Erika's Big Day!

I can't believe I failed to post these earlier!!  I guess once her birthday was over, it was on to the wedding... anyway- 

ERIKA IS FIVE!!!  UnBeLiEvAbLe!!!

Her day started out the way birthdays always start out at our house :).  Favorite breakfast (crepes for Erika), streamers, sign, begging to open "at least one present"!  She loved it :).  And so did her sibs.  Every birthday is like it's everyone's around here... kinda fun.  

So she opened a present-

He's trying so hard it hurts ;)

Erika was very excited about her rainbow cake and that she was going to get to draw on her own cake, but I decided to surprise her with some cupcakes too.  Plus we weren't sure how many people were coming to the party (as usual) wanted to have some extras.

I think the highlight of Erika's day was having Kate with her most of the day.  It was so fun to watch them play that day.  They just seemed so sweet to each other.  Less of the arguing :).  I was glad she had Kate there to make it more fun.  I'm just not as fun as I try to be.  We did take her out for her birthday lunch.  Not by herself, but with Jack and Kate :).  They had a total blast- I can't believe how long they played there!

She had been wanting to go to the Sky Trampoline Arena for a long time so we thought that would be a fun birthday activity.  This is "birthday activity" year, so we let her choose between doing it that day and inviting just one friend or waiting until the next day, Veteran's Day, when we could get a half off discount and taking the sibs.  She of course (being a now girl) chose to take Kate!!  It was the perfect thing for that day, they had SO MUCH FUN!!  It was so fun to watch them wander around and try everything out at the beginning and then all the giggling and jumping (of course) it was just so much fun!  Those kinds of things are a different kind of fun when you have big kids with you- I thought it was so much better that they got to do it just the two of them.  I know the sibs were ticked, but it wasn't their birthdays :).  

I totally didn't think Erika and Kate could go for the whole hour, but they did!  I was surprised they didn't crash afterwards too!  Cute girls.  I'll have to upload the pics from my phone to put on here.

Erika picked out this cake design a very long time ago and never forgot about it!  I was more than happy to do it!  We even bought the markers many months ago.  She sure had fun with it.  Then she even let all the neighbor kids take a turn :).  Turned out pretty cute :).

We kept going back and forth between supporting Charity's PTSA fundraiser by getting Taco Time food, or the usual (pizza)... Pizza won :).  Nate got yummy Papa Murphy's though- that was a nice change from the usual Little Caesar's :).  Luke was testing the cheesiness!!  Holy moly!  

I think I was trying to get the angle that would be less incriminating of my lazy housekeeping... they're both pretty bad....

although, in that one you can see all of our tomatoes from our garden!  We had SO MANY!!  I was able to make lots of salsa, canned some tomato sauce, and more salsa!

Erika's sisters got VERY creative with the wrapping of the presents.  We were all out of paper so they used fabric scraps!  And electrical and painters tape!  I thought this was really cute and Erika couldn't get enough of it.  She recently learned how to write her name, so it was cute to have her recognize most of the letters :).

She got lots of gifts!  She loved all of them :)

I just think this is a funny picture.  Especially my mom :)

She's so beautiful!

I'm not sure who I ended up handing the camera to that night, but we got a LOT of pictures!  These were my favorites :)

Kelly gave Erika her very own tea set that she knows Erika loves.  That was a pretty special moment.  Although I think Kelly and Bradley were fighting at the time and she kind of missed it... can't remember exactly.

We were glad that Steve showed up RIGHT as we were about to sing and cut the cake.  He makes the birthday song- THE Birthday Song.  We were all relieved that he made it :).  He had heard that Erika wanted a ball for her birthday and not knowing exactly what kind came with several different sizes and types... pretty fun!  Who knew she'd get 20 balls!

It was a fun evening.  We were so grateful for the few that could make it that night!

I so can't believe she's five!!  My baby girl is growing up!!!