Happy Birthday/Anniversary

Today is a big day at our house. Today is Alyssa's 5th birthday and our 9th Anniversary. Yep, both occurred on this date. Nothing was really celebrated today, however. Alyssa had all her birthday celebrations over the weekend (I'll get to that in a minute) and we're celebrating our anniversary this coming weekend. The kids are going to the cabin Friday night with my parents so that would be an ideal time to go out without having to find a babysitter.

Saturday we took Alyssa to "Fat Cats" and went bowling, to the Pizza Factory and did some arcades. Instead of having a birthday party this year I allowed her to choose what she wanted to do and told her she could take a friend. We had a great time bowling (and other activities.)
Sunday was also a big day for this little girl. She asked me all week how many more days until Sunday so that she would have her turn to have the other kids sing to her and get her own birthday bag. (Our primary hands out a cute little bag with a picture of Jesus on one side and their name on the other.) She couldn't wait to see what color hers was and to finally have her own. I got such a kick out of watching her when they were singing to her. She was simply beaming.

I made a beautiful Belle cake and Alyssa was so thrilled with it. As I was decorating the cake I was concerned about little things I would do that I felt weren't "perfect." I would groan and she would reply, "It's ok Mom, I love it anyway." or "Don't worry about it, I think it looks great!" I was getting a little perfection-istic. But she helped bring me back to earth and remind me it didn't have to be perfect. After church her grandma's and grandpa's came over for cake, ice cream, and gifts. She had a great time with her grandparents opening her gifts.

The main gift was a combo gift for her and Ian who both have birthday's in the summer. We spent some of what we would have spent on them (with a little $ from what the grandparents would have spent also) and put that towards a swing set. It isn't anything fancy. I would have loved something a little more fancy. But I didn't want to spend money we didn't have on something we really didn't need. Besides, I decided by the time we could afford something fancy, the kids would be too grown-up to play on it anyway. So for now, they are thrilled with having their own swings and slide.