Rosemary turns 5

On January 31, 2006, we met this little lady…

And today, she turned five years old!

All decked out and ready for school.

Rosemary picked out her birthday party theme months ago so we started getting things ready even before Charlotte arrived. The theme she chose? Ballerina, of course, a perfect theme for Rosemary. It ended up being a super easy theme too because we had a bunch of pink ballet stuff already at home.

We knew we wanted to make sure this birthday didn’t get overshadowed by all of the other excitement in our lives at the moment so we asked for help from the grandmas and from friends and together were able to put together a pretty fun party without going crazy. We decided just to do pizza and juice boxes to make it easy. Brandi agreed to make the cupcakes so we didn’t have a cook a thing. Mom helped with favors, decorations, and setup and Janice helped with setup and keeping up with Charlotte at the party.

We made the invites in December and bought a whole bunch of tulle and netting during Joann’s after Christmas sales.

A little happy birthday sign. I got the tile at our last MOPS meeting and painted it one night and added some scraps of netting and ribbon. The pointe shoes were my first pair. They’re about 20 years old now.

It’s hard to see, but Rosemary helped to make the pennant at the top of the pic above. She picked out the paper she liked, I cut it into triangles for her and then she threaded it on the twine.

Brandi made the day infinitely easier by making the cupcakes for the party.

We had a craft table and two eating tables.

Little tutus my mom and I made for the girls.

Another pair of old shoes. I don’t know that there are very many types of shoes where you could get away with using them as party décor…especially ones this old. Keds party anyone? :-)

Rosemary’s model pose with Dynah, Brandi, and Karen

These two have known each other pretty much their entire lives. Dynah actually attended Rosemary’s baby shower.

Once everyone arrived, the girls colored some ballet coloring pages.

Next, we did a little ballet lesson.

Check out those beautiful girls! There was a lot of pink and purple in that room!

Then the girls started doing a bit of Ring around The Rosie.

After dancing a bit, we headed over to make some ballerina hair bows. I don’t have any photos of the craft time, but you can see the results in the pics below. I tried to pick a craft that the girls could do and would be useful later. I think the girls liked the bows, but the adults had to basically make them. Ah, well.

Enjoying their pizza

Getting ready to sing happy birthday

Present opening was a whirlwind!

Ben wanted to help with the presents too.

After presents, we headed outside for some playground time. It was a gorgeous day so it was nice to get out and let the girls run around a bit.

At the end of it all, Rosemary declared that it was ‘awesome.’ I was happy it went well and that the girls had a good time. While it wasn’t stressful getting it together, we were all absolutely exhausted by the time it was over. That afternoon, every single person in our house passed out.

Today was Rosemary’s actual birthday. Per Rosemary’s request, we met Jonathan for lunch at Chick-fil-a.

Birthday girl and Charlotte – it was also Charlotte’s first dining out experience

Ben and Rosemary

Opening presents at home tonight

Showing off her new ballet outfit

A new dress

Another model pose where she’s holding up a 5

Cookies, ice cream, and candles…happy birthday, sweet girl!