As always, I took the day off her birthday, but this year was different since she is in school all day. I went to school with her in the morning and got to volunteer in her class. I also got to watch her on the morning announcements, "Rocky's Report". She was only on there for about five seconds, but it was so sweet and she seemed so much older than my 'baby'. I got to help her class make flowers out plates that they are going to use at their upcoming 'Reading Restaurant'.
After I volunteered, I picked Hannah up and we went to the Disney Store to buy Alyssa her other gift. When we picked her up from school that day it was sitting in her car seat to surprise her :) She loved it, of course. The doll is wearing the same dress that Alyssa picked out to wear when we have dinner at the castle in Disney World. The doll doesn't really make sense though, because when she gets married she has short brown hair from Flynn cutting it off to save her...
She also got the entire series of the 'Magic Treehouse' books...there are 45 of them! They are an elementary chapter book series about a brother and sister who find a magically treehouse full of books and discover that they can travel through time in the treehouse. Mrs. Bourgeois read the first one to her in class and she was so excited about it we have check out some from the library too. Then I saw the whole set in her book order for about $1 a book. I couldn't beat that deal! Now we can read through the series in order. It is so fun for all of us! She also got a new swim suit, sandals and sunglasses. I had really wanted to get her an iPod because she loves listening to music so much, but I couldn't bring myself to spending $300+ on a 6 year old's birthday. Then I found an old iPod nano in my parents garage that used to be one of my sisters. Since everyone has iPhones now, that has been unused for years and still works fine (besides the fact it can't hold a battery charge). So I cleaned that up, Dan loaded her favorite tunes and we gave that to her as well. It was her favorite gift of all. She knew how to work it right away and listened to it all night long. Thankfully we already had a little headphone splitter so Hannah can listen too :) I may have to splurge and buy her a better one sooner than I thought. This girl is all about her music.
After presents we went to get dinner at Chipotle, then came home for birthday brownies and a bonfire and gluten free s'mores. It was a perfect family time! And, since her birthday was on Friday she got to stay up late and ended up falling alseep in Dan's arms next to the fire.
Unfortunately, Alyssa woke up the next morning not feeling well. By lunchtime she spiked a 105* fever and couldn't move off her bed. Even with pain reliever in her system she didn't feel much better. I thought for sure we were going to have to reschedule her party, which was suppose to be the next day. We decided to wait it out and see how she felt in the morning. She did feel a little better and because of other things going on we wouldn't have been able to reschedule it for 3 weeks so we eventually went through with her party. Even though she wasn't at 100%, she had a blast. My camera broke when we got there, so all I have are some mediocre iPhone shots :(
This is a little washed out, but the top was a daisy cupcake (like from the daisy meeting) and the rest were pink and purple with sprinkles.
As it turned out, Alyssa wasn't really feeling better and had another fever that night. We kept her home from school on Monday so she could rest and finish the year out strong. Ha! Turns out that pesky fever was actually Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Hannah had the high fever the week before so we just though it was a virus. Normally it is babies who get it, so even the doctor missed the diagnosis. But, she did only have a few blisters in her mouth...nothing on the rest of her body. We found out later that several people we know had just gotten over it and there was a big outbreak of it in Columbus. She must have picked it up a mild case at school and passed it on to Alyssa. Alyssa's doesn't get a 'mild' case of anything. Go big or go home, right? She was covered in blisters by the end of the night night. They were itchy and painful...and covering her body. Not to mention it is highly contagious until the blisters go away. In her case it took a solid week for them to scab over. So, she missed another full week of school. Honestly, it was the grossest thing either of them have ever had. I felt so bad for her :( This is just one of her wrists...
I hope we never have to deal with that again! Even though it was a rough week following her special day, I think Aly enjoyed her birthday and party. I can not believe she is 6 already...she is such a beautiful little lady!! We are so blessed we get to be her parents!
