The FIVE Year Old!

Our big event in January every year is Aurora's birthday.  She's been looking forward to turning 5 since the day she turned 4!  Silly kid.  I think she's talked about her birthday all year long!  I love the excitement and enthusiasm of kids :)

Aurora really wanted a "Merida" birthday party this year, but with moving and the craziness of everything, I wasn't on the ball and it just didn't happen.  We decided to do something fun together as a family instead.  At first she said she wanted to go ice skating and then decided it might be a little too hard to do and decided she wanted to go bowling instead.  I feel a little bit bad that this was the first time we've ever taken our kids "real" bowling.  We bowl on the Wii together every now and then, but "real" bowling was a big hit and I definitely think we'll be going again soon!
We went to the Provo Beach Resort--they have more than just a bowling alley there :)

Daddy helped Aurora the first few times until she felt comfortable doing it on her own.

It was so fun to watch her bowl :)

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but they were playing the movie "Brave" while we were bowling.  It was PERFECT!  She didn't get a Merida birthday party, but she got to watch Merida while we bowled.  Someone was inspired!

Checking her score on the screen.

Savannah loved it just as much as Rori did!

We invited our favorite Aussies to join us, and we all had lots of fun!  P and R even bowled without the guide rail thing.

Then the kids got their hands on the camera.  Our girls LOVE and adore baby Q.  They can't wait to meet their baby brother.  He's probably going to get way more love than he can handle! :)

Miss Savy
(Red-eye removal didn't work on this picture for some reason. Ugh!)

 Go Savy!

Savy took this picture of Jared and R :)

And this one of Mr. P

And the employee who gave us our shoes :)  He couldn't help but smile when he realized a little tot was taking his picture. Haha!

Savy generally would squat down below the bar to watch her ball go down the isle, but happened to sit down the one time I was trying to get a picture of her squatting.  Go figure :)

Final scores!
Savannah got the highest score out of all the kids.  Rori was next, then R and Mr. P.  Dar bowled with the kids too and the rest of us watched :)

Such cute kiddos!

Thanks for coming with us, Aussies!  Rori had a blast!
After bowling, we went downstairs for a quick ride on the merry-go-round.  Our camera was out of space so I didn't get any pictures :(  We then said goodbye to our Aussies and we headed to Wingers for Aurora's birthday dinner.

January 11th - The big day!
We always decorate the girls room over night so when they wake up on their birthday morning they're showered with ribbons and balloons.  They love it!  Aurora was pretty excited that she got to go to school on her birthday.  We had a nice, relaxing morning.  The girls spent a little bit of time watching the snake move.  They think the snake is so silly (the snake is at school with Daddy at this point).

Don't you love our new birthday headband? :)

After a yummy breakfast (Aurora wanted toast), we got everyone ready for the day and took some pictures before taking Rori to school.  She was so excited to bring birthday treats for all of her friends!
Rori showing me she's 5, and Savannah already tells everyone that "I'll be sree on my birsday".

Cutie birthday girl!
(I think her b-day outfit is big enough she'll be able to wear it again next year!)

She's so silly.

There's our little princess! :)

SO excited to be FIVE!

After school, lunch, and getting Savy down for a nap, Aurora got to help me make her cake.  She's such a great little helper!

Then she practiced her letters while we waited for the cake to bake.

Daddy came home from work and brought her a bouquet of balloons and a beautiful flower.  And he brought a flower for me too as he always does because he's so sweet to acknowledge my hard work in bringing her into this world :)

Daddy frosted the cake and then the girls helped him decorate it with a bunch of sprinkles and yummy Sixlets!

It turned out beautiful! ;)  Not to mention, super tasty!

After a yummy dinner of tacos (Rori's request), some friends came over for cake and ice cream and presents.

Happy birthday, Aurora!

"Let 'zem eat cake!"

 Time for presents!

From Grandma and Grandpa she got this cute little Merida doll and a bigger Merida barbie that has a magical dress when you get it wet.

One thing she really wanted for her birthday was her own set of scriptures.  And we gave her a new bike.  It was well overdue!

She got a new Sophia lego set from Aunt Georgiana (all the way from Pittsburgh!)

She got a bunch of other gifts too and loves them all!  Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!  (And to those who wanted to be there but couldn't.)

Our birthday girl with the pretty flowers Daddy brought home for us.

Happy birthday, our sweet Aurora!
We love you so incredibly and we're so glad you're in our family!
We love you!

P.S. Ever since her birthday, she now refers to herself frequently as "the five year old", hence the title of this blog post :)

And here are some random photos of Aurora in January:
In addition to falling asleep with her hat and gloves on, she had 3 pairs of socks on underneath her footed pajamas.  Needless to say she woke up a few hours after falling asleep and I had to help her take everything off and change her into some cooler pajamas.  Silly kid.

She was very patient in waiting for us to set up the Barbie dream house she and Savy got for Christmas while some projects were being worked on downstairs.  She was thrilled when Daddy was finally able to set it up for her!  And she was a big help in putting it together too!



We had about 4 inches taken off her hair in January.  This is the before shot--with it wet and combed straight.  Look how long it was!  Not too shabby for a kid who was bald until after she was 2!

Both girls like to sleep with their water bottle close by in case they need a drink during the night.  We went in to kiss them one last time before going to bed ourselves and found Aurora with her water bottle like this :)