Happy 5th Birthday, Lucy!

As is our tradition, Lucy and I skipped school and work this year to have a birthday adventure.  This year, Max crashed our party since Ms. Shelly needed the day off...the more the merrier!

The night before, I had dinner with Jill and she sent home a birthday gift for Lucy...she was still awake when I got home so she got to open her first gift the night before her birthday - plenty of Shopkins items and plenty of happy screams and smiles from my girl:

Last night as a 4-year-old!

She awoke the next morning as a sweet and beautiful 5-year-old, ready to see how much taller she'd gotten and ready to start the all-about-Lucy day!

We baked a cake - and cupcakes! - that morning before heading off for our adventures.

Ready for her day!

First stop - the "hair-cutting store" (EJay's) where she got several inches cut off.

Next stop - the "cookie store" (Busken Bakery) next door for some tasty bunny cookies - Max loved them!  The sweet ladies who work there even gave her a free package of cookies to take home with her as a birthday gift.

Third stop - the library!  We saw our second-favorite librarian (Aunt Nikki is our #1, of course!) and Lucy got to choose a prize for her birthday...she chose some blue putty.  We stayed and played for a bit and had fun with the toy dinosaurs.

Fourth stop - Toys R Us.  Lucy had gotten a $3 gift card in the mail for her birthday and wanted to spend it...I let her talk me into a Shopkins set and chipped in the difference.  
Fifth stop - Skyline, of course!  We ate and played with her new toys.

Sixth stop - Totter's Otterville!  This was Lucy's choice for where she wanted to spend her afternoon...both kids had a great time!

Lucy wanted me to build a tower around her...she was giggling the whole time and attracted the attention of some other little ladies...next, Lucy and I helped build a tower around a new friend.

These two had fun together in the dance studio but both really loved it in the ball pit!
Daddy even met us there after work and these two goofballs were still swimming in the balls.

After they wore themselves out at Totter's Otterville, we headed home to decorate Lucy's birthday cake and eat dinner...then sing to her and have cake!

Max gave her two Lego Friends sets and she loved them!

Mom and Dad gave her a "real" camera and she was so excited!

"Happy Birthday to You!"

Happy little birthday girl

Spring is near...

...but springing forward is ROUGH!

This is Lucy the Monday morning after Springing forward, minutes before leaving for school...

We are definitely ready for more park days and fun in the sun!

We've taken advantage of some recent nice days at the park across the street as well as a couple of Tower Park trips...and Lucy's been scootering along our street with Max cruising alongside her in her old pink car.

 

My lucky little babies were fortunate enough to go to the circus two weekends in a row!  We got tickets to the Shriner's Circus from Grandma & Troy for Christmas and our little family had a great time!  Max was pretty captivated for almost the first half - so much to see!  We had a few snacks and then at intermission, we walked around down on the floor.  Lucy wanted to ride an elephant so I bought her a ticket but when it was time to get in line, she got a little too nervous...I traded her elephant ticket in for two pony ride tickets and she and Max both did that.

Crazy little cowboy!

After the intermission, Max still enjoyed the show but cotton candy definitely played a part in his staying still in his seat!

The following weekend, their other Grandma decided on a whim to treat them to a night at the Ringling Brothers Circus along with Alli, P and Aunt Nikki and they loved it there, too!

 

Max especially loved scarfing down a ton of popcorn...

Lucy especially loved spending time with her cousins!

Recent cuteness:

If you ask Max to give you a hug, he'll just lean against you to let you hug him...recently I rephrased and taught him to "give me a squeeze" and now he gives the best hugs (aka squeezes) ever!

Max got his toy broom taken away for two days after he whacked his sister in the eye,
which resulted in this shiner instantly...
Don't let her sweet smile fool ya...she was crying a LOT -
I know it really hurt...BROTHERS!