Birthday Extravaganza

Through a bit of a scheduling snafu, this weekend was jam-packed with family birthday fun. Even though it was a little hectic, each party had its own perks and Penny thoroughly enjoyed herself. After church we walked with birthday boy Christopher to his grandma's house for a little lunch and yummy cupcakes. Penny was very excited for Christopher, even going so far as to insert HIS name into her usual rendition of the birthday song (ok, maybe only for one verse, with the rest of the verses being "Happy birthday to Penny" still). She let him open his own presents and only tried to walk off with the balloon once. Not too bad for someone who's convinced her birthday is every week.

From there, we headed to New Jersey for cousin Aneesa's tea party. Her birthday had been spent at our house sick in bed with a nasty fever while her parents were in Paris, so this was definitely a nice makeup for that. The first exciting surprise was when Cinderella emerged from the house and greeted all the guests in the backyard. Cinderella is Penny's absolute favorite Disney character. She often sings the songs from the movie and dresses up in her beautiful dress just to dance around the living room. It was a little intimidating meeting such a big hero, though, so it took her a while to introduce herself. When Cinderella pulled out a rack of fancy dresses for everyone to wear to their princess practice, Penny declined. She was already wearing what she calls her "Cee-erella dress." She happily joined in on the dancing, procured a tiara, and even sat in for some Disney trivia.

After a quick dinner of cookies and nachos, Penny helped out with finishing off the pinata. Her uncle was so impressed with her burgeoning swing, that he gave her the bat to take home. As you can see in the video, I have reason to be a bit hesitant - I don't think her swing needs to be any stronger when it is too easily directed at parents. I'm leaning toward making this an outdoor toy.


Sort of a fun add on for the weekend was a little friend I happened to introduce Penny to on Monday. There was a lovely cicada sitting on the clothesline and I brought it into the house for Penny to see. She was very polite and offered it something to eat. I told her the cicada likes to eat trees, so she invited it to sit on Daddy's tree, then got the tree some water to drink. I love how friendly she is with the bugs I introduce her to. She has been reluctant to let them walk on her, but she pets them on occasion and usually talks to them very nicely. She's so cute sometimes.