under the magnolia tree

Six seems SO big!  She sure is growing up.  Magnolia is so much fun and we just adore everything about her.  For her birthday she didn't have school so she got to choose to do whatever she wanted to do. She chose to go the the Children's Museum which was a blast since we had not been in there in SO long.  Then we drove to Blue's Egg for lunch where George joined us.  Then we came home to play with new toys.  We had a chinese dinner then bundled up to take a walk to the Pumpkin Festival.

Every year our village puts on a Great Pumpkin Festival.  They stack up picnic tables and staple big white lights to them.  They have piles of pumpkins and a tent where you can go in to carve it.  When you are finished, you find a place to put your pumpkin on the picnic tables.  We went a couple of nights prior to carve our pumpkin so on Magnolia's birthday we walked back to see it lit up.  There's always live music, good food, and plenty of good friends to see!

Ours is second from the bottom on the far left.  Everyone got a say in what they wanted carved.  George IV chose square eyes, George III chose a triangle nose, Magnolia chose a big smile with two teeth and I chose to carve our name in the back.

When we came home Magnolia got to open her gifts from us which included a new set of flannel sheets with painted ponies on them, her very own alarm clock, a coin changer, a panda snack container, a horse book, and her own hairbrush and comb.  We kept her gifts to a minimum to justify the pony at her party.  We knew she would remember her pony far more than any gift we got her.  :)

And the grand finale of the night....birthday cake pie!

Magnolia, also known as Magpie shortened to Pie, fittingly loves pies.  She first wanted a key lime pie then we got to reading Amelia Bedelia books in which Amelia Bedelia makes the best lemon meringue pies.  So, in the end, it turned out to be a Key Lime Meringue Pie.

Our sweet girl gets six (!) candles, she makes a wish, and blows them out perfectly.  Yeah!

As I tucked Magnolia in that night I told her that it's going to be a great year being six and we talked about all of the things she'll do and learn.  The first on her list was to be able to snap her fingers which she has already mastered.  Exciting things!!!

We love you to pieces Magnolia June!  Happy 6th Birthday!!1

xoxo

A couple of side notes not to be forgotten:

George was very unhappy that he couldn't open Magnolia's gifts.  Magnolia was very kind and let him help.  He continued to be grumpy through the cake as the picture suggests.  Magnolia didn't seem to be bothered by his fussing and crying.  She happily ate two pieces of pie!  

Magnolia and I share birthdays, mine falls the day before hers.  Both kiddos were off of school so I told them that we were going to do something fun, something I wanted to do, and they had to promise they would say "okay" to everything I asked.  I asked to go downtown to the Pabst Mansion.  We did but it turned out that it had to be a guided tour so Magnolia and George got dragged around the mansion with me for over an hour and they were troopers!  Even the tour guide commented on how good they were.  So far so good...  Afterwards we went to the Melthouse for a good Wisconsin grilled cheese sandwich but in my insane hunger, I ordered wrong and never got the grilled cheese I craved.  But, George met us for lunch and we all shared soups and sandwiches, it was fun to be together.  After that I asked them to go to my two favorite stores.  And, that was when things got a little hairy.  They tried but they just couldn't help being a little wild in those stores.  I can hardly blame them and overall, they were really good.  Really great sidekicks on my birthday and I loved every minute of my day with them.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going to ballet/tap lessons, having a good dinner and a delicious gingerbread cake hot out of the oven with fresh whipped cream.  George made a fire and I opened many wonderful gifts from a lot of people who love me.  It was a wonderful birthday.