The "Week of EJ," Part I

And so, the "birthday week" (as I coined it this year) begins.  It's already tricky to try to make her bday special and separate from Christmas since they are so close, but this year we added in school celebrations, neighbor and friend celebrations, some time with her dad and I, and some Mommy and EJ  time.  Let the fun begin!

After taking a nice long bath (hence the bathrobe...hey, it was (almost) her birthday...what girl doesn't want a little pampering? :] ), we colored the vanilla frosting of the cupcakes (in princess liners) to pink and she helped with the sprinkles.

Almost 3...big girl!

"Hooray!  It's my birthday!"

We didn't have EJ's lunchbox before school this day, so Mommy made an old-school brown paper bag a little more festive.  She looks so big to me in these pictures!

Then, I took some time off in the afternoon to bring the cupcakes to her 'school.'  I had such a "mom" moment, finally having a chance to watch her play with all her friends and interact.  It was weird!!  (but precious, of course)

I spy 2 pink boots!
Yes, those are my daughter's.  The shoes come off EVERY SINGLE DAY at school...even the teachers don't understand it - it's like this "code" with all the 20+ kids that they have to run in, then throw their shoes off before they can really start playing.  Pretty fun (except when the socks or shoes come home on the wrong child!  No joke...it happened!)

They were finishing up a snowflake activity as I arrived.

And then the glitter...glitter always...glitter everywhere...glitter int he backpack, which equals glitter in the home. :/

This is the beloved teacher, Ms. Denise, who's been out much of this year. Apparently, EJ and her have a special connection, so she was excited to see her on her big day.  See the next picture below to get an idea of what the other kids think of Ms. Denise....

:)  I brought her tiara  :)

LOVE the smirk

So, here's what amazed me.  All the kids sit down and almost all of them WAIT PATIENTLY until the singing starts. Not one teacher told them to wait...they (again, almost all) sat there, cupcake tempting them, and then all chimed in to sing.  Apparently, where EJ is sitting must be the 'birthday seat' - she knew to go right to it.

Some of EJ's pals...in fact, she named a teddy bear recently after the girl to her right in the red shirt.