Faith's Rainbow Bounce-U Birthday Party

Faith's favorite place to go is Bounce-U! So Brad and I knew the perfect way to celebrate her birthday this year would be bouncing with friends!!! 
Our five year old birthday girl with little sister, Anna, and big sister, Jillian.

Some of Faith's friends watching the safety video before going in to bounce! 

Then all the fun began! Emma and Annie had fun going down fast slides.

When Aunt Michelle arrived, she got the biggest hug from Faith! Do you notice Faith's pink finger nails?  Earlier in the day I painted Faith's nails. A girl has to have her fingernails painted for a big occasion like a birthday party at Bounce-U! 

Lindsey got just as big of a hug from the birthday girl.

Jillian took a ride on Lindsey down the slide.

Anna and Jacob had fun tackling and navigating their way through the bouncy pillars! 

Mr. Jon played a game with Emma, Faith, and Buddy! Faith thought it was hilarious! 

Then, she had a fun time bouncing with her friend Emmie, Carter had fun watching from the side-lines! 

I had some good cuddle time with little Lucy! :-)

Brad and Anna had fun sliding together and Ellie had fun bouncing on a purple donkey! 

Maya and Madeline both succeeded at climbing the slider web and their reward was the steepest slide in the all Bounce-U! 

Mrs. Naomi and Mr. Andrew were the champion "grown-up sliders"!  All the kids had so much fun with them! 

I love Anna's contagious laugh and smile! :-)  She had a great time sliding too.

Anna had fun sliding with Aunt Michelle! 

And then I had fun sliding with the birthday girl! I gave a loud scream, while Faith just had a good giggle! 

Then we went to the festive birthday room to open an early birthday present.

Faith was very excited about her baby doll's new outfit and scooter.

Faith's choice for her birthday cake this year was the RAINBOW. My girls always enjoy my home-made decorations and games, so this occasion, I colored a fun rainbow birthday sign! 

First the kids had drinks and pizza for dinner.

Then before everyone sang "Happy Birthday to Faith, we had a family photo! 

Faith was very excited for her rainbow candles to be lit!!

She made a wish and blew out her candles! 

My sweet 5 year old Faith! :-)

Aunt Michelle made the cake and gave specific instructions that she wanted Faith to have every color of the rainbow! It was a very large piece of cake, and delicious too!! :-)

The cake was enjoyed by all. 

It was a happy, happy birthday celebration...

with Faith's special friends!! 

More of Faith's birthday celebration is to come... :-)

A Story by Faith

Sometimes blogger drives me a little crazy! I wrote a whole long post about Faith's birthday party and had it scheduled to post last Sunday and then somehow it disappeared. Unfortunately, after that happened, I lost some of my motivation to stay on top of my posts. (Don't worry, I most likely will get it back very soon.) But it was brought to my attention that no one in our family has seen a photo of Faith with her new glasses.  I think she looks absolutely adorable. :-)

This photo was taken today.  Faith loves using white erase markers. She wrote a story (with mommy's help with the spelling) and drew an illustration too.  " the Mountains have Flowers"  :-)

My Happy Birthday

Michelle made me a to-die-for chocaholic birthday cake.

She also treated all of us girls to a delicious lunch of my choosing; I chose Panera for their delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches.  The girls and I both enjoyed our lunch a lot! 

While we were there,  a couple of people suggested that she start selling her cake by the slice... it would be a BIG HIT! 

After lunch, Aunt Michelle, the girls, and I headed to Homestead Farm for a field-trip.  Aunt Michelle was my "mother's helper" and was a great help especially when Jillian had to use the potty at the porto-potty!

We saw an adorable calf.

Little Anna was a lot less frightened by the animals this time around!   

Jillian got to hold a freshly laid egg at the farm.

We saw turkeys and goats.

Then, we all took a hay-ride.

When we made it to the fields, Jillian had a hard time picking the perfect pumpkin. Our tour guide (also a farmer at homestead) was a big help. He also cut the vines for us when we made our pick.

A photo of all the happy kids with their new pumpkins.

It was a beautiful way to celebrate my fall birthday.

Then, that evening, three ladies and myself went to 16 Handles during AWANA.

It was a sweet way (both the friends and the yogurt!) to end the evening.  :-)

My sis-in-law, Beth, sent me this great homeschooling book (along with my absolute, favorite kind of gift card, AMAZON). She also wrote a encouraging note: "Happy Birthday Lauren, we are impressed with how hard you are working on homeschooling your precious children. Many of our homeschooling friends highly recommend this book! We hope you enjoy it!  We love you, Nate and Beth

This gift and note really meant A LOT to me, because honestly, there are still days, I don't know what I am doing with homeschooling this year. But I feel extremely blessed to have the love and support of family as we do it. :-)

That same day, the girls received gifts from our friends in North Dakota (via hand delivery by friends who had just visited ND)!  The girls love their matching pajamas and their dolls match too!   I got my own plate of yummy peanut butter, chocolate chip blondies from Trisha!  I was told that the plate was entirely for me, I didn't have to share with anyone if I didn't want to.  But I was nice (both to my waistline and the other little ones in the house) and shared anyway, :-) 

The next evening, we had a phone double-date with our friends the Pull's and we played a game of Agricola on the computer.

It is by far the longest phone conversation I have ever had in my life. In the end, we were on speaker phone for 4 hours.
Here is Brad pretending to concentrate heavily on the screen.

Here I am, exhausted at the end of the day (did I mention it was really hot at the farm?), waving to my friends in North Dakota (for this photo)! "Hi Trisha!  Hi Joe! We miss and love you guys!"

The end time was actually after midnight (not pictured in the clock above) and the scores were the closest we have seen in all of our playing time together. The lack of sleep we got that night was well worth it! We had so much fun and it was an incredible "date idea" by really sweet, thoughtful friends!!!