Happy Birthday Eli!!!

In recent weeks Lia turned 28 and Eli turned 5. We celebrated both events, as readers might expect, in high style.

Before we get there, though, here are the girls posing in the gowns most recently sent them by an indulgent grandmother.

Here's Eli, awaiting her prince:
Here's Katharine, awaiting an enemy ninja:
Here's Julia, bobbing an irreproachable courtesy:
Everyone looks up to a model older sister.
Here's Eli at her great moment of triumph, at the conclusion of her birthday party on Saturday (three days after the Big Day). Katharine is also pictured, basking in reflected glory. She often asked this week, "When is my birthday?"
Eli earnestly awaiting the coming of the candle:
An aerial view of Lia's masterpiece. The party had a dog theme--my idea of bidding the princesses sprint to Hades--and the cake is the very picture of a lovable canine. The strawberry tongue was Eli's idea.
The cake wasn't Lia's only masterpiece. She also designed and built an obstacle course for the puppy guests to run.
Some of the dogs had a hard time making it through the hoops . . .
Lia also helped each guest make a dog headband. Each of the girls got to choose her own dog ears and her own dog name to go on a collar bone. Here's Eli's best friend, Madi Thompson, still beloved months after her move to Glastonbury. Behind her is Madeline Bayly, who brought her own canine headgear.
Eli chose the poodle ears for her head, and "Alissa" as her alias.
Irrepressible lover of nature that she is, Eli got distracted from her own party to go watch a bird feeding:
Here's Julia leading the guests in a game of "Dog Trainer Says":
Here's Lia doing the same thing, but with something more of dash and abandon:
Puppy Princess for a day; Daddy's Princess for a lifetime.
Savayah Knudsen chose as her name "Toodle," which was the only semi-convincing dog name of the bunch (Brietta and Lilly were representative of the other choices). But then she changed her name to Breanna.

Actually, "Rudi" might not be a bad name for a dog either:
On Eli's birthday proper, Katharine came down with a fever. Eli set her presents aside to craft a priceless get well card:
Here's Eli painting the treasure chest she asked for and received for her birthday:
Doing the only permissible thing to do in a birthday gown:
Savoring the birthday flowers, before she had an allergic reaction to them:
Looking askance at the birthday fan, before warming up to it remarkably:
And now it's time, on Sunday evening, to go to bed. Readers can use their imagination to interpret the rest of the photos: