Gracie’s 5th Birthday Recap

Happy Easter, friends!  A better blogger would have scheduled an Easter recap on Easter Sunday instead of a birthday recap.  But… half-assed.  So instead, let me just tell you that we had a lovely Easter here at our house.  My mom came to church with us in the morning, and in the afternoon we had a big lunch with friends of ours.  It was relaxed, casual, and focused on what mattered.  Just the way I like to spend holidays.

Easter was actually the ending of a really busy weekend at our house.  Gracie Girl turned five years old, and we celebrated in true Brown Family style – for DAYS.

Her actual birthday was on Friday.  I let her pick whatever she wanted to do that day, and she asked to go to the Crayola Experience.  We have been there several times before, and our trip this week only confirmed that we will definitely need season passes before summer begins.  This place is amazing!

It’s all the awesomeness of arts and crafts without the mess of having to set it up and clean it up.  For kids who love art and for moms who just don’t have the energy to haul out a day’s worth of art projects, this place is perfect.

We made our own crayons…

melted crayons into fun shapes…

painted with watercolors…

put our paintings in these big dryers…

(Side story: Gracie “accidentally” put a crayon through the drying machine to see what would happen and it melted all over the conveyor belt and I had to try and clean off hot wax on a moving conveyor belt before it turned and went back inside the machine. Ugh.)

climbed on their super awesome playground…

drew on walls and floors and furniture…

played with Play-Doh out of a vending machine…

and enjoyed lunch in the cafe. (Not worth the price… bring a lunch or go eat at the mall foodcourt instead!)

My favorite part is this station where your artwork comes to life!  You color an image anyway you want…

Then you scan the image on their computers…

And then you watch as your image that you colored comes to life on the computer screen!

It can move, spin, and even take selfies with you!  Then, you can email your images to yourself at home.  Since Chris had to work that day, we emailed all of our images to him at work so that he could join in on the fun a little bit.

If you are ever in the Orlando area and looking for something besides theme parks, this is a must-see on my family’s list of activities.

Later that night, we had cake and presents at home.

We started this fun tradition kind of by accident a few years ago at our house.  We usually order a bakery cake for the big friends birthday party, but on the night of the actual birthday, I make whatever kind of cake the birthday girl or boy wants, and then they get to decorate it however they want.  This year, Gracie wanted to keep it simple and classic with sprinkles and marshmallows.  I respected her artistic choice.

All Gracie wanted this year were Shopkins, which Chris and I don’t understand at all.  What the crap are these things?!?!

I’ll tell you what I think they are.  I think some teenager had a really weird acid trip and all of a sudden all of the inanimate objects around him started growing faces and talking to him, and when he sobered up he was like, “JACKPOT!”  

And now he is a billionaire and laughing at all these stupid parents who are paying all their hard-earned money for these stupid things.

But I digress…

Chris and I also got her this really great art set from Crayola (which was just a coincidence, actually.  I ordered it weeks before Gracie mentioned going to Crayola for her birthday…).  She has become quite the artist and writer, and this art set is just perfect for her.  She sits at her desk (which she calls her “office” and that makes me giggle every time she says it) and colors or writes or draws for hours.  This gift was a big hit.

The next day, we had her birthday party for a few friends from Gracie’s preschool class.  I intentionally kept the party small because Gracie gets a little overwhelmed with large groups of people at big events, so it was a few of her very best little friends.  We went to the Orlando Rep and saw the play, “Skippyjon Jones.”  

Before the play began, we played upstairs in the arts and crafts area making Skippyjon Jones masks.  It was a lot of fun, and I didn’t have to do anything!

We went back to the party area next and had birthday cake.  Isn’t this cake adorable?  I found a picture of it online and took it to Publix.  I was so impressed!  It looks just like the picture I sent them!

The play started shortly afterwards, so we all filed into the theater.  It was absolutely perfect for their age group, and they all loved it!

Another birthday in the books for Miss Gracie.  I can’t get over how much she has grown up in the past month, really.  We got her haircut this past week, too, and that only makes her look even bigger!  I can’t handle this!  I’m going to find my Daisy puppy and snuggle her until she piddles (which doesn’t take long… sigh… puppies…).

Hope you guys have a great Monday!