Cate is 5!!

Our baby girl turned 5!! She is still our ray of sunshine, dancing and singing her way through the days and lighting up rooms wherever she goes.  Cate has grown up a lot this year, giving up her nap, learning to ride a 2-wheel bike, moving into a booster seat, and showing intelligence and maturity beyond her years.  She reads at a level not far below her brother's, and constantly surprises those nearby with her big vocabulary. She also has a diva personality beyond her years (frighteningly similar to what I see in pre-teen girls!) which leads to overly dramatic reactions to the word "no" (such as "you're mean" or "it's not fair" or "I don't care"), and regular debates about why she's too young to wear makeup.  She is still a cautious eater (unless we're talking pasta, pizza, quesadillas, grilled cheese or hot dogs), with her absolute favorite food being bacon.  In fact, Bill made pancakes for breakfast last weekend with chocolate chips, and she said - Daddy, these are good, but pancakes don't taste as good without bacon.  Overall, she brings lots of lively debate and laughter to our home, and I can't wait to see what's in store over the upcoming year!
As with all birthdays, we started her big day by waking her up with a candle in her toast in bed.  She slept in a bit (poor Isaac was waiting patiently), but greeted us with a huge grin when we opened her door and started singing.

When we went downstairs, Cate was super-excited to see that Pilar had decorated the house with balloons and signs, and personalized the wrapping paper for Cate's gifts with a huge princess and notes like "keep calm, it's the princess's birthday", which was adorable.

Dressed up in her princess gear, Cate was excited to Facetime with Papa Rich in NY and Jen, Max and the kids in Israel, and then head to the art studio for her birthday party.

Cate invited 13 friends to her art party, where they played lots of games, painted a Frozen-themed canvas, attempted to destroy a pinata, and ate lots of pizza and cake.  She was also lucky enough to have lots of family around, including Grandma Gerri, Grandma Bertie, Grandpa, Aunt Ray-Ray, Aunt Alli & Uncle Chad, Aunt Kristin and cousins Sebastian and Mason.  Here are some pics from the day:

Caitlin chose a Frozen cake, marble chocolate and vanilla with Elsa on top.

Each of the kids took swings at the pinata, but after the second round yielded lots of giggles but no success, we cheated a bit and ripped it open.

Here's a pic of the kids holding up their final masterpieces (sucking on pinata candy - not making miserable faces).

Finally, once we got home, Cate surrounded herself with lots of presents (mostly Frozen themed, shockingly!), and ripped each one open with glee.

Later in the day (after the kids went to another birthday party!) we had a family birthday dinner for Caitlin, Rachael (whose bday was the day before) and Uncle Chad (whose bday was the following day).  Not surprisingly, Cate chose homemade macaroni and cheese as her birthday meal.  Bill gourmet'ed it up, by making a lots of delicious toppings, including shrimp, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and pancetta.  While waiting for the meal, Cate rode her new scooter up and down the street donning her beloved workout outfit from Kristin.

And then we all sang and ate cake (again!).  Not a bad birthday!!

To wrap up the fun day, we snuggled and read some of her new books, and then did the ceremonial measurement on the wall (Cate was very pleased to see she's almost an inch taller than Isaac was at 5!) before Cate fell quickly to sleep on her new Frozen sheets from Papa Rich snuggling her beloved Martha dog.

At her 5-year old checkup, Cate was VERY brave - she didn't cry through all 3 shots and was rewarded with a Daddy-daughter trip for chocolate donuts.  Here's her measurement card - she's in the 81st percentile for height at 44.25 inches and the 64th for weight at 42 pounds.