Lily Turns Five!

What a beautiful peacemaker is my Lillian Regina Severina Draper! She has been my cheerleader for 5 years now, and I'm not sure I'd be here today if it weren't for her. Even before she could talk very much she could see Mommy crying when things got hard with her little baby sister (for example one of those days when all 4 kids from Baby Beth to 6 year old Tyra all had the flu and ear infections at the same time and Mom might have just sat down for a minute with the baby crying in her arms and started to cry herself,) and Lily not yet 2 would come up and give me loves and smiles to cheer me up. And when Thomas started Kindergarten and I would bike around with them in the trailer behind me and the going up Pontiac would get tough Lily would say "Keep going Momma! You can do it!" Then there was the encouragement when Lily was potty training and anytime she would see me in the bathroom she'd be really proud of me doing my business "Good job Mommy! I hear your peepee!"

Lately Lily's encouragement comes in ways she can find to help Momma. She is constantly asking "Are you so glad I made my bed and Beth's bed this morning so you don't have to?" or "Doesn't it make you so happy that I stirred the dinner together so well for you?" etc., and I must say, it's the sweetest little voice in that positive tone that does indeed make me so happy. She has been a natural optimist from the start. I never tire of hearing her talking to herself, Beth, or even me "It's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect." or "We just try our best, so it's okay." And tons of other such comments. She's better than my cd's I bought a few years ago to help me with my own internal speaking that is not exactly optimistic!

And now Lily is 5. I am so glad that she missed the cutoff date for Kindergarten and that I get to have her with Beth and me for one more year. So for her (last minute, I'm afraid) birthday party she invited Anya from down the street, Harper from primary, Camille a family friend, and Josh and Kamari from Joyschool. We just played "Dance and Freeze" a game Lily loves to play, made sugar cookies, played with the parachute, played "I had a little doggie", and hit the Dora piñata. I had a lot of fun decorating my first 3 layer cake and was super happy with how it turned out, considering I used real butter instead of shortening in the frosting and the bottom layer completely fell apart as I was positioning it on the foil. Anne asked for the frosting recipe and it was 1 lb powd. sugar, 1/2 cup barely soft butter, 1 tsp vanilla, just under 1/3 c milk (take some out at this point for roses as they need the stiffest consistency) then add the rest of the 1/3 c milk to make it best for spreading and writing and borders. You may need up to 1 1/2 tbsp more milk.