Gwen is Six!

Our sweet, lovable, goofy, and oh so flexible, Gwen Gwen is now six years old. She's in full time school and so I got to do one of the funnest things and go to the school to have lunch with her! The school rounds up all the birthday in the month onto one day and parents can choose to bring them lunch and sit with them, a great tradition to do! She chose Chik Fil A so I ran and grabbed that and brought it to her. I can't tell if she was more excited that I was there or that I brought that food for her haha.

She had decided she wanted to do her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, mostly for the ticket blaster machine haha. I tried to encourage her to pick something new and different, but she was set. Truth be told it's one of the better party places and it's budget friendly so it wasn't a big deal (plus it's her birthday, who am I to tell her no?). So we booked that for the 16th.

Funny thing is, we talked all week up to her birthday about her party and she suddenly got SO shy when it came to saying hi, dancing with, or taking pictures with Chuck E  Cheese. She'd only do a photo if it was a group photo with the family (and some rando girl that photo bombed us haha). On the flip side, Lucy, who is usually our shy one, was so NOT shy and loved running up to him to give him a hug or high five, or even dance with him. She was all for it haha.

When it came to doing the Ticket Blaster, she did get excited and chose Cara to do it with her. They got quite a few tickets (some got stuck to their boots and hair even haha). We ended up with over 9,000 tickets so they LOADED up on prizes. All kids loved playing the games and Gwen kept asking me to go with her and play as many as we could do together.

We did pizza, cake, presents, and then the kids all got their dippin' dots ice cream, such a fun treat! We also made sure to give her the "wear" and "want" gifts (snow boots and a Claire's gift card), we saved the "need" and "read" ones for her actual birthday, to put on her table

Speaking of her birthday table, one other funny thing is when she woke up for her party day she mentioned how she didn't see her table was done, so I had to explain the table is for her birthday day, to make that day special and fun.

She said she wanted to spend her gift card on Sunday, so we went out to do that. I was still scrambling for a couple table items so we were running quite a few errands that day and a stop at Wal Mart (the closest Claire's to us) was a perfect excuse! She ended up getting a makeup case that she was so excited for.

For her actual birthday day we got her table (with the "need" and "read" gifts: a jewelry box for earrings and an Amelia Bedelia book set) and streamers set up. She chose eggs, donuts, and orange juice for breakfast. For school, she took 3 different kinds of hostess cupcakes for class treat. Unfortunately, sickness was starting in our home so I wasn't sure she'd end up going for her birthday, but she was good enough and too excited, so she went in.

At school, she got a sticker and a cute certificate with some birthday drawings. Tolleff (a cute boy in her class) made sure to wish her a happy birthday before they left for the day, she has a little crush on him so that put her on cloud 9. After they came home from pick up, we went out to Leatherby's for dinner and did "things we love about Gwen" (which she tried to hide from).

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To Gwen, 

You are beyond the silliest kid I have ever known. When you ask things like "guess if I like this" or "guess what number I'm thinking of" or when I ask how your day was and you say "you know!" I think it's so funny (but awesome) how you just love to be naked all the time, you have NO shame in your game and I hope you stay that way...until you hit puberty, at least, then I want you to feel modest haha.

I love how you'll be friends with anyone. You are also very blunt when talking about things. You seem obsessed with death and will bring it up at random times (like the time we were driving and you said you know I'll die first because I'm the oldest haha). You like to copy your older sister, but you are learning to like/explore your own things. First it was space, now it seems to be pirates. Not sure where that came from, but it's fun.

I especially love how you are always asking questions and putting things together. You also have the most amazing recall of ANYONE I know. I think those things are what makes you so brilliant, but you are so very humble about it!

You LOVE to sleep and are still such a good sleeper. However, sometimes you want to sleep more than experiencing new things. I wonder if that'll stay or if you'll be more excited about things as you get older.

You still have only 2 teeth that you've lost, but I'll be excited to see you lose more and get your big teeth. You are taller than Cara was at 6 so apparently not being picky is working for you. I still love your curves and really hope they stay and you appreciate them as you get older.

Please keep being your silly, amazing, super smart self! Don't let anyone dim your light, ever! I hope you'll never be too old for our snuggles and telling me what's happening in your noggin and always finding things to laugh about. And I hope I always have a special place in your heart.

Love, Mom!