SLOANE TURNS FIVE

My once-upon-a-time baby turned five last week. My oh my. I'm barely able to take it in.  I think I'm more emotional about this birthday than I have been at any other of her birthdays. Part of it probably has to do with the upcoming transition to Kindergarten. Another part of it might be how she all of a sudden seems so much more like her own person with new hopes and capabilities. I'm excited and nervous for her these days in a way that feels new.

I'm just baffled and amazed...that she goes from this puff of sweetness to now being this tremendous five-year old person. That I go from being this brand new mom, overwhelmed and madly in love, to this sight lu more experienced and heart-aching mom of two. We have both come so far.

To celebrate her birthday, we designated one of the pool afternoon Fridays as birthday pool day. Sloane said let's have a rainbow theme, so I got her colorful balloons to make a rainbow wall, she wore her rainbow swimsuit and we shared colorful snacks. Sloane felt wholly loved and elated in anticipation and all throughout her party. 

The next day, we had another (smaller) birthday gathering for Sloane with a few kids from her "class" at daycare. Sloane was very happy to have her friends come over and it ended up being a sweet and peaceful gathering where the kids played and the parents got to know each other better. 

(Logan looks distressed here, but she's not....just really hot. She was very excited Sloane's birthday all that morning.)

While everyone was singing 'Happy Birthday' to her, Sloane started whispering something to Logan and gave her a kiss. 

This year there was A LOT of talk about the cake. And she said she wanted a fruit "cake" again and we eventually decided we would just make something that looked like a big cake, but all out of fruit. Sloane was a happy camper and believe it or not, every single piece of that thing was eaten. 

After Sloane blew out her candle, we handed out cups of fruit salad (I had made additional bowls of fruit salad) topped with whipped cream. I also had cups of rainbow goldfish ready to go. 

As people left, Sloane handed out these freezer pops to each of her friends and thanked them for coming.  I had told Sloane she could choose where we went for dinner, and she chose....pho! It's her favorite right now. 

After dinner, we came back home for another (dare I say, proper) cake. Mignon had bought Sloane a lovely chocolate cake withs salted caramel from Shindigz, with sprinkles! 

These photos reminded me of another set of photos I took of her in front of a cake, when she was two!! 

I miss her even as I'm writing this even though I just dropped her off a few hours ago! I'm so proud of who she is and I'm the luckiest mom alive to be alongside her to see who she is becoming.  Sloane, I loved all of year four....I'm excited for year five with you!