The cake order was as follows: PINK! Pink pink. PinK! PPPINNKK!! pink.
Luckily, I was told my offering was acceptable. (There was also pink cake on the inside. Naturally.)
Aside from the cake, this birthday was obviously a very big deal for our Layna Dawn. Partly because she’s big now…but mostly because of her Disney trip that we’ve been planning for five years. It’s over and done and I’ll tell you all about it on Saturday. For now we need to go over the actual birthday. It was simple…because the real highlight was the trip. But it was great, and perfectly her.

More of the cake.
She has been savoring the clover and the sunshine and I just loved this picture of her.
Sunday (day before her birthday) we decided to give her all her presents so she could pack the next day. Garyn got her the last book in a series she loves that’s been four years in the making. Corra and Naomi got her things for her trip.
Candles and Eating of cake. Wishes are serious business.
Layna declared out of nowhere, months ago, that on her birthday she wanted breakfast in bed. Well when the day came, she was too excited to sleep in, forget staying in bed. When I pointed out that I couldn’t bring her breakfast in bed if she wasn’t in bed, we found a compromise. “Breakfast in Couch”. It was a hit. Lunch was spaghetti and meatballs and dinner was pasta salad. She loves her some noodles.
For Family Home Evening, Neil choose Charades for our activity. It was hilarious. Layna still kind of just plays by her own rules and so to finish the game she decided to act out the movie “The Swan Princess” in 10 parts. We were dying by the end of it. Our running commentary and guessing reminded me of the old “Mystery Science Theater 3000” show on Comedy Central. It was such a perfect chef’s kiss on the day.

Layna is big now. That means big opinions and big emotions and big attitude. It also mean big loves and big smiles. We are still navigating life with her one day at a time as every day continues to be filled with the duality she always has carried with her. There is delight in the routine and rhythm of our days…and there are always new hard things and new awesome things. Sorry that that is vague and not super descriptive. Let me try again. She drives me crazy and I really wouldn’t change a thing about her. Her triumphs are hard earned and all the more special for the fight. I love this travel-sized human being I’m ok being her buddy forever especially on days when she doesn’t like me much. She’ll come around and we’ll talk and find our way back to being buddies again. Her favorite dad guy will be there too…thank heavens for both our sake.