Happy Birthday Lizzie!

Here are five pictures of Lizzie's birthday festivities. I still do not want to believe she is already five.

I know quite often I mention what a challenge this girl is for me. On one hand, she is the one that makes me laugh the hardest every day over something she says or does. She is the one that makes me lose my patience the most. She is also the child that I have cried the most for. In her first 4 years she went through so much. She started getting sick around 8 months. In her first 4 years she had so many UTI's, a lumbar puncture, 3 to 4 VCUG tests, cathetered at least 15 times and two surgeries. One of which she had an awful recovery from. In all reality she is also my middle child which from all of my development classes gets some issues of their own:)

I would not trade her for anything though. She teaches me about the world and myself every day (strenghts and weaknesses). She loves to play with her ponies, be an artist or do Play-Doh. I still remember when she was born and the first time she was brought to me and I saw that pink ribbon on her head I just cried!!! I had a girl and I was so happy!!

We had a really fun birthday weekend. On Saturday she had a "princess and prince" birthday with her friends. There was a surprise quest appearance by Snow White and Cinderella which was really awesome. The birthday party was really loud and crazy but luckily for the parents it is only about an hour and a half once a year. Ethan gave her a My Little Pony she has been wanting for awhile (Scootaloo). Well as soon as she opened it she charged Ethan in a huge hug and would not let go of the poor boy. In the picture you can barely see Ethan's face :)

Sunday night we had a family party which was nice. She wanted piggy meat (ham) and her favorite food of mashed potatoes for dinner. She had even asked Santa for mashed potatoes at Christmas. She loves strawberries and Tom and Stacey took care of that for her. Thank you to all who helped make her day special

Today we are going to have a "Lizzie day" for her birthday. I am taking her to get her 5 year pictures, we are having a "tea party" with a neighbor whose birthday is also today. I also told her I will take her to spend some of her birthday money and maybe we will go to the Living Planet Aquarium since we have a year pass and it will be free.

Happy Birthday Liz.