Happy 5th Birthday, Sunshine!

Sunshine turned five years old yesterday. We had a birthday dinner with her grandparents (who came out for that occasion and are staying to help until the baby arrives). On Saturday, she had a birthday party with several of her friends. Since Christmas, she’s been talking about what she wanted to do for her birthday and one theme that out-lasted all the others was an outside party. I said we’d have to see; in the three years we’ve lived here, we’ve seen everything from snow to sun on her birthday. So when Saturday dawned sunny and warm, she was happy.

Sunshine is still our social butterfly. She’s always trying to arrange playdates with friends and says hello to anyone who walks past our park (and if they have a child anywhere close to her age, she invites them to stay and play).

In fact, when I was visiting with my friend Val earlier last week, we laughed to realize that Sunshine had introduced us. Val used to live across the sidewalk from us, and whenever she was outside, Sunshine would stop to talk to her. Then Val and I began talking, and then her daughter began babysitting my daughters, and then we began having coffee together… all because of Sunshine.

Lately, Sunshine has been asking me to put her in swimming lessons again. She still enjoys skating but she’s definitely also a little fish. Preschool is the highlight of her day. One morning my husband and I forgot to coordinate who had the truck key so I couldn’t drive Sunshine to preschool. Ever since then, she’s been the one who remembers to tell Daddy, “Leave the truck keys, please! We need the truck today.” She’s very excited about starting Kindergarten in the fall; we know three other children who are going to the same school that she is, but she’ll be fine with making friends.

I saw a statistic that the average preschooler asks 437 questions a day. I thought, “At least.” Sunshine is very curious about the world around her, especially when we are driving. If she isn’t asking me about the rules of the road (she should be a great driver by the time she’s fourteen!) or the music we’re listening to, then she’ll start on questions about the last movie she watched—or a movie we saw several months ago which I can barely remember even though she now wants to know why the bad guy did what he did. I’m amazed at what she remembers and what questions she comes up with—and how many times my answers to her questions just generate more questions.

She’s also our little fashionista. I’ve finally gotten the girls into the routine of brushing their hair after they get dressed; Sunshine usually wants multiple braids, barrettes, pony tails or bows in her hair (which get pulled out later when she wants to ride her bike with the neighbour boys). She’s taken to wearing a bracelet regularly and got a set of her very own nail polish from Val for her birthday, so manicures/pedicures happen regularly around here. I’m trying to teach her about “matching” clothes, but some days I just laugh at the outfits she puts together. The other day, she came downstairs wearing a hoodie underneath a dress with a shirt and another hoodie on top.

And so to my bright, curious, fashionable, social, busy little girl… Happy 5th Birthday!

Need more birthday party ideas? Check out Sunshine’s other parties: