Jez here. In case you haven't yet heard the news, Winona turns

five in 12 days. We've been counting down for awhile,

but the excitement level has reached a hot simmer

over here. Trust me on this one.

 Winnie has decided on an Under The Sea Tea Party...

(We all agree that this is a huge improvement over her original Out Of This World theme).

She's inviting four friends.

Turning narration over to mom: My week started off with a vague awareness of "lots of things are coming up" which evolved into a To Do List that made me weak in the knees until I started checking things off of it. On today's list was "Invitations" which I printed off, put into envelopes and asked Winnie to decorate. I made dinner and the only peep I heard from her was, "How do you spell Nora?" When dinner was ready, I asked her to put them somewhere safe... and saw nothing more until tonight when I was straightening up before bed. I opened a drawer and found these (from L to R, top to bottom, I'll interpret the sketches:  octopus, pirate ship, mermaid and jelly fish).

 And then I flipped them over and found: Nora, Ruby,Maya and Ava; signed: ME, or EM

And then I popped.

She's so excited for this birthday. She is desperately trying to get

straight which day is the FRIEND party (this Saturday) and which day

is the FAMILY party (Thanksgiving Thursday). And, there are

games to plan (Pin the Fin on the Mermaid), menus to prepare (not quite there, yet),

decorations to imagine, and, as you can see, invitations to deliver.

(Invitations are miraculous. A couple of weeks ago, she got an invitation from Ava --referenced above--and she kept astoundingly close track of its whereabouts for a week, sleeping with it on two of the nights).

We have a date to go dress shopping this weekend.

I'm not sure who's more excited.