Lydia's Golden Birthday

This year Lydia arrived at her golden birthday. Many people have asked me what that means. As Brigham explained to me when we were married, it means that the age you are turning is the same as the date of your birthday. So Lydia turned six on the sixth of March. We kind of made a big deal about it.

I figured she's only going to have her golden birthday once, why not give her a really special memory of what her family did for her for her golden birthday.

I got her a cute little golden dress (thank you Amazon for having cheap clothes that I can get in two days when I decide last minute that I want her to have one for her birthday).

I also made a gold and white sparkly birthday banner, and decorated the house with ribbon, balloons, and sparkly stars. 

The night of her birthday, we had a family dinner. Lydia choose a cream cheese pesto pasta that is DELICIOUS with garlic bread, salad, and red jello. My kids are a fan of the jello.

Lydia received her weight in cheetos.

And then we opened presents,

She screamed with joy when she FINALLY received her Ana and Elsa dolls from Grandma Becky.

And had her cookie cake.

Since Lydia hates cake, she always requests a cookie one. Last year I made a chocolate chip cake, and this year I tried a Funfetti Sugar Cookie Cake. 

While it wasn't too hard to make, just note that when a frosting recipe calls for butter, they don't mean sticks of margarine. Growing up we didn't differentiate between the two, so margarine is butter for me and it made for some oily, separated frosting. Whoops. 

The cake was good, but not what I expected. I wanted either a definite sugar cookie or cake batter taste, and it wasn't either. Lydia and I both agreed that the chocolate chip cookie cake is better.

The one really special allowance I made for Lydia this year is that she was able to have a birthday party with friends. We warned her that this was only because it was her golden birthday, and that normally family parties would be the norm. 

So the day after her birthday, we had a little girl birthday party. Lydia had six people she wanted to invite and her one game request was to "play the one where you are blind-folded and have to pin something."

We played pin the star on the wand.

The girls came in and colored their stars, and then each girl was blind-folded and spun around six times (for how old Lydia turned) and sent off to pin their star. Lydia's is the one on the TV. Ammon's ended up in the kitchen.

Next came musical-pass-the-fingernail-polish.

While the music played the girls (and Ammon) passed around gold and pink shades of fingernail polish, and when it stopped they painted one finger whatever color they were holding until all fingers were painted. Besides some passing-challenged children, this game was a hit. The girls loved to exclaim when their pattern was ruined or what color they had. They also loved that they got to take a fingernail polish home.

 I think I would play this with older girls, however, due to my having to take over and rush around painting a million fingers each time, after discovering fingernail polish was ending up all over when the girls tried to do it themselves. 

The final activity was a craft where they made golden flower pens.

The girls kept saying incredulously, "We get to keep these?!"

Also, our dear friend Helen Walton finally arrived to the party. Her invitation was lost in the mail, but on Facebook she was able to ask where it was so I was able to realize the mistake. I let her know the where and when of the party and she made an appearance. It was a hoot :)

Next came presents.

And after all that fun, of course refreshments were need to replenish our energy.

We had goldfish, golden chocolate eggs, kettle corn, vanilla wafers, a pyramid of golden oreos. Perfect treats for little girls and boy - they truly enjoyed them.

Luckily the weather was gorgeous and they were able to eat and play outside in the sunshine until parents arrived to take them home.

Lydia had a blast and  announced, "This was the best birthday I've ever had!" I'm so proud of this sweet, smart, beautiful girl of mine. It was so fun for me to be able to spoil her and celebrate the day she made me a mom and came into this world. Oh how I love, love, LOVE her. Happy Birthday Baby, may you always feel as loved and as special as you did this year, because that is how we feel about you always! Love, Mom.

Lydia's Six Year Birthday Interview

1. What's your favorite song? Let It Go
2. What's your favorite thing to do with Mom? Go to the store
3. What's your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play with him
4. What's your favorite day of the week? Sunday because I can go to church and learn about Jesus
5. How old are you? six
6. Who is your best friend? Emery
7. What's your favorite thing to do?  Play with Ammon
8. What's your favorite color? Gold and pink
9. What's your favorite food? macaroni, hot pockets, and chips
10. What do you like to do with your family? Play with my family
11. What's your favorite toy? My Elsa doll
12. What do you want to be when you grow up? An actress
13. What makes you happy? Being nice
14. What makes you sad? When I don't get to have play-dates
15. What's your favorite show to watch? Jake and the Neverland Pirates
16. What's your favorite book? Look and Find books
17. What do you like to learn about? Jesus
18. Where do you like to go? The park
19. What's the best part of your birthday? Presents
20. What's your favorite treat? Sour Patch Kids and Reeses
21. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? The Prophet
22. What's your favorite movie? Frozen
23. What's your favorite game to play? Chutes and Ladders
24. What sports do you like? Soccer
25. What do you like to wear? Dresses 
26. Who's your favorite princess? Cinderella