Happy Birthday, Princess!

This past weekend, Mikayla Marie turned FIVE years old!  I feel like the time has just flown by!  I remember her birth like it was yesterday and now she is a "big" girl!  We had a very crazy  good weekend which included her birthday celebration, a benefit concert for the homeless in our community, and her birthday on Sunday with church and small group.  We were all worn out after the weekend, but it really was awesome!

Mikayla- almost 3 years old!

Since the girls have their birthdays three weeks a part on the calendar, we usually have one big party instead of two smaller ones. This year, we had a "Tangled"-themed party on Friday.   It was a lot of fun!  We had 10 little girls here, plus my nephew, and just enjoyed all things Rapunzel. 

Here are some pictures of their party.  I used many internet resources for party ideas...here they are, too:

Supermom's Tangled Party-- we made the jello boats and used decorating ideas and food ideas too!

Recession Home's Tangled Party-- i got my flags here

Family Fun's Tangled site - We made the Pascal party-blowers for our party.  Super cute! They have coloring pages too!

I LOVE these flags!  Such a cute decoration!

I like the Rapunzel braid too-- it takes 3 people to make, though!

I made 32 flowers for the little girls' hair on alligator clips. 

All the little ones looked so cute by the end of the night! This little girl

already had ribbons in her hair, and the result was awesome!

Yeah for WalMart cakes!  This was adorable and yummy too!
Family Fun gives detailed ideas to do a tower, but I would have messed it up! :)

Mikayla was lucky enough to be born on her grandparents' 35th wedding anniversary, so this year we celebrated 40 years of Granny and PopPop!  Someday, I hope Jeff and I can celebrate 40 years together and be such an awesome example to our children and grandchildren.  We are blessed they are such a large part of our lives and such a large part of our children's lives.  We celebrated with them after church on Sunday and ended with feeding the ducks at one of their favorite restaurants.  My girls LOVED that part! Having to be on their best behavior in the restaurant was not as much fun! (lol)

Trying to lead the ducks to the water!

We have noticed many changes in Mikayla over the past year.  She has lost so much of her "baby" look and is growing into such a young lady!  She has grown to almost 4 feet tall and has some big feet to grow into! She still loves to wear skirts and dresses and anything "strappy."  She takes the time to be well-groomed and initiates her own showers, brushing her hair, and brushing her teeth all on her own, with minimal encouragement on my end.  Her focus and interest in learning has grown by leaps and bounds.  She asks questions about EVERYTHING!  I love that inquisitive spirit! 

Mikayla at age 2

I love her compassionate heart-- if she thinks someone is hurt or sad, she wants to do what she can to help them. We truly hope the time we invest in helping her develop a heart for others, a heart for God, and a heart for the Kingdom will pay off as she gets older. I love how much Mikayla loves Jesus and I hope and pray her love continues to grow as time goes on. Although she is not perfect and has bad days with bad attitudes too, we love the time we have been given to watch her grow.  We feel blessed that we have been given such an awesome opportunity and responsibility to be her parents! 

Mikayla -- 4 yrs old with her "Love Bear!"