Happy Birthday, Vera!

We just celebrated our last birthday of the year.  My baby girl who first made me a mom is now 6!  Happy Birthday, Vera!

When kids in her class celebrate a birthday, they usually bring in gifts for the whole class.  Since there are 34 kids, we didn't do it her first 2 years of Chinese preschool.  This year we let her spend 5RMB (approximately 80 cents) on each child.  She was so excited about giving her classmates gifts, that she didn't even think to ask about having a birthday party!

She got a pencil, pen, notebook, eraser, pencil sharpener, and zipper pouch for each child, yes all for a total of about 80 cents per child!

The birthday girl carrying her bags of loot for her classmates!

I know that sweet little girl face isn't going to be around for a whole lot longer.  She's growing up so fast!

See the extra little girl?  That's Vera's best friend N.  They live across town and pretty much only see each other if they have a modeling job together.  N's mom and I worked things out to surprise Vera with an all day visit from her best friend.  When N and I picked her up from school at noon, she squealed in delight!  And yes, they are all wearing bathing suits in the house.  They were pretending to be mermaids.

When Daddy got home from work, he came in with Vera's first gift, a new bike!  

Do they look happy or what?

She crashed twice b/c she was so excited and riding out of control.

Six years old!

We also surprised Vera with a visit to Papa John's for dinner.  It's her favorite restaurant but pretty pricy, so we don't go often.

Vera, N, and Eden

She got some small gifts from each of her siblings.

Now, have you ever wondered where the "birthday shirt" tradition got started?

I gave birth to Vera in the birthday shirt!  Nothing intentional about it...it's just what happened to fit and what I happened to be wearing on October 17, 2005. 

Precious.

We never intended to start the birthday shirt tradition, but somehow got the idea on her first birthday when we put it on her.  The tradition has stuck for all 4 kids ever since.  I even made sure to wear it when Kai was born!

2 years old

3 years old. 

I'm missing about 6 months of pictures on my computer, thus no 4 year old picture.  I'll have Matt look into that.  This is Vera at 5.

And my dancing princess at 6 years old!

We love you, Vera Kathleen!  Happy Birthday!