Lia's Birthday Celebrations!

Well there are good things about having a birthday in December and bad things about having a birthday in December. One of the good things is that the celebration often seems to last for days as was the case for Lia. The bad thing is that you get all your presents in a few weeks and then nothing else for the rest of the year.

We had our first birthday celebration for Lia's birthday with Dan's family on Thanksgiving. Dan practiced making the birthday cake that we were going to make for her party with her friends a week later. As you can see from the pictures, he did an AMAZING job at creating the perfect pink princess castle cake! I knew that Dan had worked in a bakery in high school but I was unaware that he had used a pastry bag to fill cream curls so he was very adept at using one to decorate a fancy cake. Lia got a beautiful outfit for her American girl doll from her aunts, uncles and cousins and a Princess scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Hielkema which was something she has been wishing for forever (as she says).

Our next birthday celebration was Dec. 1st with a few of Lia's friends. Lia wanted to have a "play date" party with cake and ice cream this year and we told her she could invite five friends (because last year was a LOT of kids when all her friends came). All the girls came dressed up in their princess attire and brought their dolls as well.

Then on Sunday we met Nana and Papa and Auntie Julie and Uncle Bill for dinner to celebrate Auntie Julie's birthday and Lia's birthday. We brought the remains of Lia's cake from the day before so everyone could have their "chocolate fix". Nana and Papa gave Lia their hand-me-down digital camera and she was SO excited to have her very own camera. Auntie Julie and Uncle Bill gave her a beautiful Cinderella dress, shoes, crown and wand that lights up. Lia adores all things princess and the more sparkly and glittery the better so she loved their outfit.

Lia's ACTUAL birthday is on Tuesday the 4th of December. We are going out for Chinese for dinner and she'll get to open the presents from us. It's hard for us to imagine that our little girl is already five years old. Dan always says she is growing up way too quickly. But every single day that Lia is part of our family and we spend with her is wonderful because we're just happy that God has made it so (to quote one of her favorite stories)!