Katie's Birthday

Katie had a big 5 year old birthday celebration. She is soooo proud to be 5 and pretty much tells anyone she meets that she is now 5 (just yesterday she told one of Jason's colleagues that "I used to be 4, but now I'm 5." (to which he replied "I used to be 4 too". She didn't exactly know how to respond to that one :-). ) She began her day with loads of presents and a special french toast breakfast. After having macaroni & cheese for lunch, we went to see Bolt that afternoon - our 1st English language movie to see since we moved to Spain. (a great movie BTW!) The theater happened to be downtown, so we enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights once again and had dinner at a restaurant near the Prado. This pic is of her blowing her candle out on Dec 23rd.

We had Katie's party with her friends on 13 January. 2 days before Christmas just doesn't make for a very good bday party time :-). We had it at a local day care center that has a room for parties with a ball pit and big maze & slide. The 1st pic is Katie in her fairy dress before the party. She had 15 friends from school and church join us! All afternoon, it had been snowing in flurries, so I was wondering if anyone would end up showing up. But a lot of kids showed up and it was so fun! The kids played in the ball room for a long time, then enjoyed pizza and other yummies. Katie got to blow out the candles again to the singing of "Cumpleanos Feliz" and I almost forgot to ask them to sing again in English :-). But they did once I asked and even lit the candles again so she got to blow them out twice :-). (this is her with her friend Julien) A funny Spanish cultural thing: the only option they had for a party time was from 5-7 in the evening! A bit crazy for 5 year olds, but just late afternoon here!




The last big surprise of the night was waiting when we went back to the car. One of Katie's new privileges that we gave her upon turning 5 was to be able to sit in a booster seat in the car instead of a car seat. We had intended for Jason to pick one up for her when he was in Orlando last week (b/c we couldn't find the one we wanted here). The more I thought about it though, the more I realized how difficult that would be for him in a crazy busy week of non-stop meetings. So I looked again, and found a good booster seat here. We had it waiting for Katie when she came back to the car after the party, and she was so excited! (before this she had been asking every day how many days it was till Jason left for Orlando b/c she wanted him to go get her booster seat :-) )

What an amazing 5 years this has been! Katie is getting so big and learning so many new things. We will never stop thanking God for our precious little girl!