Half Birthday

Katie is exactly five and a half years old today. We have never celebrated a half birthday before, but I thought it would be fun this year. I had already told her today was her half birthday, so she was expecting a little bit of fun.

She woke this morning and crawled in to bed with me while I snoozed (the best part of her Cycle Break from school!). I had her one gift ready for just this moment. I told her I had a special gift for her, one that I worked hard on and made just for this special occasion. It was a book called "Why I Love Katie." I gave it to her and told her now that she is five and a half and such a good reader, she has to read the whole thing to me. She opened it up and read all 39 pages. Each page is a photo of her, and I PhotoShopped text on each picture saying why I love her. For example:

The second to last page of the book is a drawing she did in her school journal. I just had to include it, because I love how she described herself. (Clockwise from top: I am a... star, friend, sister, cousin, person, princess, daughter, girl.) After that page, I added a handwritten note by me about how proud I am of her. She seemed to really like her book.

After we dropped Jackson at Parents' Day Out (thank God the snow didn't keep it closed yet another day this week), Katie and I went bowling with friends from our mom's club. She had fun using the ball ramp and also bowling granny style. We ate lunch there, too.

Later on we picked Jackson up again and came home to play before a special half birthday dinner. She ate her favorite meal with all the items cut in half: chicken nuggets, grapes and cheese.

For dessert? A cupcake, since it's like a mini cake, i.e. a "half" cake. Right? Right.

I think Katie enjoyed her half birthday, and the extra attention it brought her. Scary thought that the big SIX will be here in a flash!