Birthday-Palooza!

As promised, Peeper did wake up bright and early this morning, to get a start on her big birthday day.

She even remembered to remind me to take our panda pictures, "Mama! We haven't taken a panda picture yet!" and then she even got herself dressed for the photos.

She gathered up as many 5s as she could find.

Peeper helped me make the pizzas for the family party this evening; you'll see those later, after they're cooked.

When we got into the serious crunch-time party preparations, Peeper declared, "We need decorations!" I told her that's what we were doing, but she evidently didn't think ours were sufficient, so she found some of her own.

This is the first thing she came up with. "Here, Mama. This is a decoration!"

Then she disappeared into the sunroom for a while, and made it all monstery. She got out every monster or Halloween thing she could find.

Then, she put gloves and hats and such on all the arms of the chairs, and even the door handle. I'm not quite sure why, but evidently, that makes them very spooky.

Shrike made a last-minute run to the grocery (as usual) and came home with these, for me. How sweet is she?

As requested, she also got a couple of balloons. Look closely at the one in front. Evidently, before the grocery store lady inflated it, it looked like a cupcake. Now, not so much.

Mummy Dogs, thanks to Pinterest. (Theirs are much better looking. I think I should've used a lot more dough.)

And, as always, our friend A did an amazing job with the cupcakes.

And T brought some games that she had made for the MOMS Club party - Pin the Face on the Pumpkin, Pumpkin Ring Toss and "Trick and Treat" where the kids drawn a paper and do the "trick" that it says on it, then get a "treat" - and even helped run one of the "stations."

Cupcake time! (Photos courtesy of T and I believe A got some video, too. They were a huge help.)

And then it was time to open gifts.

And bust open the pinata.

After the pinata, Peeper handed out the treat bags, telling each kid, "Thank you for coming to my party." It was pretty adorable.

T and A stuck around and helped us clean up and refresh everything for the family party. We had an hour between the two, and with their help, I had about thirty minutes with nothing to do but keep an eye on the baking pizzas.

Oh yeah, the pizzas.

Mozzarella and cheddar cheese with pepperoni.

Peeper made me add the eyebrows because he wasn't scary enough. Then she told me that "He needs to be trembly. Ghosts are usually trembly," so I made the edges wavy, and that satisfied her.

This guy wasn't scary enough either, so Peeper took over and made the face. So she says.

More singing and another cupcake.

And more gifts.

And after everyone was gone, and the kitchen (more or less) cleaned up, we just chilled out for a while.

She may be big enough to have a fifth birthday party, but she's not too big for goody.