Chapter 20: Ariana's 5th Birthday
After the wedding day (and a honey moon in Hawaii courtesy of both the bride's parents and siblings) spring had begun and now it was May 3rd, the day Ariana Ryan Faith Russo turned 5 years old. Like the year before, Ariana was allowed 5 people over for the afternoon for a tie dye party, where the guests were going to be able to tie dye a shirt of their own. Then that night instead of having dinner at home the Russo, Torres and Reid families were heading to Coney Island for a beach side picnic and possibly if the weather was good and the water not too cold, swimming.
There wasn't much activity planned besides the obvious dying job, lunch, cake and presents so Alex and Mitchie were hoping the afternoon would go off without a hitch.
The first guests to arrive, as usual, were Alison, Chase and Jaiden.
"Aunt Ali! Uncle Chase!" Ariana squealed as she launched herself into Alison's arms.
"Hey muchkin, happy birthday." Alison said giving Ariana a kiss.
"How old are you now?"
Ariana smiled as she showed Alison all her fingers.
"Five!" the little girl replied happily.
"Im starting school soon."
"That's right, you are. What grade will you be in?" Alison asked.
"Kindergarten!" Ariana exclaimed. After talking a bit more and giving Chase a hug, Ariana left to play with Jaiden until the other guests had arrived.
"Can you believe she's five already?" Alex asked as she leaned her head on Mitchie's shoulder, watching her daughter play with her friends and having a blast. Alex thought back over the last five years and no matter what whenever she looked at Ariana all she saw was that tiny little 3lb 13oz baby girl in the NICU that was now this happy, bubbly and amusing 5 year old who was almost a perfect clone of her mother at her age.
"No. I'd really like to know where the last 5 years have gone." Mitchie replied. Alex took a quick glance at the clock to see what time it was.
"This time 5 years ago, I was lying in a hospital bed praying that she wouldn't have to be born early." Alex remarked, remembering the panicked state she had been in when Dr. Robbins had told her that her baby girl would possibly be born 5 weeks earlier than planned.
"Well it's no surprise she came early; she had to make a grand entrance so everyone knew that Ariana Russo had arrived." Mitchie joked causing her wife to laugh along with her. Ariana was definitely a girl who loved to find anyway possible to have the attention all on her, it had been that way since she was born. After a few more minutes of letting the kids play Alex called everyone to the table where a whole bunch of elastics were laying all over the table.
"Okay so does everyone have their shirts?" Alex asked. Everyone held up their white shirts and then placed them back on the table, eager to start tie dying. Going around to each of the children Alex, Mitchie, Alison and Chase helped them all twist their shirts into the pattern each kid had wanted and tied elastics around the shirts.
"Now we have yellow, blue, red and green dye in the bottles so pick the colors you want to use." Mitchie said.
"I want blue!"
"Can I use green?"
"I pick yellow."
"Yay, I get red!"
Over several garbage bags that had been placed over the table the kids had a blast squirting colors onto their once white shirts and by the time all 7 kids were done not a single drop of white was seen on any of the shirts.
"Now since these will have to sit over night we'll write your names on the tags and in two days Ari will bring them to daycare and you'll get them." Alex told the kids. Once all the shirts had been placed in plastic shopping bags and names had been written on each of the shirt tags the 7 kids went off to play once again, giving Mitchie and Alex enough time to get the table cleared for presents and cake.
"Okay, everyone back to the table, time for presents." Alex called out. The 7 kids rushed over to the table and waited for the present opening to begin. Just like the year previous, Ariana used a pop bottle to determine the present opening order and of course by the time she was finished opening all the presents she had gotten all sorts of clothes and toys from everyone (and from Alison, some earrings to go with Ariana's newly pierced ears that Alex and Mitchie let her get done as an early birthday present). As Ari threw away the wrapping paper from her presents Mitchie lit the candles on Ariana's tie dye cake.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday Ariana
Happy birthday to you
Everyone clapped and cheered as Ariana blew out her 5 candles and Mitchie took the cake away to cut everyone a piece. Along with the tie dye icing Mitchie had also managed to make the batter tie dye which all the kids were amazed at. By two thirty the last kids had left and everything was cleaned up.
"So we'll meet you at the beach around 6?" Alison asked as she put her sweater on.
"Yep, if you get there before us make sure to get a good spot." Alex ribbed as she gave Alison, Jaiden and Chase a hug before they headed out. When 4:30 hit just two hours later everyone had begun packing all the food and clothes to get ready to head out to Coney Island for Ariana's birthday picnic.
"Mommy, where's my bathing suit? I Can't find it" Ariana asked as she walked into the living room with her backpack filled with her beach necessities.
