Halloween '10

6th Birthday

For Sofia's 6th birthday, I decided to go completely against my nature and good sense and give her a bounty of candy. We loosely themed it around the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale with a gingerbread house cake surrounded by candy.

It was a cold, dark, rainy day so we stayed in and young guests were welcomed to come in fairy tale costume. We had pulled pork sandwiches.

After dressing Sofia in her costume, I called her down and this was her reaction.

I think she was almost afraid of the candy. Not the candy really, just of her ability to restrain herself from swimming in it. After perusing it for a few minutes, she stated to me in a very reserved tone, "But we can't eat it yet, right?" I tried to look serious as I paused for a moment and then told her that actually she COULD EAT IT! My plan to cope with the sugar rush and following melt downs was to drink some wine and go to sleep. Luckily, there were no melt downs.

Sofia really enjoyed playing with all her cousins and friends and discovering all her gifts and of course then trying to play with all of them all night long.

Hmm, what are these things? They are book labels.

This year, I decided on the Erector Construction Set with 6V Motor as her main "toy" gift seeing how the Pottery Barn doll bombed on her 4th birthday and all. I also gave her some Dr Seuss books she liked and Hansel and Gretel, of course, by Paul Zelinsky. This was one of the first books that really intrigued her. The particular moment of intrigue occurred when Gretel pushed the witch in the oven. She also received some very nice brown leather boots which I hope she will be able to wear until she's fourteen.

As everyone got ready to sing happy birthday and began the countdown, Sofia started protesting. We were in a bit of a hurry to cut the cake as some guests had to leave so no one was really paying attention to the protesting. But as the song began, she became much more adamant about the protesting. So we stopped to see what the issue was. We hadn't turned off the lights. We turned off the lights so that the cake could be properly illuminated by candle light and began a proper birthday song again. Luckily, the gingerbread house didn't burn down.