E's Birthday

Earlier this week, we celebrated E's birthday.  My little baby is the big 0-5!  Hubs convinced her of the wisdom of opening some of the more fun toys on Sunday so she would actually have time to play with them. E is going through a "Monster High" phase/obsession right now, so she received a couple of dolls and a movie over the weekend.  (See the obligatory photo proof of her delight.)

It actually was a good idea for her to play with some things on Sunday because she wanted to go out to dinner on her actual birthday.  After work, we loaded everyone up to have dinner at the mall food court. That is seriously where she wanted to eat.  She wanted to eat at the mall and maybe, possibly, probably not get her ears pierced.  The ear piercing place just so happens to be close to Sephora.  By close, I mean within 1000 yards or so- that's close enough, right?  Well, someone decided to mention that McDonalds and Chickfila have play houses and wouldn't that be fun? Guess where we had a birthday dinner.  Yep- golden arches.  Gross.  G and I both despise McDonalds "food" and G is getting too big for the play houses now.  Physically, I mean.  She's about a half-inch shorter than I am.  She will still play the crap out of a play house if we let her.

Anyway, I had already given the obligatory parent (and completely false) assurance that "wherever E wants to go is great- it's her birthday", so I couldn't really justify giving the stink eye to that certain someone with all his great ideas.  I've never been so happy to leave a restaurant in my life. The highlight for me was the delicious chocolate cake from Bill Rhodes Bakery.  If you are ever in the Atlanta/Buford area, I cannot recommend this bakery highly enough.  We've had five or six cakes from them over the last three years and they are so delicious.  Even the cake part is good- and that is saying something for me!

Halloween begins the season of sugar and potential weight gain in our house.  We still had five pounds of Halloween candy before we brought in the birthday cake, then we'll have Thanksgiving and Hubs' birthday this month.  Next month is G's birthday and Christmas, which generally also involve sugar and deliciousness.  It is a good thing I started keeping up with my calories last week or I'd put on another 15 pounds by New Years.  (Fun fact- when I measure out food, I discover that I typically enjoy four servings of salad dressing on my salad or my "normal" diet is 90% carbs!) I did slice a mindfully small sliver of cake, but I savored the heck of it.  : )