AR's 5th Birthday Party

My sweet baby girl is turning five this coming Thursday, I'll post about that later, but tonight we're focusing on her birthday party! We had it last Saturday at my work. It was really easy to put on, they ordered the cake, had the goodie bags, and we just showed up. My mom, the master storyteller, told a story to the kiddos where she told AR that she was a king of chickens, AR's reaction:

The chickens had to lay eggs for the king, here's Nanny trying to lay an egg. 

Nanny even asked the dads to come up and help lay eggs! Thanks, Dads, for being such a good sport!

AR and the other kids thought this was hilarious!

Then Rapunzel even came to the party!!!

She loved her cake and having everyone sing to her!

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

AR took Rapunzel around the room and introduced her to all of her friends! 

Matt and I celebrating our girl! 

After cake, story, and Rapunzel, we headed to the pool! My sister and H got AR a mermaid tail that she absolutely LOVES! She's been asking for one since we saw one in January!

Me and the birthday girl!

This picture cracks me up! Doesn't look like any of us were too thrilled about the dumping buckets of water! 

Unlike these two who loved it! Thank goodness H came to the party, it was great to have her help plus what five-year-old doesn't love being with her big cousin! 

More pics of the mermaid tail, it was a hit with all the kiddos!

I'll be carting this around to all the pools this summer!

Her aunt got her some new heels and she was super pumped about that!

We asked her friends to bring change to donate to the local humane society instead of gifts. We wound up with $246.50 to donate to the shelter. We're going to go on her birthday to give it to them.

A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and who helped raise all this money for the humane society!!!

Happy 3-4 to Me!!!

Yesterday was my big 3-4 birthday! It was pretty low key. I met my dad, sis, and the rest of the family for lunch on Sunday. Monday I went to work and my co-workers decorated my cube for me. Not gonna lie, I was kinda diggin' the cave the sign created in my cube. My mom brought AR up to my work around 4 because she had swim lessons at 4:30PM so I watched her swim for a bit...

Then we headed to my "birthday party!" AR is always wanting me to have a birthday party so last year we went and saw Zootopia with my sister. Since I'm trying to get more active, this year, we went to Rockin' Jump which is a trampoline park. It was perfect because there was something for her and me and I got a great workout in!

They had a rock climbing wall. I was a little surprised when she said she wanted to it but with no fear, she suited up and went straight to climbing up that wall. She did a pretty good job and wasn't even scared at all!

Check out those mad climbing skills!



My friend Maggie came and AR helped her get ready to climb next.

Then we went back to jumping! Here I am celebrating the big 3-4 with my best cheerleading jump.

My friend Deven was there too. She's rockin' the straddle jump!

My little gymnast was loving this place!

Between swim lessons and jumping, this little girl was passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow!

Check out this sweet trick that she started doing all on her own! #daredevil



I thought this was a pretty sweet action shot of Mags!

Maggie's husband, Steve, came. This was his pose for the camera-ha!

She was upset when we had to leave after an hour and a half... momma was just exhausted!

The next set of pics will show you that it is impossible to get a picture of 4 people jumping at the same time and in focus!

Cute idea... but yeah, too bad we're all blurry!

This was such an awesome birthday party! And it wasn't that busy for a Monday night either.

AR loves this pic so I had to include it.

Our #motherdaughter pic... this is how they typically go!

Turning 34 wasn't that bad, I had a pretty fantastic day! Thanks to everyone who texted, called, gave me Reese's eggs (I have no will power!), messaged, got me my awesome new FitBit (my co-workers already hate my pacing in the office to hit my hourly goal), my new headphones, appliances, and the list goes on. Man, the people in my life sure know how to spoil a girl! Can't wait to see what this year brings me... aside from all the steps I've been getting in!

Fourth of July 2015...

...Although it's been rainy and cold, that hasn't stopped the summer from flying by! Much too quickly, it seems like Fourth of July sprung up on us which means the rest of the dog days of summer are going to fly by. We spent the holiday at my dad's where we crafted, ate good, and shot off LOTS of fireworks!!! Here's the AR and me waiting for the show to begin...

Yah for glo sticks!!! AR was all about this instead of sparklers...#winning!!!

