YaYa's 5th Birthday Party

The day didn't start very well.

I was getting ready to go into work for a few hours when I received a phone call. Picture this said with a cheery voice, rapid fire, and a bit of an 'upspeak' at the end of every sentence.

"Is this Dan?" the caller asked. "My name is X and I'm a neighbor of Tracy. He was cleaning his gutters when he fell off a ladder. His legs are immobilized and he wanted me to call you and ask you to come see him before the ambulance takes him to St. Lukes"

Tracey, aka Tre, has been a friend of mine since Boy Scouts, my best friend since college, the best man at my wedding, and YaYa's Godfather.

I got to his house in time to see the ambulance drive off. Luckily, once I got to the hospital I found my friend in good spirits, with 'only' a muscle tear in his leg for the trouble.

Yikes.

The rest of the day went much better.

We had YaYa's birthday party at Paulo's, a 50's themed pizza parlor/diner. For months before the party Lisa and her mother worked on making real poodle skirts for every girl to wear (and take home as a favor!).

Note the coordinating scarves and Marilyn Monroe moles on their cheeks . . .

 It wasn't just YaYa's party though. She is very close in age to Lisa's friends daughter, and Meadow celebrated as well.

There was a fine turnout, despite the fact that $ concerns (and a heaping helping of kids in the family and among our friends) severely limited the number of classmates invited.

Her step-Grandmother decided to enjoy the day and dress appropriately

One of the neat aspects of Paulo's is a free jukebox jammed with 50's classics, including my fave Buddy Holly

and a bunch of hula-hoops for patron's use, with a bumper sticker awarded for showing off. At one point YaYa's friends Jordan and Emma had a hula hoop battle royale:

 [ Note Parker poking his head into a lot of these shots :) ]

At some point LuLu decided to get a little antsy

But then we decided to open gifts and eat some cupcakes

After Happy Birthday both girls gave a pretty rendition of "I'm Five Years Old" which lead to a genuine round of applause

The the gift opening. Frankly, YaYa was spoiled. She got so many gifts, of such quality, that we scrapped the gift we were going to give her (a Spiderman themed Barbie where she is dressed in a wedding dress as Mary Jane; she'da freaked!) and instead stuck with only a Rapunzel dress up outfit.

[the ant hill was scrapped when we found out the life expectancy was under three weeks, and that it could not be restocked naturally, as Queen ants cannot be shipped. Oh, our Praying Mantis is still kicking weeks (a month or more?) into her stay with us, but the grasshopper passed and turned into Mantis food]

Here's our gift, and da** the red eye filter for messing with her eyes in the shot.

But I love/adore this pic, and my memories of the moment

That's her best school friend Sophia in the shot with her. Oh, the little boy that proposed to YaYa last year, the boy she swoons over and is infatuated with (and who admittedly is the nicest boy in the class showed up. His name is Dan. Her famous quote: "Isn't it funny Momma how your husband's name is Dan, and my boyfriends name is Dan too?"

After the party at Pulos (a great deal for how many folks we fed, btw) some of the girls went to the hotel for a sleepover in the Cadillac room, where a real '57 Caddy and big screen TV awaited them.

[For space reasons even fewer girls made it to this leg of the party. Among the excluded, unfortunately, were some of her best friends ]

The girls went swimming in the hotel pool, watched Grease and Bye Bye Birdie on the TV, listened to '50's CD's on the car's radio, and went to McDonald's for breakfast. The only bad part: LuLu got her hands caught in the Caddy's door. No harm done, but she wasn't a happy camper for awhile there :(

Meanwhile Parker and I retired home to watch the opening of the World Series and Badger hockey on PBS. Well, I watched that stuff. He slept :)

A great day (even with all the cold rain and early morning drama) and an enjoyable and memorable 5th birthday party for YaYa.