Six Times Around the Sun - Fairy Garden Birthday for Helen

As of Saturday, I no longer have any child living in my home who can display his or her age on one hand. Helen has made six revolutions around the sun. She is the oldest child in her Kindergarten class. She absolutely loves that role.

I wish I could record all the laughter she's provided over the years. If you do, in fact, get what you give - Helen seems destined to live a life filled with an extraordinary amount of happiness. I hope this comes to her.

We celebrated her birthday in two parts.

Since we've returned from the beach, both Connor and Helen are in love with scavenger / treasure hunts. Friday night, Connor and Ed cooked up a scavenger hunt for Helen to find her birthday presents the next morning. It started with Helen following a trail of chocolates down the stairs.

When she got the bottom she exclaimed "I'm rich with chocolate!". And proving that all glory comes from the hunt, she tucked the candies away in a bowl in the cabinet and hasn't eaten more than one or two.

Helen puzzled through clues in the dress she had laid out the night before. She wanted to dress like one of her American Girl dolls for the day. She needed to be super fancy.

Helen had to count on Connor to do the reading, but the commentary between the clues was all hers. She just could not figure out the rhyming clues, and Connor patiently would offer ideas to try and lead her to the answer. After figuring it out, she would totally insult Ed by saying things like "what the heck? This makes no sense." He took it all in stride.

For example, this clue was about something cold, so initially Helen thought she should go outside. Sensing that we could lose her if she went, Connor prompted her to come up with something in the kitchen, and I finally opened the freezer. And then "aha!".

Eventually, she found her presents in the oven. Luckily, no adult turned the oven on before the presents were recovered. All in all, it was a good day.

On Sunday, we hosted our standard outdoor kids' party, after praising the universe that - despite the fact that our yard received about 7 inches of rain over the past three days, the chance of rain during the party was predicted to be 0%. Thankfully, those forecasters were spot on!

We often have piñatas, but this was the first time we tried the "pull the string" type. It was fantastic. The anticipation about which string would unleash the candy was almost unbearable.

At Helen's request, a clue also dropped out of the piñata, which ultimately led to some craft supplies for all the children.

The best part of the hunt was when one of the guests said "don't give me a clue - I cannot read! I am not even FOUR yet." Luckily, Connor and another older sibling took over all reading duties, as the party-goers scampered up and down the alley behind our home in search of loot. Hat tip to Connor for his role in setting up the hunt. Occasionally, he decides to be exceptionally nice to Helen, and between Saturday and Sunday, we experienced a lot of those moments.

Eventually, a box was discovered, which had the makings for fairy gardens (pictured above). These were an enormous success. Originally, we were going to make them from live plants at the garden store, but as it turns out, this is very difficult to accomplish in November. So we went with things from Michael's instead, and they all turned out quite nicely.

About an hour after Helen's party, I was sitting in the next room and heard her say "I am drunk! I am just drunk with life!"

Cheers, Helen! I hope this revolution is as happy as the last!

Elaine