parents of 5-year-old vs. 5-year-old parents

Hennie turned 5 and the world did not end. we actually had a great day, with her opening her first present, a watch, at a breakfast of waffles. Hege then took cupcakes to the last 1/2 hour of her schoolday and read the kids a book about Louisiana that Hennie had picked out. I got home early for dinner, which she had also requested. Here they are, still in pajamas, getting ready to eat.

hennie asked, totally out of the blue and without any prompting from hege, for a special birthday meal of Pasta, Broccolli, Avocado, and Sushi. we'd never gotten her to try sushi before, but were proud that she actually asked for a fairly typical, somewhat healthy meal. Naturally we got the simplest sushi roll of avacado & crabmeat, but it still had a seaweed wrap. hege and i had our own and thought we'd be eating all of hennies, but she wound up really liking it and dipped it in soy sauce, tried some pickled ginger, and had a lot of fun with it. she ate about 4 peices before remembering the cake.

hennie's got some 'starter' chopsticks - here showing that she's got a lot of practice yet before she masters it.


and poor mette has to improvise


she also asked for the typical norwegian cake with strawberries, rasberries, and bannanas

we got her some clothes, including some really great camoflagued cargo pants that she's deeply skeptical about. she said they were boys pants, and i felt like she caught me, because i had indeed bought them in the boys' dept.

to keep the peace, we had to get mette a little something to open as well. luckily she loved her cammo hat and has been wearing it every day