Simon Spotlight!

We begin this post with a "Simon Spotlight" of our Summer girl. Hey, Summer - what's your favorite...

Color? Pink

Foods? All foods! But especially Mommy's cookies, chocolate cake, pancakes, pasta salad, quesadillas, cheese, corn, broccoli, chicken, grapes, Italian and Mexican food, and anything mint or cinnamon flavored.

Friends? Mommy, Daddy, Annika, and Sarah.

Movies? "Enchanted", "High School Musical", and "The Wizard of Oz".

Television Show? "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"

Hobbies? Daily school time, arts and crafts, and story time with Mommy, playing with dolls, going to the park and on outings, singing and dancing, photo shoots, cooking and baking with Mommy, having playdates with friends, being in crowds, charming her loved ones with her massive vocabulary, and performing in pretend road shows, concerts, and fashion shows in the family room.

The night before Summer's birthday, Jerald and I stayed up until past midnight, stringing crepe paper and nearly blowing fuses in our sinuses whilst blowing up balloons in preparation for the morrow! We then crept into Summer's room while she was asleep and placed all 25 balloons on the floor, thinking what a cute surprise it would be for her to wake up to the fanfare of decor. Horrifyingly... Summer, for some reason, awakened at 5:00 in the morning, screaming for me. I ran, bleary-eyed, to her room. She hadn't seen the balloons up until that point, but the light from the hall shone a perfect spotlight on the bubblegum pink one by the side of her bed. Then Jerald came running in the room, causing more light to flood in, giving her full view of the litter of balloons on the floor. She began screaming for us to "GET THEM OUT!" We tried to tell her they were only balloons we'd set out as a surprise for her, but she was so delirious from sleep, that she became more and more frantic! We were forced to kick them all out into the hall. "What a disaster", I moaned to Jerald. It was supposed to be such a sweet surprise. We trudged back to bed, feeling very much like deflated balloons (observe and respect the pun). It hit us later how funny it was, though! The rest of the day went fabulously, with first a pancake breakfast for the Birthday girl at her request. Jerald even made her a perfect Mickey Mouse head pancake! We took her to her favorite children's museum and showered her with presents. We actually had a whole week of celebrating because 24 hours for a birthday, in my mind, is much too short. But my mention of it is just a preview of coming attractions because I'll post pictures next week of our activities. The day after her birthday, we had a huge birthday party for her with Jerald's and my family in attendance. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday cake, and she said without hesitation that she wanted a pink cake, so, I baked a two layer heart shaped chocolate cake with pale pink frosting and chocolate sprinkles (I must give voice to the fact that the very BEST chocolate cake recipe can be found on the back of the Hershey's cocoa powder container. Try it and be moved). Check out the video below of us all singing Happy Birthday to little Summer. I'm so happy she felt loved on her birthday, because she sure IS!