The BIG 5 Year Old - Canadian Style!

On March 7, Katherine turned 5! I can't believe how fast that time has gone. My little, little girl is really growing up! :(

I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate, and we decided that we would have her party at a local arts center (or, centre since we're in Canada). Calgary has an amazing number of community centres - all with their own schedule of activities (classes for children and adults, camps, etc). The Wildflower Arts Centre, just a couple of miles from our house, is one such centre with a full schedule of dance, drama, and all media of visual arts. It is Katherine's dream place. So, we scheduled a class for her birthday party - a mixed media class for 12 of her closest friends. It was great - Katherine picked the theme - "beach" (can't take the Southern California out of this girl). The teacher did a very fun long painting, gluing extravaganza.







We also made cupcakes in the beach theme...and, I know most of you won't believe this, but I made 14 paint smocks (which involved actual sewing). It took me all week and I will be surprised if any of them are holding their stitches - but, it was fun. We chose Hawaiian prints to complete the theme.





The only downside of having the party at this arts centre was that there was no place to have cake - so, we decided to tailgate. Unfortunately, it was literally 1 degree - so, it was more like grab a cupcake and run. Pete decorated the car - which he did a fantastic job - however, I didn't tell him he should probably take the cupcakes out of the diaper boxes for a better ascetic. But, I'm not complaining - it was freezing and I didn't have to be outside doing it! It was memorable, that's for sure.





Happy birthday, sweet Katherine!