Getaway

Five

Couple weeks of celebration

Our sweet girl turned nine this month. With Stephen on a business trip for her actual birthDAY, I decided to make it a little extra special for her.
In December the elementary school had a winter wonderland fundraiser and Avery begged me to "win" her a lunch date with the school's service dog Charlie in the silent auction.
$40 later we "won"!
I arranged her lunch date with Charlie to be on her birthday, which she loved.
After school a friend came over and myself and four kids headed out to dinner (birthday girl's choice, Moe's Southwest Grill). A stop at Sweet Frog's for dessert and then an evening of swimming at the local community center.

Our girl is deep, but our girl is simple. Stephen pointed out to me that she is so hard to buy gifts for because of her love of the simple life. So we gave her a choice, a birthday party or a date with mommy at the Baltimore aquarium for a sleepover with the dolphins. Her choice was quick and simple, dolphins, definitely dolphins.

Amazing experience that my girl and I will remember for a very long time. Touring the aquarium after  hours with a tour guide that has worked or volunteered at the facility since opening day over 35 years ago (after visiting this aquarium so many times we really thought we knew the place...boy were we wrong!). Behind the scenes information and rooms that are kind of mind blowing. 

Making new friends. 

Watching a really special girl do her thing with her animal friends.

Using some of her birthday money, little miss bought a bat at the aquarium gift shop. When she heard the guides mention dolphins love to play, she held her bat up to the window to see if they would come over.

Not only did the youngest dolphin come up to play, Bailey did a flip, and then began blowing bubble rings followed by catching them with her teeth. It was amazing and I didn't really capture the moment well because it was such a beautiful sight to experience in person.

We had a really special moment of time together. What a blessing to share this time with an amazing "little" girl that I have the honor of raising and calling my daughter. 

Happy 7th

January 2nd is a tough day to have a birthday, especially as a child. Not only does it follow closely on the heels of Christmas and New Year's celebrations, it also happens to be the day our county sends everyone back to school.
While we celebrated as a family on C-Note's birthday by going out to eat at his favorite pizza restaurant and dessert at Sweet Frog's, we held off on having his party until this weekend, when things settled down a bit. Glad we did, we had temperatures in the 60's so windows were open and pinata activities were held outside.
So much fun to host a Star Wars party for eight, seven-year-olds. We found all of our ideas on the internet, they were all so easy to recreate.

I ordered personalized Lego Star Wars iron-ons from a woman on etsy. Stephen cut all the white t-shirts to make capes. So easy and the boys loved them!

A green and blue light saber battle for his cake. I wish he was smiling in this photo, he lost his second top tooth the night before the party!

Green and blue chocolate dipped pretzal rods for snack. We also had Cantina corndogs, R2D2 Ruffles, Anakin apple slices, Padawan (cheese) puffs, droid candy and Yoda soda.

Our family (extended included) collected all kinds of recyclable items. The boys were able to create their own recycled droids. Some boys worked together, some worked on their own. I thought it was so cute when one of the boys asked to take all three of his droids home! I am sure his parents were thrilled that our recycling then became their property!

We rounded out the party with pin the light saber on Yoda, a Darth Vader pinata, watching a bit of the Lego Star Wars series as well as playing Lego Star Wars on Wii. We were hoping for a silly strong battle in the back yard, but we ran out of time. So we sent that home in the goodie bags along with a small lego x-wing fighter and a star wars pez.

Happy Birthday C-Note, we love you!