Eliza is Four

Today is Eliza's fourth birthday. She's the last of my May babies to get her party. *Whew* Traditionally, the night before their birthday, I take my children to the store and let them pick out whatever breakfast cereal they want. Traditionally, they go for the most over-priced, over-merchandised, least healthy boxes on the aisle. (Hyrum always picks his based on what free thing he can get, he considers it a bonus birthday present.) My mom started that tradition with me and my brothers and sisters. I think it's a nice, easy way to make the day feel extra special. And since we're not really breakfast cereal people anyway, the kids wait for it and talk about it weeks in advance, planning what they will pick out. Well, this year, I asked Eliza what cereal she wanted, and she said she didn't want cold cereal, she wanted pancakes and sausages and hash browns and scrambled eggs. !!!

Because I'm a nice mommy and a sucker for my kids (and it sounded good to me, too), I got up this morning and did my best impression of a Perkins Family Restaurant breakfast. Everyone loved that. No one missed the cold cereal. And all Eliza actually ate was sausage patties and orange juice.

Because her birthday is only 15 days after Lucy's, I always have to be careful to make sure she feels as loved and as special as she thinks I made Lucy feel (and Lucy has a way of acting superior about everything, anyway, which doesn't make my job easy). Last year, we kind of blew her birthday off. It was on a Sunday, and I don't remember what the deal was, but I didn't have any thing planned or prepared, or a cake made or ice cream in the freezer. I don't even remember what gifts she got. But our friends, the Muirs, invited us over for dinner after Church, and Tamora Muir whipped up a chocolate bunny cake with candle whiskers. The year before THAT, we moved on her birthday, and her presents got packed, and it took us six weeks to find them. So this year, seeing as how she is getting old enough to remember, I had to do something.

So, she got her breakfast, and she got a sweet white dress that I accidentally bought on eBay (long story, the moral of which is: random acts of kindness have no place in the bidding process). Also, I made a modest mermaid costume for her doll. She has been begging for weeks for a Barbie Mermaidia doll. I personally think they're obscene. So I kind of made something up. It was a pain to make, but 'Liza was thrilled and very rewarding. She invited pretty much her entire Sunbeam class to her party (and Gabriella and Lucy, because they're her "best buddies"), and even though only one girl showed up, it was her favorite friend, and they had a tremendous time making sparkly crowns and making believe and eating cake (I ordered my first ever made-by-the-bakery-and-professionally-decorated cake this time...it was disturbingly easy) and making believe some more. I'm thinking four was an easy birthday.