Birthday Vacation

Disneyland 2011

Naomi turned 5 this year!  To celebrate her birthday (since it nicely fell during Spring Break) we drove to Southern California.  Our first stop was Disneyland.  We took this picture of her standing in front of a bunch on Birds of Paradise flowers because they are her Nana's favorite.

She had some birthday money to spend while we were on vacation, and a goodly amount was used at the build-a-bear store in Downtown Disney.  She choose a black dog who she named Heart.  Heart of course needed clothing, and socks, and shoes, and a food bowl....

Doesn't she look happy?  We rode in on the monorail where they point out the Matterhorn so she was certain that, that should be her first ride.  It quickly was put on the 'NO' list, as in "NO I'm never riding that again!"

She did like the teacup ride, and insisted that Yaya and Pa pose with her for a picture.  I think she rode in a yellow teacup on the ride, yellow has become her favorite color again.

First Celebration

Each year we have several parties for Naomi's birthday.  We have a party with her friends, a party on her birthday with whoever is around family-wise, and a party with our families.  This year we did her friend party early because two of Naomi's dearest friends will be moving away soon (siblings, so just one family).

I'm not sure if you've seen the movie Tangled yet, but it's super cute! Disney's new take on Rapunzel.  Naomi asked for a Tangled themed birthday like so many little girls will do this year!

I spent some extra time with the crepe paper to make the living room look pretty :-)

This is the cake that Ms. Birdie made for Naomi.  It's Rapunzel's tower with long golden hair coming our of the window (faces are really hard to do with icing!).

I thought I flipped this picture, sorry.  It's just a closer look at the cake.  You'll notice that is also includes a cute little chameleon, he is Rapunzel's best friend in the movie!

Michael lights the candles as all the kiddos look on.

If you look closely, you'll notice that all the kids have backed away from the cake by this point.  Naomi begged for relighting candles, but they spark!  At least all the kids have enough self preservation to scoot back!

Naomi had a hard time blowing out the candles on her own, but like the good friends they are, all her party guests helped her out!

As a grand finale, Naomi was allowed to have two of her girl friends stay the night, and what an adventure that was!  They played games, they drink too much juice, then they all sprawled out on the living room floor in their sleeping bags to watch a movie.  I think they finally went to sleep around midnight, but I can't be sure because I was exhausted and Michael took over for me.  The morning brought more playing, pancakes, and another movie!  I think it was a success :-)