Last week, pandemic be damned, we had a special event for a special little girl: ELLA’S 6th BIRTHDAY! Unlike Zoe’s drive-by birthday, Ella decided that she wanted an adventure. And so, we headed to [gulp] LEGOLAND for a one-night-only getaway.
Technically, Legoland is closed, but the hotel, Sea Life aquarium, outdoor “Miniland USA“, and of course, The Big Shop are all open. If you know me at all (or have been reading the blog), you know that any of that is pretty much my nightmare right now. I was terrified that we’d end up in the middle of a crowd with missing masks…
Turns out that, on the whole, people were honoring all the “Wear Your Mask” signs that were posted everywhere, and they were frequently using the required hand sanitizers, also everywhere. Plus, our family was diligent and compliant, as always. There were of course exceptions out there, like one mother of 5 young children (all old enough to wear masks, none wearing masks) who had a mask dangling from her pinky as she arranged those kids for a photo opp. I almost lost it.
But anyway, if you had seen our daughters’ faces as we entered our Friends Themed hotel room, with a bunk bed and LEGO decorations all over the room, you would say you understand why we went. You would also understand why I was shocked about (and opposed to touching) the small box of LEGOs they had in the room for “kids to play with”… We did not. In fact, I wiped down the entire room.
But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
Ella’s birthday (as she told everyone on Saturday who wished her Happy Birthday) was on Wednesday. So our first celebrations started then. Actually, the discussions started around Zoe’s birthday when Ella began to mark off the days on a calendar until HER birthday.
Though we didn’t have a “party”, her awesome teacher allowed me to send a slideshow video of pictures of her as a baby to show her class. Here’s the video of that experience. And if you’re wondering how school is going, this will give you a few glimpses of that as well:
If you’d like to see the photo slideshow, all by itself, here you go!
To make up for the fact I didn’t con my husband into making a homemade birthday cake this year, unlike every other year, I made one myself. The theme? LEGOs. We had a cupcake for her school celebration and an actual cake for our birthday dinner!
As you can see, I actually made TWO cakes, so Zoe would get the birthday cake experience (technically it’s ONE cake, cut into two bricks). I personally think Ella had an EXTRAORDINARY pandemic birthday, since we also took her out to a birthday dinner, where she got a sparkler dessert:
In fact, on Ella’s actual birthday, her new bed showed up, and that night after work Bart and I assembled it. So now both our children have floors:
Currently, Ella’s floor is filled with LEGOs… She’s actually not so great at parting with toys, and often, her floor is filled with carefully arranged scenes for those toys, including this one:
And her imagination seems infinite, especially when it comes to LEGOs, where she is regularly concocting detailed setups like this kitty house she whipped up on a random afternoon last week:
I think you’ll agree that Week 27 was an action-packed, fun-filled week of wonderfulness for sweet Ella’s birthday. I’ll wrap up with lots of pictures from our LEGOLAND adventure, which need no commentary. We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to celebrate this amazing little girl, who proclaimed that this was the “Best Birthday Ever.” Win.
If you need a moment of Zen (don’t we all), check out this video from Sea Life – and turn down the sound. If you want to hear Zoe loudly provide commentary on every movement, leave the sound on – but that will not be a Zen experience…
Emphasis on Joy 
That video from Ella’s class is awesome! I feel for the teacher trying to quiet everyone down. And then the sheer chaos of all those little voices trying to sing happy birthday… And the joy on Ella’s face – both for being serenaded and during the video you made for her! The little person at the end who said, “That was adorable!” summarized it perfectly. You’re doing just fine over there, mom!