Kaitlyn's Birthday!

This year, Kaitlyn's birthday seems like the never-ending party!

** The weekend before her actual birthday, we celebrated with my cousin Tommy. And Poppop took her to the bike shop to pick out her very own special BIG bike from he and Mommom! ** Then on her actual birthday (May 5), she brought donuts into school and celebrated with her class. ** And that night, we took her out to dinner at TGI Fridays for a Cinco de Mayo party!

Yesterday, Saturday, May 17 was her big family party here at our house. Thankfully the weather was perfect - sunny and warm! The day before and the day after was pouring rain, but the day that mattered, God made it beautiful for us! Everyone arrived around 12noon and it was nice to have our first party here in our 'new' house! The menu included Mexican-themed food: Chicken Enchiladas, Tacos, Chili, Nachos & Salsa, Spanish rice, Sangria...lots and lots of food!
The kids had a lot of fun playing outside and the guys played a few games of horseshoes. We all sang happy birthday and Kaitlyn had a fairy-themed birthday cake (side note: the cake was our first from Shop Rite and it was very good... Moist and yummy icing! And I'm picky with cake!)


After cake and ice cream, we went outside to take some pictures of our guests with the Birthday Girl! Sometimes parties pass and we don't get pictures of everyone, so this way we were guaranteed at least one shot of each!!
Unca Brian & Amanda (my little bro and his girlfriend)
Tommy (my cousin)
Grandmom Anita (Tim's mom)
Mommy & Daddy with our 'Baby' girl
PaPa (my dad)
Poppop (my other dad!)
Frank & Marsha (Tim's dad and his wife)
Kaitlyn and her sisters
One BIG happy family!
Lovebirds Brian & Amanda
Kaitlyn showing off her new bike!
Megan and Morgan's teacher, Miss Beth, actually got married that same day and invited all the kids in her preschool class to the church to see her after the wedding. So a few of us took a walk up the bike path to the church so the girls could see their princess teacher! Miss Beth was so nice, she invited our girls right to the front of the church to get pictures taken with her - she even had her photographer take some! She looked beautiful! I was a bit embarressed, as we were all messy from playing outside, but she didn't seem to mind at all! And the triplets were in heaven!


My 'not so baby' Baby Ryan...
Walking home from the wedding on the bike path
In the trampolene - he loved it!
Kaitlyn got great gifts and it was sweet to hear her read every card by herself (even those in handwriting!) One of her gifts was a Tatoo Airbrush, so since Daddy is so good with airbrushes, he gave her a fancy butterfly tatoo on her leg! We are so thankful for everyone making the drive to come celebrate with us!





Carl, Anita, Ryan & girls (they missed our earlier photo session)
With just the birthday girl

Today, Sunday May 18 we had her friend party at Build a Bear workshop in the mall. There were a total of 11 girls (including Kaitlyn and her sisters...wasn't that nice, she invited her sisters, I left that totally up to her!) It was perfect! I never realized how easy it is to have parties somewhere else! All we had to do was show up! And every girl seemed to have a great time.
Sisterly love (just before the party)
They picked the bear that they wanted, stuffed it, 'washed' it and dressed it in fancy clothes! Also before stuffing the bears, each girl gets 2 little red hearts. One goes in their bear and the other goes in Kaitlyn's bear. Tim, Poppop and I also each got one to put in Kaitlyn's bear. So she ended up with 15 little red hearts in her bear - it is full of LOVE!




Then they gave Kaitlyn an autograph bear that each girl had signed for her. Everyone gets a birth certificate and a box 'crate' for their special bear. They rang a real loud bell and had the whole store (and everyone passing in the mall) sang Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn and took pictures for us. Talk about making a girl feel special!

After Build a Bear, we went upstairs to the food court and enjoyed a yummy Cookie Cake from Mrs. Fields. We were lucky it wasn't busy, so we were able to pull lots of tables and chairs together and everyone sang Happy Birthday again! Another first for us was having a Mrs. Fields cookie cake - it was still warm and the chocolate chips were all melty and yummy!


It was pouring rain outside, but we didn't even know it, with all the fun we had inside the mall. Kaitlyn said her party was more perfect than she even imagined it would be! And now everyone has their own personalized bear as a treasure to remember Kaitlyn's birthday. Of course my girl took their bears to bed with them tonight! :)
My mom (Mommom) arrives next Sunday and she plans to have one last birthday 'party' for Kaitlyn, whew - instead of a BirthDAY, Kaitlyn is having a BirthMONTH!! lol But she is definitely not complaining!!! At least we have 2 months to recoup before doing this all again in 2 months for the triplets!!!