Caitlin is FIVE today!!

Well the day that Caitlin and I have been waiting for is finally here! October 20! Her 5th birthday. We've been celebrating all weekend and I scheduled myself off today so that Caitie and I could stay home and play all day. Today is all about breaking our typical parenting rules...so far we've gone out to breakfast at Burger King (because it is her favorite and I promised) and now we're home to veg out in front of the TV for her favorite movie Princess Diaries 2. The weekend was a ton of fun. Friday night Jantina brought Faith and Alexandria over for a sleep over and while the kids watched a movie with Daddy Ryan, Jantina and I decorated little white t-shirts with puffy paint that said FANTASTIC to be 5 with the kids names on them. Then Saturday morning we presented the T-shirts for the girls to wear to their spa-day. They were SO happy and excited. Caitie was pretty funny and immediately went running to get the t-shirt that my friend Traci made for our 30th birthday spa day and said "Mommy you have to wear your shirt if you're going to be our leader" The other four girls didn't quite understand why they had special shirts to wear but Caitlin got it right away and proceeded to explain to them the intricacies of having a true "girls day at the spa". She's such a funny little bossy bit. Because the nail salon is only about a half a block away we walked over and back. We fed them lunch when we got back and then although none of them take naps anymore we decided that it would be a good idea to rest for a while before leaving for the ear piercing. Sadly none of Caitie's school friends were able to make it to the movie date (Big Soccer Game for the little tykes scheduled for the middle of the party time). It turned out to be better, at least in my opinion, because five 5yr olds and three mommies is about my limit. After their "quiet rest time" we fed the little monkeys some more food and packed them into the car to go the body piercing studio.

It's called the Bad Kitties in Newberg. http://www.badkitties.net/ Jantina and I chose to take the girls to a body piercer instead of a place in the mall like Claire's because after lots of research we found that using a piercing gun is more traumatic to the tissue and more importantly there is no way to ensure cleanliness. They say that they'll wipe the gun down with an alcohol pad, but alcohol doesn't kill all blood borne pathogens. With a professional piercing artist everything goes into an autoclave and is sterilized. Plus piercer's have more than two weeks of training they way the mall stores do. Faith went first and after the first ear was pierced she decided it was too painful and she didn't want to do the second. Jantina bribed her with "two scoops" of ice cream when they got home and Faith negotiated for a triple scoop deal. She said "count them, one, two, three scoops!" Once it was over she was happy to have the earrings but I don't think she'd do it again. When it was Caitlin's turn she jumped right up and got ready. After the first needle went in she was kinda sad and cried for a few seconds and then sort of sat up and visibly braced herself for the next piercing. She's a toughie. I asked Caitie if the pain was worth the beauty and her answer was a resounding "YES!". What's a little pain when you look exquisite? (As Caitlin's idol Fancy Nancy would say, exquisite is even fancier than beautiful) Amelia is so empathetic that she cried each time the girls were pierced and as soon a Faith got down from the chair she rushed right over to give Faith a hug. After the piercings were complete Faith and Alexandria went to their respective homes and Amelia, Gabrielle and Caitlin all came back to our house for another sleepover. We were so exhausted after getting home from the body piercer that we went to bed at a normal time. Sunday morning Ryan made everyone, including Chandra-Mark-Lucas, and Cathy -Claude fresh from scratch buttermilk pancakes and for those who ate it bacon. Meaning Ryan and Mark got bacon and the rest of us had really yummy pancakes. Then Cathy and I escaped to Costco for a little while to develop the film from my camera. I still haven't replaced my digital after it took a swim in our cooler-oops. Luckily I bought 6 rolls of film to document the weekend and Chandra, Arda and Cathy had their digital cameras with them. Around 2 in the afternoon Ryan's brother Rick and his family (wife Laura, sons Jack and Sean and daughter Lucy) and his brother Matthew came over. Fortunately the weather was perfect so we walked over to the park next to our apartment to hit a pinata and then because Rick and Laura have boys who LOVE baseball, we used a tennis ball and the pinata stick to play a little ball. Then it was back to our house for cake ice cream and presents. All in all a fun weekend. To end the three days of fun, Ryan came home from work early today and we went out to dinner at Red Robin (another favorite) and then over to Bullwinkles Family Fun Center to play arcade games. Chani, Mark and Lucas joined us for an hour or so and now we are home and getting ready for bed. I think I should have scheduled tomorrow off also because I need a break from the birthday celebrations! And Ryan's birthday is this SUNDAY!! Then the next weekend is Arda's birthday! I am really looking forward to April when we don't have any birthday parties that I am currently aware of! Of course I am the one who usually plans these weekend long celebrations so I can't be upset at how tired I am when they're over. Plus I LOVE LOVE LOVE birthday's and I always have tons of fun. Tomorrow I will try to post the pictures from this weekend. Right now I am too tired and this blog is long enough.