Schmidt Family Stories: Aniston is 5!!

Aniston turned 5 on March 15th. To her, this means Kindergarten and shots... she's stressin! To Mommy, this means she is officially a big girl. I hate it. I hate that she is so big and independent. I'm not ready for it. Luckily she still lets me hold her, or I'd really be sad! We have birthday WEEKS in our house. It all started with packages from Poppy and Autie the week before her birthday. She loved getting home everyday and having another box to open. She got lots of Justin Beaver stuff, some posters, a very special music box, and a fun voice changer. Mom and Bob came in on Friday, so after dinner she opened presents from them and Mal & Brennon. She got some Barbies, a scrapbooking set, a swimsuit, a kite, some glow sticks, a water balloon launcher, a book, some money and a target gift card. You would think that is plenty, right? We haven't even made it to her birthday PARTY!

This year we had a fun swim party at the Downtown YMCA. Here are her cute invites that Ashley made.

She wanted Unicorns, so Unicorns is what she got. A friend of mine, Tracey, made her cake. It was so cute and delish! You can visit her blog here!

The day of her party, Saturday, was CRAZY! No matter how early I start my day, for some reason, I'm always rushing around to get to where I'm going. I got up extra early and showered to start the day. We had a soccer game at 1:00 and her party at 2:00. Tracey delivered the cake that morning and I had strategically orchestrated the timeline for the day. I had a bag ready for Mal to get to go to the party and start setting up. Because I am now coaching Aniston's soccer, I couldn't leave early. So, we had our plan all layed out and I just THOUGHT I had everything covered. Mal & Mom and Bob & Brennon left the game early to head to the party, then when the game was over Randy, Aniston, Landrie and I were on our way! Well, after we had to stop at the house and get a camera card, and stop at United to get juice boxes because I forgot them!! UGH! Minor set back, right!! We still made it to the Y by 2:10.. no biggie, you would think!

The swimming was so fun, and of course none of the kids wanted to get out of the pool. Cake and presents were enough of a bribe though. So, we all head up to the FREEZING cold room to have cake and presents.... The opening of the gifts was easy peasy, and she got so much fun stuff! She's spoiled rotten! Then, my almost meltdown happened. We go to do the cake and I realize.. "no candles".. Luckily my mom thought of that and found some candles and matches. Shew! So now, time to cut the cake.... without a knife! CRAP! Randy raced downstairs and found a spatula for us to use. Awesome! I dished out all the cake and realized I didn't have forks or napkins!! I'm so glad I stressed out about matching table cloths and party hats, but didn't get forks!! Are you kidding me!! All the kids thought it was cool to eat cake with there fingers, but I'm sure all the parents loved cleaning up the blue icing!! oops! We all got a good laugh out of it, so it worked out! In the end, we had fun and everyone still ate cake!

Here are some pictures of her big party!