately prayed for the creative gene to kick in!
First things first, an invitation!

I had Gabby color a rainbow, copied it several times, and put all of the information on the back. Attached to the back was a rainbow candy stick. So far, so good!!


Now it was time to think about the party.

We had.....
Rainbow party hats and Rainbow colored bags for the scavenger hunt.
Each child had to find something red (a Valentine brownie), orange (package of goldfish), yellow (juicy fruit gum) , green (big bottle of bubbles), blue (small bubbles), and purple (a package of stickers), all of which were scattered all over the floor in the classroom!

Rainbow streamers and rainbows hanging from the ceiling fan
We had rainbow tattoos, rainbow hanging craft, rainbow bracelets, coloring pages of rainbows, and a FABULOUS rainbow birthday cake with pink cotton candy clouds made by a neighbor (this picture actually does no justice to the real thing. The inside was literally a rainbow).
Our birthday girl blowing out the candle :-)

As her friends were singing Happy Birthday to her, she got a little emotional and teary eyed but in the end, Gabby had a great day opening presents and being with all of her friends!

Our gift to her was her birthday banner. Although I made it a few years too late, I was able to catch up on all of her years.

1 was a butterfly party

2 was cupcakes

3 was balloons

4 was a dog party

and 5 was her rainbows!

Happy colorful R A I N B O W Gabriella!

We love you!!!

A little late

I don't know how it happens or even why but every year the same thing happens to me. No matter how hard I try to stop it, it's inevitable.

Time just gets away from me.
*SIGH*

I just sat and read through this blog, from the beginning, and I have loved every minute, every story, every picture, and every memory. Gosh, these kids have grown up so much and so fast. Really, where does the time go?? My very next thought was...I wish I had written more often. I'm sure there are memories that are forgotten because they weren't recorded but rather than focus on what is lost, I raise my bottle of water sitting next to me on the desk and salute to another year and another attempt at being better about journaling.

With every new year comes resolutions and I am no exception. SO, my list....
Record more happenings pertaining to my family
Find the healthy me again (so far no pneumonia this year)
Only have the things in my life that are important to me
Rid my life, house, kid's rooms, of unnecessary things.
With all of these, I hope to find more time with my family and less on other things. :-)

That being said, I am a little late, I know (13 days) but here is to a Happy New Year!!!

One of my favorite pictures of the kids. Taken in Pismo Beach while we were out on a ride. Jeff's bike ran out of gas so the kids and I messed around taking pictures while Dad rode back to camp and got the gas can.

In between Christmas and New Year's, we spent a few days in Lake Tahoe. Record snow fell (the most since 1930), but after 4 days, upon leaving, I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of the three of them together. Jeff pulled over when he could, I threw their boots on them, they jumped out, took three pictures standing in the freezing cold, and luckily, I got a great shot. They can cooperate when they want to :-)

From our neck of the woods to yours, Happy New Year!!