Mackenzie's 5th Birthday!

In the midst of starting Kindergarten and starting up the soccer season again, Mackenzie turned 5 years old!  It's hard to believe!  This year, it seemed like the birthday that would never end.  Don't get me wrong, I love her to pieces and wanted to celebrate, but dragging it out for 2 weeks just exhausted me.

First we had a celebration with all the cousins over in Utah since we were there just 2 days before her 'real' birthday.  It was fun...big bbq, swimming, and a wild cake and presents.  She actually demanded this cake when we saw it in Dairy Queen a few days before.  So we got it, but I forgot to put ice in the cooler until about 1 hr into our trip to Utah, and as you can see, the ice-cream cake didn't fair so well without ice.  Oops!

Next, her actual birthday... = presents from Mom, Dad, and Collin

What she got:  An art easel - she is so into art, its crazy

A bug catcher and net - she's obsessed with that too and has been using my tupperware bowls all summer to catch her creatures.

Princess Celeste - a giant My Little Pony from Grandma that she loves!

Her masterpiece!  This has been a wonderful present, and perfect for both of the kids!

And Finally The Party!!!

This party I stressed A LOT about.  She wanted a rainbow party, so I got looking online for ideas and got way too ambitious!  It was a ton of work, but turned out great!

The Invites

The Decor...

The Goody Bags

The Cake

We had an art kind-of party, everything centered around rainbow colors, with sand art, painting, craft bag making, and a pinata to top it all off.  It was fun and really messy!

Ready to blow out those candles!

A Little about Mackenzie at 5:

~ She has finally out-grown her obsession of the color turquoise - now she loves all the colors of the rainbow.

~ She loves to color, paint, create and craft all day.

~ She is a home-body for sure.

~ She loves to help cook, and especially to bake.

~ She still has to have her 'blankey' attached to her in the house, and along with that is her odd finger-sucking habit that seems like it is never going away.

~ She's not your girly-girl.

~ She loves all animals, all nature, loves bug catching and watching nature shows.

~ She doesn't like dolls or anything remotely close to it.

~ She loves to control and manipulate her brother.

~ She is scared, I mean petrified, of the dark.

~ She is scared of being alone.  If we are not in sight, she usually starts screaming and running frantically through the house. 

~ She loves soccer and is competitive, super fast and athletic (didn't get that from her mom, thank goodness!)

~ She is a sponge right now - loves to learn, ask lots of questions and soaks everything in.

~ She is very obedient and always wants to do what is right, even though that doesn't always happen.

~ She is quite emotionally, very tender-hearted...this can be good and bad at times.

~ She is a sweetheart, our little angel.  We are so blessed to have her in our family!