new wheels

We took the kids out to dinner last night to celebrate Elise's birthday. She agreed that we would go out last night, and stay in tomorrow night and have breakfast for dinner (her favorite) on her real birthday. We decided to be brave and took the kids to a Thai restaurant. David and I love Thai food, but our kids are not good about trying new things. Luckily, after the very entertaining owner noticed that the kids weren't exactly devouring the chicken satay and spring rolls (they are insane), he brought out a huge tray of french fries. I would have normally been a little bummed because that obviously completely stopped them from trying anything new (the lemongrass soup was seriously one of the best things I have EVER put in my mouth!!!), but since we were celebrating Elise's birthday, David and I were just happy that the kids were happy and we let them eat fries for dinner.

He also gave each of the kids a balloon- always a hit- and kept us quite entertained throughout dinner- stopping by to sit and chat several times. He says he can read people, and gets feelings (I guess he is some type of medium) and he was zeroing in on Lila. He said she has a big, big brain, and that she is in control...especially of Bennett...then he said something about their past life, and I got a little lost! But, the controlling part was pretty interesting, and that is definitely how she would like to be-- running the whole show!
After dinner, and feeding the coy fish, we piled into the car, where David and I told Elise it was time to go get her birthday gift...

She was pretty excited!!! (Excuse the pics from David's phone...but I love her face!)

She guessed correctly that we were going to let her choose a new 2 wheel bike!

Although our little non-dare devil has been quite content with her tricycle, we agreed it was time for her, at the ripe old age of five, to move on up to a bike. To my dismay, I was completely unable to find an adorable plain pink bike like this:

or like this:

...because they were all either $300 or way too big for her. Apparently it is mandatory that any 16" bike be either incredibly tacky, have a character of some sort on it, or say something totally inappropriate like "major flirt" or "sweet kisses". I'm sorry, I know it is just a bike, but Elise is not riding around the neighborhood on a bike that says MAJOR FLIRT at age five!!!

I was so disappointed in the choices out there, that after discussing it with David we just decided if it was going to be tacky, she might as well adore it, and so we would just let her choose (of course, within certain limits)...

We left Target with this jewel last night:

I will say, that, of the choices, I think she picked the best one. We figure she'll get about 2 or so years out of this bike, and so I think that Barbie is still acceptable for a 7 year old. Regardless, it will have to be for her!

David and I woke up this morning to see her sitting on her bike at the foot of our bed! HA!

David spent a lot of last night putting it together and she came down first thing this morning to check it out...she was so excited that he took her out for her first ride before Lila and Bennett even woke up!

We had a fun rest of the day playing with her new toys..she is loving all of the Barbies! And we all had fun playing the new board games she got- in particular Zingo held all three's attention for quite a while! Bennett is really good!! I took Elise to a friend's birthday party this afternoon, and then, as promised, I watched Annie (another birthday gift) with the kids tonight. David had to go to work for a bit, but I can't wait for him to watch it with us next time. I was crying not 5 minutes in because it reminded me of being little so much. Monique and I used to watch it over and over and over...and I still knew all of the songs!! It was so neat to be watching it now with my own children!! And, they were mesmerized!!

It was also so different to watch as an adult because I had no clue how wasted Ms. Hannegan was for the whole movie!! Elise kept saying, "man she is drinking alot of water".......didn't have the heart to explain....:)

So, a jam packed weekend has come to a close. Looking forward to tomorrow to try and make Elise's actual birthday as special as we can...She is going to be counting down until 5 p.m....when she really turns 5!!

Goodnight!