Elise is FIVE

Elise had lots of surprises surrounding her 5th birthday. First up: the day before her birthday Mimi flew in! I stuck Millie and Elise in the car and turned on a movie. Lou didn't think to ask what we were doing until we were pulling up to the airport curb to get Mimi. Elise was very excited and surprised. We drove back to AF and had lunch at Kneader's. Then we dropped Millie off at a friend's house and surprised Sadie at school. She gave Mimi a huge hug and we all went to get our nails done.

There was some confusion with our nail appointments and they only had 3 openings together, but they didn't say anything to us about it. They did the girls and Carolyn's nails first and I kept thinking they would start me, but they didn't. I should have just skipped my pedicure, but I am not that smart, so I started mine when everyone else was done. The girls were having a hard time staying quiet and calm so Carolyn drove them to school and picked up Millie. The fun outing and surprise for the girls and Carolyn ended up being some alone relaxing time for me. I am manipulative like that.

The next morning was the main event. Lou's 5th birthday. Mimi got up early and made pancake pops for the girls. Elise wore the crown she got at preschool when she celebrated her birthday.

 Sadie was happy to help Elise open her presents. Lou's favorite thing was this Ever After High electronic diary that comes complete with a key. If you turn the key one way in the lock it leads you to the royals (aka the nice characters) and the other way it leads to the rebels.

Well, the surprises were just getting started. After the girls had played with Elise's new presents for a bit I went and got 2 more gift bags. I reminded the girls how we had been talking about what to do for their birthday parties this year but hadn't been able to choose something. I told them Daniel and I figured out the best thing and the gift bags were filled with things that we would need for their parties. In each bag was a Frozen autograph book, Minnie ears, sunglasses, and a princess dress-up. I asked them what they thought we were doing and they said, kind of matter-of-factly 'Disneyland'. Like they hadn't been talking about wanting to go there for years. Like it was just your every day kinda thing. Elise asked if she could play with her new toys some more. I felt a little bit dumb because I was so thrilled to tell them and their reaction wasn't what I was expecting. 

A few minutes later Sadie asked me if we were really truly going to Disneyland. When I told her yes she got a lot more excited. I guess they needed some time to let it sink in but they got more and more excited and tried on their new stuff while we finished loading the car to drive to California.

Let's talk about our big 5-year-old Elise Lynn:

-loves dragons, dinosaurs, princesses, and anything pretend

-70th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height

-does not know how to be quiet or sneaky. She walks with heavy heels and can't whisper to save her life

-loves to snuggle and give hugs

-is just SO expressive and enthusiastic. I love that about her. Her preschool and primary teachers always tell me about how engaged she is and her eyes get really big when she is listening and grasping new information.

-loves to fake laugh repeatedly until she is really laughing

-tells lots of jokes that make no sense

-mostly kind to other kids. The person she fights most with is Sadie (no surprise)

-a great student. She started off preschool having a hard time sitting still and being quiet but by the end of the year her teachers all said she was wonderful, attentive and respectful

-eats pretty much anything. Fruit is her favorite food. She hates soda

-tries to play with Millie but gets frustrated because Camille usually just ends up messing up whatever Elise wants her to do. I think next school year they will get along really well when Millie gets better at pretend play

-she's a sweater. Not like an article of clothing, but actual body sweater. Is that weird to write about her? Her cheeks turn bright red and her body sweats when she runs around for like 5 minutes. She also gets sweaty in her sleep. Poor girl. Adolescence, please be kind to her.

-HATES to get her hair done. I really want to just cut all her hair off so I don't have to deal with the fights. I would do that if she wanted to, but she wants long hair. Sometimes she cries before the brush even makes contact with her hair

-thinks outside the box. She loves to be creative. At one point during the school year her teachers told us that while they really appreciated the detailed swirls she was adding to all her letters it made it so they couldn't read the letters. The funny thing is that she would write the letter correctly and then make swirls all over the top. She got a little mad when they told her that because then the letters weren't cool anymore. She also likes to draw things and then "color them in". which basically means coloring over the entire thing she drew until you can't tell anything was under the scribbles.

-quick to let go of anger and hurt feelings. She does not hold a grudge