We had Magda's birthday party at Pease Park. Jennifer got her a cool Unicorn piñata and plenty of decorations. I made Magda's favorite meringue chocolate ice cream cake. I even scored some dry ice to keep it frozen - which was massive overkill, considering that the weather was so cold (we had way too much fun playing with it later at home, though).

Due to late planning, the flu going around and the unexpectedly cold weather, we ended up with a pretty small turnout, but that's not so bad. The kids had lots of fun running around the play scape and then whacking the heck out of the unicorn. It took forever to bust it open - and we didn't even use a blindfold.

And yes, Tiana was a hit, as was anything else fairy related. Oh well, 5 year olds will be 5 year olds.

This morning, still darkish around 7:30 I saw Magda coming out the dark dining room.When I asked her what she'd been up to, she excitedly told me that she colored the last piece in her birthday calendar.  Meaning tomorrow she turns 5.

She had been anticipating her birthday for a long time now, and coloring her caterpillar had become a cherished morning task.  Though some days she'd skip it so that she would get to color two circles the next.

Some parts of the wait have been fun, but other parts less so.  When in a store, she can be a little horror with "buy me this" or "buy me that".  Invariably I don't, but she doesn't appear to have noticed, or maybe she keeps hoping that this one time I'll change my mind.  I've been going the "thanks for letting me know what you like" and "maybe that's something you would like for your birthday" route.  Which, of course, made her change her spiel to "I want this for my birthday".  Argh!  I really wonder how exactly she imagines her birthday to be.

Of course, it doesn't help that she really, really, really wants and needs all the little-girl-crack that's out there that I hate.  How I loath the pushers Mattel and Disney.  But hey, it's a birthday, right?  We've made the mistake of making a healthy cake for her 1st birthday (she didn't care but I like my sweet stuff unhealthy).  So yeah, I'll go and get her the darn Tiana doll that she'd been obsessing about for months. Principles and all be damned!