Somehow or another, another year has slipped by and Ella is almost ready to celebrate her sixth birthday with the kind of glee that only an ‘old 5′ year old can.

She’s a beautiful force of nature, a hurricane of hilarity and insight. The kind of spirit that takes your breath away and makes you want to stop blinking to avoid missing a single second.

Our family is addicted to awesome wall graphics, but up until this point we’ve geeked out mostly around Blik decals that turn our boring walls into galleries of awesomeness.

But yay!!  Today I found a new place to fulfill this inherent desire to cover every inch of blank wall with something colorful – Wallcandy Arts.

Today, I am completely adoring their cupcake decal:  removable, re-usable AND functional (chalkboard scribbling, what what?).

Every year with Ella gets better and better.  Her 5th birthday this year was very low key – especially as her first day of kindergarten started the very next day.

We ate birthday brunch at Radical Eats, played like crazy people and opened gifts with cake before hitting the sack early for the big day to come.

Birthday loot included:

• Super fab hot pink Tony Hawk BMX bike (her very first – with training wheels of course)
• Spiderman glove / web shooter thingie
• Buzz Lightyear toy
• Light up, spiky bouncy ball (much loved)
• Hello Kitty lip gloss set
• Cars candy
• Book of flower and heart tattoos (a big deal around these parts)
• Strawberry cheesecake with Spiderman candles

We’ve graduated to a new neighborhood with a great (public = no massive tuition!!!, Vanguard program) school within a 30 second drive – but unfortunately we found ourselves one street away from the appropriate zoning.

Seriously, one street.  After an initial application, testing, interview and lottery process (WHEW)- we got the good news, Ella made it!  I hopped up and down like it was Harvard.

Her first day was great, especially since her birthday was the day before (5 years old, holy cow) and she was basically crowned princess of the class:

This year has started out effortless, she has a fantastic teacher who communicates regularly via email and notes home (super responsive) – with NO TYPOS.  Is this heaven!?!?  Active PTA, super cool parents, really great building and just down the road from our sweet little home.

Important Kindergarten items of note:

• Backpack =  turquoise Lands End backpack / clip on lunchbox (thanks Aunt Peggy!)
• Water bottle = Threadless ‘Funkalicious’ astronaut design Thermos
• Class folder = baby Emperor penguin
• Favorite lunch = peanut butter and jelly sandwich (followed closely by my green beans and potatoes)
• Best part about school so far = new sandbox, ‘spinners’ and dinosaur bones on playground

Oh the joy of flight.  A thrill that Ella got to experience for the very first time (OH EM GEEEE!!) on our fantastic trip to Pittsburgh last weekend.

The formula for Ella’s first airplane flight went thusly:

1. 1 set of pilot wings from the nice lady who checked our bags
2. A Nintendo bag full of snackies (sugar free gum, gummy peaches, dark chocolate M&Ms)
3. Transformer motorcycle toy from Daddy
4. Borrowed Nintendo 3DS from Mommy (with Kirby and PilotWings)
5. Bright pink stuffed Kirby doll
6. Dad’s iPod with Sesame Street video podcasts loaded and ready
7. An uncle and Grammy sitting behind us, sending Ella presents along the way
8. 2 favorite books to read and notepad to write in
9. 4 weeks of excitement building up!!!!

Ella did great on this first flight – most likely the first of many.  Nice that she was so natural and patient – and especially funny with the flight attendants and, well, every single person on the plane should could strike up conversation with.

The kid’s got jet setter eyes – note the oozing of nonchalance with the whole experience below.  We heard some squeals of amazement as we took off, but shortly after Ella grew accustomed to the whole flying thousands of feet in the air and was far more eager to get to playtime.

Our shortie is a pretty mellow gal – all she really needed was the occasional dark chocolate M&M, sip of water and a bit of entertainment material (the inflight magazine was a big, big hit – as was the Nintendo 3DS with 3D mode off for her little eyeballs).

I took a peek at some traveling with kiddos-type websites, but found that for this under 4 hour trip, common sense was really that’s all required for a reasonable traveling experience.  That and sitting in front of Ella’s Grammy and Uncle Mark who showered her with gifts and snacks the entire flight – an amazing morale booster to be sure

What’s the best flight that you’ve taken with your kiddos like?  Any war stories, hilarity to share or favorite kiddo travel hacks

Have you been?  Check out their great 3 story Powerplay installation and outdoor FlowWorks with your short people.  Even if you’re just in town for a weekend, this is hands down one of the best children’s museums we’ve ever been to!

Before you head out, be sure to watch some great Mr. O videos – he’s the CM Houston science whiz.  Think Bill Nye, but in tie dye – love him!

A second bit of coolness is their gorgeously designed modern furniture that perfectly complements each of the house’s 7 rooms.  Oh mah gah.  If we were ever hit by a shrink ray, we would totally live in this place.  Home sweet home, much?

Don’t believe me?  The Houston Chamber of Commerce says:  “Grow beards, wear big hats, boots and spurs. Let’s put a little touch of the Wild West into this thing.” I love this city

Every February 25th kids, adults and everyone in between dons their pearl button down shirts, cowboy boots and anything else that vaguely resembles Western wear – the effect is awesome.  People watching in the grocery store has never been more fun.

You can check out Ella’s Go Texan Day garb below and note the creative license we took in it.  We were going for more of an electric cowgirl concept, matching hot pink leopard leggings, flirty denim skirt, ruffle top and hot pink bandana – with punk rock motorcycle boots of course.  Good times in a great state.