Lydia's 5th Birthday

My daughter turned the big 0-5 a few days ago. In some ways she is our miracle baby. After she was born she would not breathe. She had an Apgar score of 2. After she was born they put her in my arms for thirty seconds and then grabbed her back again and pushed the "code" button on the wall. Within moments, half a dozen people poured into the room, started "bagging" her so she would breathe and working on her to keep her going. Although it seemed like an eternity they finally got her breathing after a couple of minutes. They put her in the NICU for several days but she was already doing great. I was so thankful for the doctors and nurses that did such a great job on my newborn baby.

On the morning of her birthday we went to a farm where they made sorghum. Here is the old time machine pulled by a mule that they used to squeeze the juice from the sorghum cane. Although hard to see, the juice is pouring into the blue barrel. Later they will boil it for hours until it gets thick and brown. (It's actually green to begin with)



The girls also got to paint and take home a pumpkin from the sorghum farm and play on a playground there. They had a great time and we were pleased with our birthday excursion.

While Lydia and I were at the library a few days before her birthday we discovered that as well as books, the library lends cake pans! Lydia immediately chose the crown cake pan for her birthday cake. I was a little nervous about baking a shaped a cake because I have never been able to get a cake out of a pan without some of it sticking and ruining the whole thing, let alone a shaped cake. I looked up directions on the internet and learned the secret. Use non-stick spray with flour in the spray. It worked perfectly and the cake came out beautifully! The pan came with directions for unbelievably intricate decorations. There was no way I was going to spend hours frosting the cake and besides that, Lydia really wanted to help decorate it. After I baked it, I simply frosted the whole thing pink. Then I had Lydia and her little sister put M&M's all around the edges and gummy Lifesavers in the middle of each of the crown prongs for jewels. Then we put a candle in each of the five jewels. (The funny thing is I didn't realize the crown had exactly five prongs just like her age when we first got the pan) Lydia then used thin licorice to write her name and age on the cake.



Here is Lydia with the cake:



Here is Lydia in mid-blow:



Happy 5th Birthday Sweetheart!


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So, I guess I can sew.

This blog is just to show you how darling and cute my little girls are in their new dresses I made them. It all started when we went to a "free" garage sale and Sophia picked out the ruby slippers. I decided she had to have the perfect dress to wear them with and found a pattern and some blue gingham material. Of course, I dared not leave Lydia out so I let her pick her own material and made her the same dress in a larger size. This is the result:



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Lydia Starts Preschool!

Today was a great day in the annals of our family history. Lydia started school today. Her preschool is called Creation Station and is affiliated with the local Christian school. As we suspected, she loved it! We toured the school in May and it about broke her heart that she had to wait until September to go. She got dressed for school first thing this morning and kept bugging us about when it was time to leave. As I was walking to the car after dropping her off, instead of singing the Hallelujah Chorus as I expected, I started crying! I can't believe my little girl is off to school.

Here's some pictures to commemorate the event:





Here she is all dressed and backpack on at about 8 am and her preschool didn't even start until 12:30! Notice she has tennis shoes on. She learned to tie her own shoes in about an hour and she does it great. Each day for the first eight days of school the kids are going to study colors. Today is blue. Each child was supposed to wear something blue. Lydia picked this out fit out herself with that in mind.





Here's a closer view. You may notice that Lydia decided to boycott showing teeth today. There's not one picture with her pearly whites showing.





Next to the school sign.





The first thing we did was hang up her backpack in the coat room. Alphabetically by last name, she is the first student so she gets the most convenient position next to the door!





This is one of her teachers pinning her name tag on. Next stop is the sink behind to wash hands. You can see a classmate washing hands behind her.





30 seconds after walking into the main room and mom had ceased to exist. Oh well, at least she wasn't crying, wailing, and holding on to me for dear life.




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