Birthday Eve

'Twas the night before Allison turned 5...and we had a very busy day!

Fred is in Vail for the next 5 nights for a few back-to-back off-site work events.  (He's also going snowmobiling in the mountains while he's there -- thanks Granny M. for shipping all his snowmobile gear out here!)  The girls and I were going to drive out to Vail today for a family event, but decided against it this morning when we saw that the weather in the mountains was bad. Instead, we headed out for a few hours so Elisabeth could sell some Girl Scout cookies!  There are a LOT of Girl Scouts in our neighborhood, so we decided to flee the competition.  We loaded up my van with cookies and a wagon and ventured out to a few other neighborhoods (including an "old lady neighborhood") that didn't seem to have many young kids.  Our strategy paid off -- Elisabeth sold a TON of cookies!   We even had a few cars pull over when they saw Elisabeth pulling her wagon full of cookies down the street, and she got a few side-of-the-road sales that way!  It was about 45 today but VERY windy so it felt much colder than it was!  Brrr!  It's not fun to sell cookies in gale-force winds!  I want the 65-and-sunny weather to come back!

After cookies, it was time to focus entirely on Allison and celebrate her last day as a 4-year old.  We hit the pool!

Then it was time for dinner.  

We had reservations at Benihana; the hibachi chef that prepared Elisabeth's birthday meal last month was our chef again tonight!  Allison pointed out that he forgot to catch one of the eggs (for fried rice) in his hat when he was tossing them around, he didn't make a steaming train out of zucchini, and he also forgot to squirt the fake ketchup at us.  When he started stacking the onions, she yelled "Volcano!"  She knew exactly what he was going to do and spoiled the surprise for everyone else at our table!

Back at home, Allison opened one gift before bed.  She is really into dogs these days, but I couldn't find any dog pajamas with short sleeves (this child will NOT wear long sleeves).  Fortunately, she was thrilled to get some short-sleeved Hello Kitty pajamas.  (Side note:  she ended up ordering a Hello Kitty cake, rather than an Elmo cake, so the pajamas seem to be the perfect touch!)

  

Happy almost-birthday Allison!!