"It should be in your drawer honey, it just got washed." Mitchie said placing a towel each for her and Alex into a gym bag. Ariana raced in her room and checked a few drawers before stumbling upon the one containing her bathing suit.
"I got it!" Ariana called from her room as she stuffed her bathing suit into her bag. After all the food, clothing and toys were packed up into the back of Alex's car the 3 girls headed off to Coney Island to meet up with everyone. Through out the drive Ariana asked numerous questions about Coney Island, since she had never been, and Alex told her the countless stories she remembered about visiting Coney Island with her dad, mom and brothers. She was in the midst of telling Ariana the story of the time when Justin and Max ruined her sand Castle by crashing their kite into it when they arrived at the beach. Swinging her door open, Ariana bolted onto the sand and was more than ready to jump into the water.
"Relax honey, we got all night here." Alex assured her daughter in hopes of calming her down.
"But I wanna go swimming!" the little girl told her mother adamantly. As Theresa, Jerry, Max, Connie and Steve showed up soon followed by the Reid's Alex and Mitchie began getting everything out of the cooler for dinner (Macaroni Salad, some sandwiches and other beach foods) while Ariana and Jaiden played on the beach. As the two kids played they noticed something moving just in front of them. To get a closer look at what it was the kids began moving slowly forward.
"It's a crab!" Jaiden exclaimed as he ran to grab the bucket close to him that was supposed to be for making a sandcastle. With one swift motion he covered the crab with the bucket and scooped it up, eventually trapping the crap.
"I wanna show mommy and mama!" Ariana said as she ran over with the bucket.
"Mama, mommy look!" Ariana called as she brought her bucket over to Mitchie and Alex. Mitchie and Alex looked in Ariana's bucket and saw a sand crab crawling around, probably trying to find its way out. Mitchie screamed almost instantly and hid behind Alex as Alex and Ariana laughed.
"Babe it's just a crab." Alex told her. Mitchie looked at Alex in disbelief.
"Just a crab? That thing is huge!" Mitchie said, thinking her wife was coo coo for coco puffs thinking the crap in their daughters bucket was small.
"It's not even the size of my palm!" Alex said as she started playing with the tiny crab with a stick. Mitchie watched in disgust as Alex and Ariana continued to play with the little crab. Soon the girls became bored of it and put it back, of course Mitchie freaked when it came close to her. A little while later once dinner was done and everyone had changed into their bathing suits everyone had decided that going swimming together would be a great idea…except Alex, who refused to step foot in the water.
"Alex come on, it's not that cold." Mitchie said as she walked towards the water.
"Yeah it is. Just look at the water, it looks like its freezing." Alex whined.
"Lex come on pretty please? Everyone else is in the water" Mitchie pouted. After a few seconds Alex's expression softened and she finally gave in. Mitchie grabbed Alex's hand and brought her into the water, letting her slowly get used to it. But without warning an unseen rock caught Mitchie's foot sending them both into the water, both girls emitting a shriek of surprise as they fell in.
MICHAELA KATHRYNE!" Alex screeched as she stood up, she only ever used Mitchie's full name when ever she needed to emphasize her words so Mitchie would (sometimes) take her seriously.
"IM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
"No you won't" Mitchie giggled as she started running through the shallow water getting Alex to chase her. After a few minutes of chasing Mitchie down the beach Alex had managed to get her and shove her into the water.
"Gotcha back." Alex said as Mitchie stood up.
"Okay, fair enough." Mitchie said as she and Alex laced fingers as they left the water. Wrapping their towels around them Alex and Mitchie sat down in the sand with Alison and Jaiden(Everyone else had left about half an hour earlier) and they watched their kids, who were currently jumping waves together as they held hands and having a ball.
"I still can't believe she's five already." Alex commented as she rested between Mitchie's legs, Mitchie running her fingers through Alex's hair behind her.
"I know. I still remember when I first met you guys, she was only what? Seven months old." Alison commented, remembering the December day almost 5 years ago she had met up with a then 18 year old Alex and her then Seven month old daughter.
"Yeah, and Jaiden was two." Alex added.
"Wow, that's insane." Alison said
"Tell me about it." Alex said, watching her daughter giggle along with Jaiden as they tried to jump over the passing waves. As 7 o clock approached both Ariana and Jaiden came out of the water and joined their parents.
"Ready to go home sweetie?" Alex asked as she looked at her tired daughter's face. Ariana nodded and both Alex and Alison carried their children to their respective cars and after everything had been packed up. While on the drive home, Alex tried to ask her daughter if she had had a good birthday, but all that could be heard was light snores coming from the back seat.
Hey everyone =), so I hope y'all enjoy this chapter, it was pretty fun coming up with some of the ideas.
Fun fact: if this were happening in real life, Alison and Alex would have met exactly a week ago
R&R!