Aylin Marie is 6!!!

How on earth did that really happen? Sorry for the belated post, I had been waiting for the full birthday festivities to conclude, and since they spanned more than a week... Her birthday was on a Thursday, so I surprised her with waffles in bed before getting ready for school. She also came home to balloons and presents that I wasn't going to let her open until after her father got home. I'm such a meanie... :D She also had ballet that evening, so she had to wait until we got home from that before we let her tear open all her gifts. Then Friday evening is when we had the family birthday dinner and cake. We had a blast filling up balloons and decorating with Uncle Richard. The birthday girl was rather particular in her requests for the evening. She wanted waffles for her birthday dinner, she wanted a "round chocolate cake with layers, smooth chocolate frosting, and pink strawberry frosting for the words and decorations, and strawberries on it for decoration. Also sparkly candles for the cake" She got all of those things, except for the sparkly candles. We had snow early in the week and I wasn't able to make it to the store. I ordered, instead, some fun candles from Amazon that had colored flames to match the candles. That was apparently not an acceptable substitution.

After the birthday evening, part of her birthday gift from mom and dad was a special day out at the mall with mom. This included a lunch out to a place of her choosing, pedicures, and a movie. She chose P.F. Changs, and we got a super yummy dessert with chocolate and raspberries. Then we enjoyed a little pamper time and pretty toes. We had intended to stroll around the mall, but it was SO. Cold! We had snow flurries while we were out walking. So we made a stop in to the candy store, and popped in a few other placed before finally ending up at the movie theater where we watched Paddington Bear.

To end it all, she got to spend the following weekend (SLEEPOVER!!) with Papa Joe and Grandma Linda in Harrison where she was thoroughly spoiled and loved on. All the while Jeff and I jumped on the opportunity for a kid-less weekend, and took our friends up on an invitation to enjoy their cottage for the weekend. The snow ALMOST kept us from the fun weekend away, but in the end we made it to our destinations safely, and back home with no major issues.