At school on Thursday, Lauren was the special birthday child. She got a birthday crown, brought her favorite birthday cupcake cones, they sang her the birthday song, and she was a magnet for all the children who fought over who got to sit next to her. Luckily, I was working in the class that day and got to capture the fun on camera. There was even a special visit from Daisy the Bear, who lives in the forest. I'm sure Lauren thought she was there just for her.
So Mom's planned something fun.
For just the two girls,
Who got all their chores done!
And put sandals on those feet.
We're going to get pedicures--
Isn't that a fun treat?
I wish I'd remembered to take a picture of her getting her little "mani" and "pedi" done. The ladies were doting all over her, and she was loving the attention. On the way home, she said, "Mom, thanks for inviting me to go with you to the "paint shop." 
That night, we let her choose where to go out to eat, and she chose Chuck E. Cheese, even though everyone else was not very excited about that choice. It was totally packed, but that didn't bother Lauren. She loved playing the games with Caleb, and when Chuck E. came out to say hi to the other "official" birthday kids, she waved at him till her arms were going to fall off. We didn't realize how disappointed she would be when he didn't come over to our table to sing Happy Birthday to her--oops!
Waiting patiently for her first clue...Once there was a butterfly,
Who liked to flutter, flutter by,
She fluttered up and fluttered down,
She fluttered all around the town.
But on April 20th she was nowhere in sight.
Her family thought she should be back from her flight.
It’s Lauren’s birthday--where was she?
We want her to join us for the party.
“Birthday girl, we need your help!”
The butterfly’s family started to yelp.
“Do you think YOU can you find our butterfly?”
Don’t forget to look low and HIGH!
Clue #1: “WHEE!” is what you’ll say,
When you go down this today.
Her butterfly hunt took her around the park and she ended up finding the big butterfly balloon tied to a table with her presents on it. She was more excited about the butterfly balloon than anything else. She named the balloon, talked to it affectionately, and ran around the park with it--who knew she would get so into it?
Lauren and her chocolate butterfly cake with lots of Jelly beans! 
"Warm Fuzzies"
A tradition we've carried on in our family is to share "warm fuzzies" (what we love about that person) at birthday time. When Brad reminded us of this at dinner, Lauren lit up and said, "So, Caleb, what do you love about me?" He said she was a great sister and he loved playing with her. Brad said he loves how she has a grateful heart and gives great compliments (that morning she had told him how handsome he was). I said that I love how helpful she is with Andrew, and also I love that she is a girl so we can do girl stuff together. She was absolutely beaming by the time we were finished. She yelled out, "Let's go around again!" She didn't want the love fest to end.
