Lilly's The Fifth

If you are four years old, the thing you look forward to the most is turning five.  Lilly has been thinking about, talking about and looking forward to her fifth birthday for months and she had all sorts of plans as to how we should celebrate this monumental occasion.

Of course, like every other little girl turning five, Lilly wanted to celebrate in style...with a morel mushroom themed birthday party at her papaw's primitive hunting cabin an hour southwest of here.  Um...OK...not what Bryan and I had anticipated, but oh well.

We planned the outing that Lilly had asked for, but hosted a small family dinner at our house the night before so she could open gifts.  Everybody, well Jack and Samantha anyway, wanted to help open those gifts.

It's funny how things work out...  The night before I picked up a good friend to go to dinner.  She got into my car after loading a bag of hand me down dresses into the back and I ignored them and figrued I'd go through them later.  The next evening when Lilly got up from her rest she came out of her room dressed as a goth princess.  She had on faded black leggings, a black turtle neck and a black frilly skirt.  The last thing I wanted was pictures of my sweet baby girl turning five dressed as if she was going to a Marilyn Manson concert.  Enter the bag o' dresses.  None of them had been washed or pressed, but I convinced Lilly that she could go through the bag and pick out which ever one she wanted, as long as she ditched the goth garb.  She agreed...and then put this dress on backwards so she could see the bow too.

Since it was already stacking up to be a non traditional fifth birthday, I made Lilly her favorite pie for dessert and saved the cake for tomorrow at the cabin.

Jack, who doesn't care for pie, insisted  on a treat from his Easter basket.

The next morning we ghetto packed the car and headed to the cabin.  We didn't find a single mushroom as it was way too early in the season, but we had a great time anyway.  Quite a few family members made the trip to celebrate Lilly's birthday and just enjoy the first nice day in months.  We hunted, hiked and just stood around and ogled babies...Essek and Luke were quite the popular guys.

Lilly got a ride from Papaw after a walk in the woods.

Bryan got a compound bow for Christmas and this was the first time that he was really able to try it out.  When he went to the sporting goods store to get arrows and accessories he thought the salesman was just trying to earn a higher commission when he suggested a $10 wrist guard.  He wasn't.  Bryan shot the bow once, hit the bull's eye, and developed a small bruise on the inside of his wrist.  Much the the amusement of the other young men, the small bruise quickly turned into a huge welt surrounded by black, purple and blue skin.  Needless to say, Bryan went back and bought the wrist guard that would protect him from the bow string.

Lilly asked for a mushroom cake and after quite a bit of thought, this was the best I could come up with.  It's a jelly roll cake made to look like a dead elm tree with rice krispie 'mushrooms' growing all around it.  How sad that these were the only mushrooms we had that day.

After Lilly opened a toy Stihl chainsaw Jack decided that he should get in on the action too.

Jack's favorite part of the cabin?  Big surprise...it's the sandy soil.  The kid loves a sandbox.

Papaw is quickly running out of arms.

After some playing in the dirt we got out a pinata and taught the children that if you hit something hard enough with a stick, candy will fly out.

Yep, even the little ones.

Sunday was Lilly's actual birthday and in a rare lack of planning we didn't have anything to do.  So, we packed a picnic lunch and took it to the park.

And, played in some more dirt.

On the playground.

Some rocks.

We also rode bikes.  By 'we', I mean that Lilly rode her bike and Bryan carried Jack's bike.

Climbed on giant stumps.

After engaging in all of the fun that the park had to offer we came home for some much needed rest and then walked to the restaurant across the street for dinner, and a giant ice cream topped cookie.

On the way home from dinner Lilly declared that it had been the best birthday ever.  And, then she reminded us that we failed to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey at the cabin (the only thing that she actually requested to do).  So, while Bryan bathed the kids I set up the game.

Happy 5th Birthday, Lilly!  I can't wait to see what this year holds in store for you!