Hand-painted birthday card from BooBoo, Elle’s grandma

Last week our oldest daughter Elle, “Ellybean”, The Bean”, “Bean”, “Elle, say you’re sorry” turned six-years-old. I would have posted about it sooner, but between her first big kid birthday party, playing hooky to enjoy a family trip to the zoo and opening 350 presents-it’s been a bit crazy around here. This was no birthday, this was a birth-week! It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since we got on this roller coaster called parenthood and something about six makes me feel like we graduated a bit. We’re out of diapers, losing teeth and we pretty much live in the car shuttling from point a to point b. I remember not too long ago how slow the days were and how lazy it all seemed. Now I feel akin to that Army slogan: Parents, we do more before 8am than most people do all day. Time is my enemy now and there are truly not enough hours in the day to get it all done. But that pretty much goes for anyone in this raced world we live in, kids or no kids. Which is why I loved our new birthday tradition of playing hooky. On Elle’s actual birthday, we all took the day off from school and work to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo. It was sunny and warm and I swear the animals knew it was her birthday. We’ve been to the zoo many times, but we’ve never gotten so much action. Giraffes and meerkats and lions oh my! Everyone came out and really put on a show for her special day. It was so nice to take a minute, slow down and enjoy each others company. Brief, but very sweet. Ok, that’s it-gotta go. I’ve got pick-up, grocery store, homework, invoicing and ballet! Enjoy.