Cinco de Maya!

Aw... my baby turned five. I truly canNOT believe it. Five. She's a sweet little thing, and she's still very much my baby, but she's also growing up. Maturing. And, before long, she'll be rockin' kindergarten. THAT I can't handle, though I know it's coming.

It seems like the years are a blur. Five stinkin' years... where does the time go? And, what's wrong with my memory? Why can't I remember anything? I've always known my memory is horrible, but I'm starting to be irritated by it. Thank goodness for this blog... at least I have blog entries from the past two years to remind me of what's happened in our lives. I wish I remembered more from when they were babies. I wish I'd been into photography then.

But, alas, I do not remember, and I was not into photography. So, I mourn the loss of those memories and kick myself for not compensating for known weaknesses back then. Sigh.

Do your kids ever just drive you bonkers? Absolutely nuts? As I sit here trying to recall any sweet little anecdote from Maya's baby stage, my children are running around wrestling, squealing, giggling... While I love that they play well together and enjoy one another's company, they're supposed to be cleaning their room. That's not happening. Obviously. All I ask is that they leave me alone while I blog. But, they're not. So, no sweet anecdote of Maya. (Not that I'd actually be able to remember one anyway, but it definitely won't be happening with that sort of distraction.)

And, after I told them sternly (read: yelled at them - hey, I'm not perfect) to leave me alone while I blog, they stomped off to the room they're supposed to be cleaning. Among voices and giggles muffled by the closed door, I hear Emma taunt, "try to bite me!"

Why? Why? Why? That's all I've got. Why? Why would you want your sister to try to bite you? Crazy... I'm telling you... they make me crazy!

I should just get on with the pictures. The craziness keeps me from being able to think straight.

Some of the kiddos... sweet Kyden.  I always LOVE pictures of him:

This is Anson.  He's Emma's best friend, son of my best friend, brother to Maya's best friend, and our neighbor.  :)
Ahhh... and this next one...  Emma ran up to me and hugged me around my waist.  She looked up at me and grinned her impish little grin.  She was so close to me that I couldn't get the camera to focus down on her, thus the out of focus picture.  But, I don't care.  Not one bit.  I have NO idea when I'll see this for the last time, and I'm thankful that I captured it.  I'm sure the end is near, and that breaks my heart.  Even if she wanted to run up to me and hug me spontaneously as she gets older, she'll soon be my height.  (Hey, I'm not that tall, okay?)  Plus, we all know she absolutely will *not* want to hug me spontaneously in the years to come.  :(
This is Josie... she's the girls' cousin, and she loves all things girly!  PERFECT fit with my girls.  We actually had our first quasi slumber party.  Jo & the girls.  Yay!  It went REALLY well!
And, to fit in with the fiesta theme and because my girls ask for them every chance they get, a pinata!  All that remains is this poor bull's head.  The kiddos (and it looks like some adults, too) enjoyed it!  (By the way, I HATE dappled lighting.  Seriously.  I didn't want to take ANY pictures out in this lighting, but I'm trying to force myself to quit being a perfectionist.  I've been doing okay with that, actually.)
This next picture requires a little explanation. See, I made the mistake of making an elaborate cake for Emma on her first birthday. First of all, I HATE baking. I like cooking, I hate baking. Second, I don't have any cake making experience... no classes, no time saving tips, nothing. I just do what I have to do to make it work, and that seems to take me hours upon hours. Third, between mommy guilt and my girls' memories, I can't seem to get myself out of it. Year after year, I make myself miserable making cakes the day before their birthdays.

So, this year, as usual, I ask Maya what she wants on her cake, all the while keeping my fingers crossed that her request will be something SIMPLE. What does my kid request? Her face. She wants her face on her cake. Seriously? Who wants that except Maya? And, how in the world am I gonna pull that off? Ugh.

I had the brilliant idea to base it on her Mii. SO much easier to recreate. It still took me eight stinkin' hours. Here she is with her cake aka my magnum opus:
Maya blowing out the candles:
And, because our families are full of really mature folks, we couldn't resist:
Oh, so bad, but, oh, so amusing!

And, yeah... about the title of this blog entry... Curt's been just WAITING 'til Maya turned five.  I'm pretty sure that idea was conceived before Maya was even born... Cinco de Maya.  Ay yi yi.