My Sweet Rosalie turned 5!

This year I didn't know what I was going to do for the kids birthday's.  We used to do parties, but the stress and cost just aren't worth it.  A few years ago, instead of a party, I took them to Build a Bear Workshop.  They loved that, but you can't do that every year.  Last year I decided to let them have their own shopping trip where they could pick out their presents.  That was a double plus because they got what they wanted and I didn't have to try and figure out the perfect gift.  This year I hadn't come up with a new idea.  With Spring coming, Lily knew her birthday was on the way and started talking about, "When I get to go to the store and pick out my gifts, I'm gonna get..."  Well, I guess they liked their birthday's so much last year, this year would be the same thing.  I still wanted to add something extra though.  So, to go with their trip, Jamie and I decided they'd also get taken out to dinner. 

Rosalie turned 5 yesterday, the 17th.  We'd already planned to take her out to dinner last weekend.  Jamie got off work early that day, and we were also able to make a trip to Glen Rose to a Dinosaur park.  It's a walk-thru park with life size dinosaurs.  If you haven't been, don't waste your time...it's way over priced and not worth it.  But that's not what mattered.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Here's some pictures from our afternoon at the park:

Iris was being so goofy that day.  I have a bunch of silly pictures of her at the park (but those will be posted on my Facebook).

The girls couldn't wait to find the T-Rex.

Levi wasn't too sure about this.

That's Rosalie in there :)

When we got back home after the park, Rosalie and I made her trip to the store.  She wanted everything, but I limited her to a few items.  She was so excited.  She was bouncing around and talking non-stop.  The checker got a kick out of her as she bounced and told her everything in the basket was for her and her birthday, and that she's gonna be 5!  After we got back home from the store, we all loaded up in the suburban, and took Rosalie out for dinner.  She wanted to go to Pasta Fina (which was fine with me...I love it there).  But of all the things she could have eaten, she chose cheese pizza. 

Fast forward a few days to her actual birthday.  We went to the store that morning to get a cake.  I just wasn't up to baking one (I know...I'm lazy).  Even though I didn't bake the cake, I still wanted to put my touch on it.  We swung by the toy isle and I picked up some Tinker Bell figurines.  Rosalie loves Tink.  Here's her cake.  I did everything on top...

I made her enchiladas and rice.  She ate it up fast, too, so she could get her presents.

Her Aunt Jessica & Uncle Pablo sent her a box for her birthday.  Here she's listening to the musical card they sent.  Big hit.  She wanted to show her siblings and ended up dancing over to them instead of walking.

Here she is with all of her gifts from Jessica & Pablo.  She loved the make-up set.

My sister, Ashley, and her finance Josh, got Rosalie a dress up set.  She put it on immediately, and this morning when she got up, she put it on again.

And here she is blowing out her candles.  Jasmine seems to be encouraging her.

I almost forgot to mention something...I'd made this big fruit salad (strawberries, pinapple, raspberries, and black berries).  I decided to make that instead of getting ice cream to go with the cake.  After we sang Happy Birthday, and got cake passed out to the kids, Josh dished out the fruit to each one of them.  They loved the fruit, but wouldn't eat the cake.  It felt funny telling my kids, "Eat your cake.  No, you cannot have more fruit until you eat some of that cake..." I should have just stuck the candles in the fruit salad and skipped on the cake.  Of course, I didn't know it would be a problem.  What kid passes on birthday cake???    

Rosalie had a great birthday!  We'll be doing all this again starting this Saturday as Lily's big day approaches.  I love seeing their excitement and enjoyment as they get to have their own special day.  Just one of the many joys of being their mom...