Eva's Fifth Birthday - Oct 22, 2009

Happy Fifth Birthday, Eva!

This blog is the story of our granddaughter Eva's fifth birthday party, which was held by her loving parents Gretchen and Michael at their home in Lakewood, Ohio, three days after her actual birthday, which is October 22. They had had several parties before this one, for the family. For instance, they gave a big party for kids for her the day before our old folks' party, and it was at the Rocky River Nature Center, where there's a planetarium! But our party was as much fun as we could stand! Above is Eva, thrilled with her birthday cake, which Mommy Gretchen had managed to make and keep hidden from Eva until now!

This was Jimmy's prize: He found a card with a groundhog on it, for Eva for her birthday. He and Eva have a groundhog thing going, which actually started when Gretchen was young, and Jimmy Daddy announced to her and her friend Heather, from across the street, that he was going to barbecue groundhog burgers for Groundhog Day.

This is the big sketchbook page drawing I made and sent to Eva, for her to start coloring, before her birthday.  We mailed it with Jimmy's groundhog card.

The morning of her birthday party, I finished Eva and my project we'd started on May 1, 2009: The Doll and Bunny Blanket. It's the piece we started on our new Hello Kitty sewing machine.  I was looking at the back of the quilt, and decided to surprise Eva by using my airpen to draw cat faces all over the pink print backing fabric. I got this idea after I'd put one kitty face next to my note about us making the quilt project together.  I was also holding the mama leopard we'd gotten for Eva, as Gretchen had given her a baby leopard, and Eva's into pairing up Mamas and Babies in her toys right now.

This is the note I'd written in a corner of the quilt and stuck the first cat head on.  You never know when an idea is just going to go wild in your head: Pretty soon I was squeezing in kitty faces anywhere I could, in that print! It was a blast!

After drawing a ton of kitty faces with my airpen, I decided it would be fun to stick in just ONE bunny face!  :)  (She found that bunny face pretty fast, when she first saw the finished quilt, when she opened it later that day.)

I wrapped up the mama leopard and some twist-up colored pencils in the Doll and Bunny Blanket, using some fabric trim lengths to make Eva's bows. Time to go to the party!  Yea!

Here's a view of our house in Wooster, Turtle Moon Studios, as we were leaving for Eva's party in Cleveland.

When we got to GEM's house for Eva's party on Sunday, October 25th, the sun was shining, and Eva was up for another celebration.

Gretchen had worked all morning to create this lovely birthday brunch, including Mimosas for the grownups.

Eva was happy to show her Aunt Kristi how to play her new birthday game, that came with lots of princesses and jewelry, and one crown.

Here's the birthday cake that Gretchen made for her little Eva! Yummy!

OK, this is right before she blew out her candles, making her wish! Happy Fifth Birthday, Dear Eva!  Gretchen looks so happy, too.  :)

Nana, Eva's other grandmother Eileen, is enjoying snuggling up to our little sweetheart!

Then we all settled in for the opening of our presents for Eva.  Frank, Jimmy, Kristi, and Gretchen are ready.

She's starting to rip the first one open! Kim, Michael, Frank, and Jimmy are waiting to see what goes on.

When she got around to Jimmy and my gifts, Eva pulled out the mama leopard, but kept looking at the kitty faces on the Doll and Bunny Blanket's backing fabric. Oh, goody!  She gets it!  :)

This is the drawing I'd made of Eva and GEM's cat Cricket (Otis and Ome's sister), in the front of a new sketchbook we gave her. It's one of those Hungry Little Caterpillar books, in which you can draw pictures and write stories underneath the drawings.

She soon pounced on that book, getting into making her own drawing in it. Yea!

After opening all her gifts, Eva took us all outside, to demonstrate how well she can ride her new pink bike, that her Mommy and Daddy had given to her on her birthday morning. They had also let her ride it a bit, before she had to leave for school that day.

What a sweet little family, my Gretchen, Mike, and Eva!

Before we left for Wooster, I got a good hug and a little quiet time with Eva, who was about ready for her nap. It had been a lovely day!