The big five

Izzy passed a new milestone – she turned a fabulous, glamorous, glorious five years old!

We celebrated with a pile of her little friends and cousins and their mum’s (plus a couple of brave dads) on a Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago and man was it lovely!  The kids played outside, sat happily at the table making masks, grazed on the party food and loved the bubble machine.  You can’t go wrong with bubbles, you really can’t.  There was a piñata and no one got a black eye.  No one!

The cake even turned out okay, and my cakes rarely turn out ok. Like when Iz turned two,  I had a disaster of a cake situation.  The first cake (yup I baked two) sank, and I mean really sank, like the crater on Mt Eden “sank”. So I whizzed up another one, like any dedicated mother right?  It OVERFLOWED in the oven!  I didn’t realise until the smoke started billowing through the house!  Not a good cake story.  I ended up covering the crater of the first in icing and chocolate fingers.

This year I decided to buy a sponge and put all my effort in to decorating the bugger, but what the heck?  When I went to the supermarkets (three different ones) to buy the sponge and to get the edible flowers which I wanted to coat in sugar and use as decoration – none of the trio stocked either!  So I searched Foolproof birthday cake and came up with a questionable recipe – put all the ingredients into the cake mixer, and mix.  This is my new go to cake recipe, and I’m sorry to say – the Hummingbird Cafe “Cake Days” recipe book has been pushed to the back of the bookcase, no longer will it taunt me with delicacies I’m just not competent enough to produce!!

All that aside, the window dressing that is, the very best thing about the party was seeing Izzy so happy, so at ease with her peers, so full of joy.  I can’t put in to words how incredible it has/is been to witness such a huge change in our child – Harry and I can only shake our heads and smile. The kind of smile that makes your face sore.  That kind of smile.  It’s honestly such an amazing feeling.

It feels like forever ago when I wrote Feeling the love rejoicing the dramatic change in Izzy’s behavior, being able to relax in playgrounds, not worrying about my child attacking someone else’s.  No.  Those days are long gone and the party was another reminder of just how powerful affirming Izzy as a girl was.

The other thing the party reminded me, was of the support and acceptance we’ve received from the families at kindy, if any of you are reading this – Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  I know you think, it’s no big deal, but it actually is.  Val, the teachers and you beautiful kindy parents (and my school friends) were my haven during those really hard early days when we were navigating Izzy’s transition and at the same time, dealing with the rejection from members of my family.  You’ve never questioned our decision or demanded explanations, or set out conditions.  Nothing changed with you guys except the name you called my child.  Thank you.

So now the kid is five.  Fabulous, glamorous, glorious five.

 

 

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