Sydney is FIVE!

We celebrated at school (I volunteered so I could be with her the whole day):

The cake actually isn't real, but they get to sing and blow out the candles which I think is pretty clever.

We celebrated in bed (many thanks to those who send cards! They make the traditional breakfast in bed so very special:

We celebrated at the dinner table:

I wanted to do something fun for her gift that wouldn't cost a lot of money but would have a big, magical impact. When I was flipping through a Restoration Hardware catalog, I saw a room with vaulted ceilings strung up with fairy lights and I knew that's exactly what I was looking for. Even though we've lightened up Sydney's room from the original chocolate brown, teal and tan, it still looked a little dark and drab. The curtains were dark and when opened, hung inside the window frame so those were the first to go.

I found a curtain rod long enough so the curtains could hang outside the window frame when opened. Because I'm a stickler for details (and maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment), I sewed scallops into the bottom of the curtains so they would echo the half-circle of the window as well as the bed frame. I'm pretty sure no one will ever notice the bottom of the curtains, but they are there! Unfortunately, Amazon sent the bright white lights instead of the warm white. I strung them up and they looked, I don't know, cold? I really wanted warm white so I packaged them up and sent them back. 

At long last the warm white lights came and stringing them up went much faster since I'd left all of the hooks in place from the first time around. Both Sydney and I fell in love with the finished product. For me, the lights highlight the vaulted ceiling and combined with the curtains, made it feel bigger and lighter. For Sydney, it added a touch of whimsy and gave her new light for reading in bed. We put them on a timer so she could fall asleep with them on and my favorite setting is the one where they gently fade on and off.

I took this video to capture just a little bit of Sydney's rapidly disappearing baby talk. Words like "Fursday" and "firsty" will not be around forever. She used to call Brigitta "Dita" and I loved it but that one left her vocabulary a while ago. 

Every now and again, Sydney will really pump her arms and walk with so much purpose.

I love you so much Sydney! You are a light in my life, butter to my bread. Happy Birthday sweet girl.