Melina turns five

On May 1 we celebrated Melina's fifth birthday - a little late - with a potluck at the park. It was her second birthday party (the official one took place at a restaurant, with her parents and grandparents, on the actual Day Of). Unfortunately, the weather was cold and windy - not that the kids really minded. The highlight was the breaking of the giant kitty pinata, which turned out to be incredibly resilient and took at least three rounds of whacking by every kid present. The second highlight was the cake, a sheet cake from Fred Meyer, and which turned out to be surprisingly good.

Melina had been waiting to turn five for about half a year (in March she proudly told people she was four-and-eleven-twelfths, and then four-and-ninety-nine-one-hundredths). There was a lot of competition among her friends over who would turn five first. Several of her friends went before her, which was always a source of angst.

Now that she is five, she suddenly looks older and taller. She is almost a young lady now. That's about the only change so far. However, last Saturday she rode with us on the Portland Sunday Parkways loop, and actually rode six miles on her bike with training wheels. (Jeff pushed her up some hills). No way she could have done that when she was four!