Five is a big number.

Eleanor had a birthday! How is she five. And now, of course, she's had enough birthdays to know what's what. 'And when I wake up, there will be balloons in my room! And I will wear a dress that I've never worn before!'

Balloons balloons.

Party hats for breakfast, sprinkles in your cereal. 'I'm a narwhal!'

Birthday tree, birthday gifts.

'Can we take down the gingerbread house for my birthday?' Heck yes.

And then I sent them to Go Bananas with Joel and just like sat around for a bit! Decorated the cake! Put party hats on some rogue skeletons!

We got Eleanor a loft bed for her birthday, which Joel spent nap time setting up, so I made Eleanor a nest in our bed. Birthdays are arduous!

And then in the evening I just invited my in-laws over and made everyone nachos. 'Welcome to my PARTY!' says Eleanor.

When I asked her what kind of treat she wanted for her birthday, she said A PINATA. I'm like, Ok. So we went to the dollar store to pick up plates and party hats and things, she was like, LOOK PINATAS I WANT THE PIRATE SHIP. And I'm like, Ok, do you want to look arou- THE PIRATE SHIP.

So we got the pirate ship! And we were like, Eleanor gets first whack, and then everyone gets one whack after, even if it breaks open, everyone still gets one whack. YOU GUYS IT TOOK SEVERAL ROUNDS OF WHACKING AND FINALLY SOME GROWN-UPS TO WHACK IT OPEN that is one srs pinata. Anyhoodle. It was full of stickers and tattoos.

Oh hey look there's more stuff under the birthday tree now!

And then we had cake, the end.

And THEN! (I know!) The next weekend, we took the skytrain into town for Eleanor's Birthday Adventure!

Science World, here we come.

Look at this science.

Look at THIS science.

Look at this ice cream sundae!

Look at these IMAX theater sharks omg.

Eleanor is wearing two party hats and getting her arms painted. Living her best life, basically.

Yassssss.

Pulley-based science!

Body heat science!

Come over here, there's more science!

Cat science. (I dunno.)

My favorite room growing up was the Shadow Room, where a light flashes and freezes your shadow on the wall, and you try to time a jump so that your shadow is in the air. We couldn't find it, and I thought it had been removed, until right at the very end when we saw it tucked back into a corner. I had to drag Eleanor away from the Shadow Room by her toes, she was that into it.

Highly successful birthday shenanigans, all around.