and after the party, we sleep…

after all that excitement, jasper lilith takes a bean bag break.

in fact, i need one of those right now!

mom, i think she looks pretty freaking comfortable on her pink birthday gift, don’t you?

and then later that night?  she crashed hard.

when i went in later to check on her, i found her with her new monkey sleep mask on and her new olivia doll in her arms.

a day full of friends, family, cake, presents and…  wait, did i say cake already?

a good way to end a party day!

and thanks to everyone for making jasper lilith feel loved and cherished!

a ladybug party!

finally!  we have the party set up, the grandparents here and then the people start to arrive!

all at once it seemed…  like a wave…  of people.

jasper lilith didn’t waste any time – her cousins and friends got there and before i knew it, she was a…  let me see if i can remember what she told me, “a nice cowboy-ninja-assasin!”…

with a jon-made wooden sword, no less…

i don’t know – she doesn’t look so friendly here if you ask me!

jasper and duncan plan their next attack.

the horde of kiddos!  i think we are missing a couple in this group photo but i think you guys get the general idea!

let’s see, we have jasper scratching her nose, jolie throwing the peace sign and duncan bringing back the vulcan greeting.

ok.

after all that rambunctiousness, it was time for cake!  clearly they needed more sugar, right??!!

i think The Girl is ready to blow out the candle 🙂

and there she blows!!!!

i think it’s official now – she is a 5 year old!

with the candle to prove it!

after cake, it was Present Time!

neena brought jasper a huge and pink bean bag and, well, not only did jasper get excited about it but then she couldn’t get it open!

it was funny until she had about 5 kids helping her and then it started to look a little crazy and just begging for someone to be hurt.

i think A Tall Person finally stepped in and ripped that sucker open but honestly, i don’t even remember now – i just remember that no one got hurt!

jon and i found the perfect present for our Performer – a karaoke machine!

it’s so cool – it has a built-in camera with a monitor so she can sing and watch herself sing on the monitor!  we can also hook it up to our tv and speaker system so she can totally zone out in Mirror, Mirror Land and watch herself on a huge tv!  what 5 year old girl doesn’t want to do that??!!

needless to say, the microphone spends a large amount of time in her hand each day.

gram and pop added to the pot with some fantastic dress-up “performing” clothes!

gold gilt skirt, sparkly velour cape, gypsy skirt, black spandex!  i can keep naming them but i think you get the general picture!

they are wonderful and jaz loves them so much, she keeps trying to wear them to school!

a pile of cousins!

and a pile of hyams’!

happy birthday party day, jasper lilith!

the final touches…

The Girl is officially 5 years old now but has she had her birthday party?

she had to wait a full day for her party but it finally arrived!

as did her pop and gram from natchitoches!

jasper picked out her birthday theme for this year and she was adamant about it – never once wavered although she told me what she wanted months ago…

can you guess what her theme was?

if you picked ladybugs, you would be right!

(if you didn’t pick ladybugs, i suggest you get your eyes checked)…

jasper lilith had a blast helping me pick out her party supplies – it was red and black everything!

see?  black and red everything!  with some white and pink thrown in there to break it up 🙂

“my ladybug birthday cake!!!”

indeed.

happy birthday, jasper lilith!!!

about a week before her birthday, jasper lilith started asking, “is is my birthday tomorrow?”…  i guess she could smell it in the air?

when i would have to give her the “not yet, babe”, she would go, “i am so tired of waiting to be 5!”…

because apparently, the world will be a different place once jasper turns 5!

turns out she was right – at least for jon and i…  the world is now an entirely different place because The Girl turned 5 on saturday the 27th.

i started a Birthday Torture Pile of all the presents that she was getting in the mail but couldn’t open…  yeah, pure torture for an almost-5 year old!

but we aren’t too evil because we didn’t make her wait until her party – we just made her wait until her actual birthday.

when i got home from work, she met me at the door with, “hi, mama!  i get to open my presents now, don’t i??!!”…  i decided that i was glad she said the “hi, mama”  bit first 🙂

here she is opening a gift from deborah and charles – a very cool jewelry box!  with a monarch butterfly and music and all these neat, little, hidden drawers…

deborah, you can tell she was muy impressed!

here she is opening her package from her paw-paw and mimi!  she loved the clothes and hat but dad and barb?  she really loved the monkey sleep mask!

she loved it so much that she had to put it on immediately (with a bit of help from me)…

and then she tried to open the rest of her birthday gift with the monkey blindfold…  err, i mean, mask on!

with her gram and pop there, we had a great time watching her gasp and shimmy with excitement for each gift!

tracie, your owl lunchbox was a hit as well and i will have you know, we use it daily now!

happy birthday, jasper lilith – the stars in your eyes light up our lives!