We came back early Sunday because we couldn't miss AR's bestie's third birthday party. Happy birthday, Emma!!!

This splash pad was perfect for the actual warm temperatures on this day!

Foto Friday!!!

...Here are a few random photos AKA photo dump!

We went to my dad's a couple weekends ago. H wanted to drive my car into the garage and ugh, she really looks like she could be old enough to drive!

While we were in Cape, we went to our second cousins' dance recital. Here's a pic of H, AR, and their cousins.

We also had the last of AR's third birthday celebration. She requested popsicles for her birthday treat... ask and you shall receive!

Last week some of Matt's friends had their daughter. They have always been good friends to us thoughout all the hardships we've had over the years and were one of two of our friends that visited us in the hospital when AR was born. We loaded up with some hand-me-downs of AR's and some new outfits that AR helped me pick out and went to visit. On the way there, AR was so sweet and said, "Mommy, maybe when Baby King is bigger, her mommy will let me hold her." When we arrived, Julie asked her right away if AR wanted to hold her and she was so excited, just check out that smile on her face! Welcome to the world Baby Lillian! When we were driving home, AR said to me, "Mommy, maybe next time we see Baby King, I can hold her by myself and you won't sit by me." Umm... we'll see about that...

Last weekend I bought a huge watermelon and we cut it up outside on Saturday afternoon. I swear this child was eating it as fast as I was cutting it. We pureed a few pieces and put them in our new popsicle molds and she drank the juice that was left over. This girl LOVES her watermelon!

My Sweet Girl Turns Three!!!

...As I type this post, three years ago today, we still didn't know for another couple hours if we were having a boy or a girl. Today, I can't imagine life without my daughter! After her birthday party on Saturday, the festivities didn't stop there. We went to dinner that night with Aunt Jo. AR got a free dessert and here she's showing off her duck lips... thanks H.

We were both exhausted after a long day but never too tired for silly faces!

Sunday we woke up bright and early to take Nanny to the airport. Then she did an end-of-year-program at her preschool church. THEN we went to Sophie's birthday party for more fun!

After the birthday party in Chesterfield, we drove out to Moscow Mills for Matt's cousin's graduation party then back home for the night. This child was still going strong and Momma was WORE out!

Lovin' with our Shadow before she went to bed as two-year-old one more time!

Today was her official birthday! I woke the birthday girl up bright and early. She had a yucky nose and felt warm, not to mention super clingy so I was a little worried. I left work to take her to final Time for Twos class at the library but when I got there, she was not sickly at all!

We were kind of bummed that our regular teacher, Ms. Julie wasn't there, but they played the Color Game and AR was happy. They even made adorable flower wreaths!

She got a graduation certificate!

And Ms. Julie left her a birthday present. This is seriously one of the coolest books. If you haven't checked it out, you have to go get it!

I had a big night planned for us to celebrate as a family tonight but the birthday girl changed her mind and well, it's her birthday so she called the shots. We went to dinner at Chick-Fil-A because she wanted to play in the play area. Then we got snocones, came home, opened gifts (I got her a dollhouse but it wasn't put together so it was kind of a fail-boo!), and she wanted to play outside.

I'm sure we'll be indulging in lots of snocones this summer!

Papa, TT, and the boys sent her three pink flowers. I think she liked them, check out that smile!

Every year I try to buy her a piece of jewelry to go with her party theme. It's just something fun to start her jewelry collection. She LOVED the Care Bear necklace I got her!

Sunday night I snuck into her room and hung up steamers from her fan and a Happy Birthday sign on the wall. She thought it was all pretty cool.... especially when the fan is on!

She still gets to celebrate at the sitter's tomorrow, preschool on Wednesday, with Matt's family this weekend, and my dad's family in two weekends. So technically the birthday celebration isn't over yet but isn't that the best kind?

My baby girl gets sweeter every day and I love being her mother. There's nothing better in the world than to hear my daughter tell me, "I love you, Mama!" I only hope that she knows how much I love her and that she'll always love her Mommy the way she does now. She has changed my life in so many ways and I love her more than she will ever know. My sweet AR, I hope your birthday was fantastic and that Mommy made it extra special for you. May all your birthday wishes come true, may you learn lots, grow stronger, and continue to be the kind, compassionate person you are. I love you!!!