When your princess of a four-year-old is preparing for her big F-I-V-E birthday, a little panic ensues.  Not on her part, of course, it all belonged to us, her parents. It needed to be good.  It needed to be big.  It needed to be appropriate. Alas, we were out of princess movies so what, WHAT! , were we supposed to do?

Luckily, we remembered she loves rainbows, remembered some cute things we had seen on the internet and remembered WE WERE IN CHARGE.

It was liberating.

We decided on a Wizard of Oz extravaganza and set about creating the best rainbow birthday we could manage.

56 rainbow cupcakes for Co-op?  Check! (“This might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve done in a really long time.” I confessed to Jac as we frosted cupcakes at 12:30 Thursday morning)

The Emerald City on the chalk board? Yep.

How about a 6 layer rainbow cake?  You bet. (When I poured the  batter into the pans, I almost went into cardiac arrest.  There was not enough to reach the edges without a great deal of coercion. “This could be a disaster.” I said. Jac skeptically eyed the sorry excuse of a cake. “It sure could be.  BUT you never know ’til you try!” Not comforting.  We baked them anyway and you know what?  They turned out just fine. THANKS BE TO GOD.)

There was even a tornado, a house, a pair of ruby slippers (thanks to Max!) and a yellow brick road to decorate the downstairs.

Sadly?  I don’t think Tess took any of it in.  From the moment she went to bed the night before, her mind was already 5 steps ahead of the given moment.  During the day she buzzed about in a deep thinking daze, pondering what would happen next.  The requested chicken on a stick, rice and blueberries was left uneaten as was the cake and the much anticipated grape sorbet.  She was just too busy to sit back and enjoy it.

Thankfully, the movie was another matter.  Fr. Tyler led the sing-alongs when appropriate and much laughter was shared over the funny parts.  They’re still talking about it.

And, I think it’s sinking in that she is really, truly 5. For her it is, anyway. Us?  It’s a little harder.

At the breakfast table the morning of her big day, she said quietly, “I don’t feel five.  I know I am.  I just don’t feel like it.”

Me neither, sister.  Me neither.

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