Celebrating Marissa's 1/2 Birthday!

Ever since we got back from Idaho Marissa has been feeling a lack of attention (since mommy hasn't been able to focus much on anything since Dad's passing last month). So she's been asking how many days until her birthday (every day) and telling all her friends at school about the party and planning the celebration in detail. The only problem is... her birthday is in July (6 months away) which is an eternity to a 5 year old. So we decided to celebrate her 1/2 birthday with just a small family party at home. We made half of a birthday cake (using a mini loaf bread pan), then put 5 candles on it and chopped one in half at the end to represent the 1/2. :) But we told her she couldn't have any presents because Christmas was just a few days before that. So all she requested was a Sponge Bob pinata (difficult to find on New Year's Day when all the stores are closed). So I had to think fast and improvise. Luckily we had a rectangle shaped yellow pillow that I used as his body (with a zipper at the bottom to stuff the candy in. Then I got some yellow paper and asked her to draw his face and sponge holes for his body (which we taped to the pillow. It looked pretty cute (check out the video). She loved feeling special all day and we didn't have to spend a dime (just a little time and imagination can make all the difference in the world. Kelea got into it too wearing her favorite princess dress and tiara for the special occasion. (She's going through a serious dress-up phase right now).