BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

I so regret that we didn't think about pictures for this event!! Mark took a video, and I was directing, and we forgot to ask a friend to take pictures. Ugh.

Anyway, I will try my best to document this without pictures of the actual event. Mali's birthday celebration was planned out in her mind well before I ever brought it up. I started asking her about ideas for a party, and she said, "Mom, I've got it all figured out. I want to put on a show, and I want it to be a garden play with ladybugs, butterflies, and flowers as the characters." So, from there, we worked out the details. My kids have so many requests that I just cannot honor (like Greta's deeply intense wish for a real dog-sled team for Christmas), so when there is one that I can honor, I want to do it. So, we planned a birthday play for her party. The guests were assigned parts and sent a script and tickets in advance. Parents dropped off their kids and we put together the play before the parents returned for the performance.

The play was called In the Garden. It was written by Mali and directed by me. The plot was as follows: Once there was a garden with only one lonely flower. All the critters in the garden fed off of that one flower, so she got worn out. A butterfly wished for more flowers to bloom, and they did. Then there was enough food for everyone, and the garden was a beautiful, happy place! In the middle of the play, Mali sang the song that she wrote about a year ago, called Flowers, won't you bloom?

It was a fun party, and we were grateful that the friends and parents were willing to participate to make it happen! Here are a few pictures of the pre-play action. For Mali's party cake, she asked for a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and flowers decorating it.








When I asked Mali to make a thank you card for her friends, this is what she came up with:



It says on the top "The world is a flower."

In our family, we have a family birthday dinner night on the actual birth-day. Then the birthday party is with friends and happens whenever we can make it happen. So, here are a few shots of Mali's birthday dinner night. Mali chose to eat noodles (surprise!), garlic bread, raspberries, and fruit salad. She chose vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting for dessert (I couldn't help but think of Eeyore, as he said, "will there be those little cake things with pink sugar icing?").