Mattie turns 6!

Our little Mattie-girl turned six years old on the sixth of this month.  Unbelievable.  Will my heart ever make peace with the passage of time?  I think no. 

Her birthday was on a Tuesday, and then we had her party that following Saturday.  But, these pictures are completely backwards and all jumbled up and I'm too tired to fix them....which sort of makes them a metaphor for my life.

This is what ended up being the cakes for Mattie's party. 

Not what I had originally planned, but does a party ever come off without a hitch?  The ones I throw certainly don't.  Mattie originally wanted a "rainbow" themed party, and the cake idea that we agreed upon was to have cupcakes frosted in a rainbow of colors, and then arrange those cupcakes in a rainbow shape.  This was completely doable and even easy in my mind, and it would've ended up looking something like this (picture via pinterest):

 But the day before the party she told me she decided she hated that idea and instead wanted an actual cake with a rainbow made out of frosting.  Long story short, I burned the cake the night before the party, and it had to go in the trash, and I ended up at Walmart at 7:00am and had to buy 3 of their bakery cakes and come home and paint the rainbows on them myself, finishing *just* before we had to leave to get to the party.  So, so, so very typical of my life!

Mattie had her heart set on having her birthday party at our local gym's swimming pool.  It is a great party spot, but not the cheapest, so we told her we would do this, but the party was her gift from us (mean parents, ha!), and she was all for it!  I went really light (weak!) on decorations and just had a banner from The Dollar Tree and tableware in rainbow colors...she loved it! 

The present table....we are currently working through writing thank you notes for this haul of gifts:

Mattie opening:

Group pic of all the kids at the party.  We were thankful for a great turnout and so many friends there!

Blowing out SIX candles....I can't get over it. 

I took this picture because in all the hustle and bustle of slicing and handing out cake to 20+ kids, I lost track of Presley for a second....when I looked up, she had found a spot at the table right in the middle of Mattie's friends.  She thinks all of Mattie's friends are her friends too....and they are all very sweet to her:

OK, now back up a few days to the actual day of Mattie's birthday, which was Tuesday, March 6th.  I wanted to do something fun for her so that her actual day felt special to her, so after she fell asleep the night before her birthday, I hung baloons in her doorway , and in the doorway leading into our living room, and above our kitchen table.  I cannot say enough how easy this way but what a HUGE deal it was to her....she thought it was the greatest thing ever and felt very special when she woke up...goal acheived!  I will now have to do this for Presley in October, and for both girls birthdays from now on, that's how much they loved it. 

We had spaghetti at my parent's house that night,and I made her a little cake to have there.  Here's a pic of her blowing out six candles....we were Face-Timing w/ my sister at the time, so she actually took the pic:

Mattie's party invite:

And here's my six year old.  So, so proud of what a precious girl she is.  Hands down the smartest, cutest, funniest, sweetest, most adorable six year old I've ever known, and to think she belongs to me just blows my mind.  Blessed, blessed mama am I.