Happy birthday, Issa!

Issa had a fabulous birthday--as evidenced by the fact that I resigned myself to yoga pants, a sweater, and a day of dragging myself through the utter exhaustion today. That's really the sign of a great birthday, my friends.

 

Issa's school asks families to bring cupcakes to lunch on birthdays, and I was happy to comply. Issa chose this cupcake cake:

 Does it look familiar? It should. She chose the same design last year. The girl loves some fairies. And...I won some good mom points with Issa's teacher because I brought both heavy napkins for cupcake distribution and baby wipes for icing clean-up. (As a side note, I'm beginning to wonder when I will stop buying wipes, and I'm beginning to think it may coincide with Evan going to college. They are just handy.)

In a moment that simultaneously melted and broke my heart, one of the little boys in Issa's class came up to me after the singing and the eating, and offered me a dollar for the cupcake. I suppressed my giggle, thanked him, but said he really didn't need to pay me for the cupcake. He looked at me with the most earnest eyes and informed me he "would be happy to contribute to Issa's birthday." And so it begins...and for the record I did not take the dollar.

I left the school cupcake-less (hurrah) and ran home to clean up the kitchen from the cake decorating and finish the birthday prep. Issa came home to this:

 She wanted a Shake It Up party, which is a show on Disney she loves. We agreed I could probably handle the logo:

 She really wanted the main characters:

 I know my limits. She was thrilled with the cake, and for those who are counting this is cake five.

As thrilled as she was with the cake, it did not even compare to her gift:

 That, folks, is a hermit crab home. The face says it all.

After she opened her gift, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. She and Evan had a blast, and Daddy and I survived. A few highlights because there are no pictures--survival mode prevails every time we go. Evan can shoot a basketball! That kid scored 41 points and six tickets in his best round. His form is actually correct, and he is in love. (My daddy and Gramps were smiling last night.) Issa loves the horse racing games, which is also in her blood. Daddy and I may never be the same after seeing the robotic animal band sing "Life is a Highway." Both kids had a great time there, though, and then we headed to PetSmart to adopt a hermit crab.

Apparently, a hermit crab puts you just over the line into a real adoption with paperwork and everything. It's very formal and very fancy--just ask Issa. She fell in love with Hermee the Hermit Crab:

 Evan kind of likes him, too:

 (Please ignore my filthy chairs. I clearly chose white before children, and there is no point in recovering them until we're through the spilling phase, which may also align with Evan going to college.)

Our evening ended with cake:

And a very, very happy six year old.