Lissa Turns 6

Yesterday was party central at our house!  Miss Lissa is officially a big girl and turned 6.  She chose a mixed theme of princess and fairy.  Which is essentially the same 2 themes she has alternated between since she was old enough to choose!  LOL  She had originally said she would go for Hello Kitty but went back to her favorites.  It is all good!

K had to work till 2 and we had no church yesterday as the only service was the evening one with the kids pageant.  That would not work with the time we had to do Lissa's party.  I mention this only as it meant a loooong day for the littles waiting for the party to finally happen.  Painting the birthday mural thankfully took up a large chunk of the waiting time.  I sketched it out the night before and K went over my sketch with marker so it was kind of like a coloring book only way bigger.  Our faces are in the flowers, Lissa is a fairy and of course, Tinkerbelle is there center stage.

Rob took charge of decorating the cake that K and I had made.  It was a 2 layer cake with one layer vanilla and one red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  He did a border of "grass" with flowers sticking out of them. There are flowers on the sides and a pink finishing border at the base. You can't see well from the picture but  in the center there is a wax Tinkerbelle who is sitting in flowers and holds a candle.  He really rocked the cake; I am impressed.  I love how my kids get into helping people celebrate. It doesn't have to be about them to be fun.

The little princess had a great day and I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she is 6.  That she is officially not a little kid any longer.  That she is the same age as children who were killed in CT a few days ago.  I enjoyed every second of yesterday, but a bit of me was also thinking about how lucky I am.  That there are families who won't do this again with a child they sent to school on Friday.  A bit of me was preoccupied with the fact that mental illness is not well addressed in our country and as our society becomes increasingly high paced and specialized, these people wind up drawing attention to themselves in horrific ways.  I worry because both Chet and Fiona have mental health issues and I know how accessing services is not easy, not even always helpful.

But then I would mentally shake myself and be back looking at Lissa's shining face. She has grown so much in this year. From the physical of losing teeth to an increased assurance as the year has progressed.  She understands thinking of others more this year, she has many friends. She is a fashionista who can most days successfully pick out clothes that really don't look like a little kid took them out to wear. LOL  She started learning to read this year and has an amazing abilities to see patterns and work with shapes. Wasn't it just yesterday she was cuddled against me in her sling?