Family Birthday Party

Sunday, October 22nd:

We decided to go ahead and have McKenna’s family birthday party on the same day as her friend party.  I knew it was going to be a lot for one day, but it was really the only day that worked for everyone’s schedules!

Robby and Danni were back for the weekend for Homecoming and wanted to get back to Des Moines at a decent time so they came over early.  We let McKenna open their present early.  They gave her an adorable outfit from the GAP and a fun animal puzzle book.  I think McKenna like the singing Justin Bieber card the best!!

This year instead of making supper for everyone, we decided to make it easy and order pizza!  After supper it was time to open presents again!

So many fun new things!  I don’t think this little girl is going to need anything for Christmas!!

And then it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” one more time!

We added Strawberry’s friends to the cake for this party- Blueberry Muffin, Orange Blossom, and Lemon Meringue!  No boyfriends this year!

Then we had to relight the candles so that Lily could have a turn!  Love the look on McKenna’s face, “Would you hurry up already?!”

After cake it was time to play with new toys!!

Pictures with the birthday girl!  She hung in there for just a few more pictures which made her mommy REALLY happy!

The end of party day brings mixed emotions for me.  Part of me is relieved that it’s over, but the other part of me is sad!  It’s amazing how fast it goes.  It is also another reminder that my baby girl is growing up! 

Monday, October 22nd:

I took Monday off to recover :) and to have some special time with the birthday girl.  We started our day in Waterloo at JCPennys.  I wanted to get her pictures taken in her birthday outfit.  As I got her ready in the studio she started acting like she didn’t want to do it.  Here we go again (she was very uncooperative during her two year pictures!)…. I tried explaining that the quicker she smiled and listened, the quicker we could go shopping and look at toys!  I also had some fruit snacks in my hand and told her she could have them as soon as she was done!

My bribing must have worked because the first picture the girl took was my favorite!  (Kenna did her pose- hand on her hip with her foot up just a little bit.)  I was tempted to tell her that’s all I needed and that we were done!  She took a few more (with the gaudy props- ugh) and then we were done!  I ended up having them create a gallery wrap with the four pictures that I liked best.  I LOVE how it turned out!

A special birthday treat- a carousel ride all to yourself!

After pictures we did a little shopping and then headed home for lunch.  We’d originally planned to meet daddy out for lunch, but we ended up deciding just to grab lunch and have him meet us at home to eat it.  We let McKenna choose where she wanted to eat and she chose McDonalds- chicken nuggets, french fries, apples, dip, and chocolate milk!

Kenna and I snuggled in our bed after lunch to watch a movie together.  We both fell asleep and didn’t get up until after 4!  I think we were both exhausted from the full weekend!

The rest of the day was spent playing with her new toys.  What a fun day we had!

We were given a handprint set for the first five years for McKenna for a baby gift.  It was fun this year getting to show McKenna her first two handprints!  We thought this one would be a bit easier but we had to keep shaking it out and starting over because she would push her hand in too hard!

Happy, Happy Birthday McKenna!