Leah Turns 5!

At the end of May our sweet little girl turned 5! Leah was so excited for her birthday. She looks forward to it for months!! She had a hard time deciding what kind of birthday she wanted to have this year. She finally settled on a Muppets theme and wanted a Kermit cake. So we asked Ross's cousin, Emily, to make a cake for her. She did a great job!!

Her party wasn't on the same day as her recital, but she really wanted wear her costume. (We paid enough for it, so she might as well enjoy it as much as possible.) Can you tell that she was super excited to open her presents?

Kylie was so excited to finally get to hold Paige. She loves babies.

Here's a closer picture of the cake. Didn't she do a great job?! And it tasted just as good as it looked. Emily has a real talent for this kind of stuff.

The day after Leah's birthday, Amy and her boys (along with Ross's mom's help) left to drive out to Fresno, California to finally join up with Kyle. He had been working there all school year as an intern and was finally able to secure a full-time position there and his family was finally able to go be with him. We loved having Amy and the boys here for so long, but we're happy that they can be together as a family again. So we made sure we got a picture of all of us together before they left.

We also got a picture of the birthday girl with my parents and grandma. We were so glad that they could come celebrate with us too.

A few days later, Leah had a birthday party with her friends. (Some were from her preschool class, some were from her primary class and others were just friends from the neighborhood.) Keeping with the Muppet theme, I made these goodies bags and decorations. Leah wanted to have some games. So we did a Fozzie ring toss, Pin the Mouth on Kermit or Pin the Nose on Miss Piggy, an egg carrying race and a failed attempt at a balloon race. The plan was to have them hold the balloon between their legs while they ran, but the grass was too long and their legs were too short and most of the balloons popped before we even started the race, oh well.

But Leah's number 1 request was that she had a pinata at her party. So here's a few pictures of the kids trying to break it open.

It was Miles who finally broke it open, which made Leah really upset because she was certain that she needed to be the one to do it. I tried to explain to her that the fun part of the pinata is not knowing who will break it open, but she was still sad that it wasn't her. But she still had fun with it anyway. Here's some pictures of the kids gathering up their goodies.

Next it was time to open presents!

Here's all the kids that came to the party: (sitting) Emerson, Katelyn, Ty, Allie, Miles, Evelyn, Heather (standing) Abby, Jeffrey, Leah, Millie, McKay. Leah has some great friends! Two of her good friends (Daniel and Parker) were sick and couldn't make it.

After presents I gave the kids little cupcakes and some snacks to eat while they watched Muppet Babies and waited for their parents to come and get them.

I have to give a big shout out to my great neighbors who helped me pull this party off. All this happened while Ross was at work and I wasn't sure how I could do a party for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds and take care of my two little ones at the same time. But luckily Heather offered to keep Corbin at her house during the party and Lori offered to stay and help run the party. Without their help, I know the party would not have gone as smoothly. I have great friends too!