Ashley's Candyland Princess Tea Party

We had Ashley's birthday party almost a week before her actual birthday, so when May 30th came I wanted to do something special for her.  So I had the girls take her upstairs and quickly set up a tea party for her.  I had baked her a cake and put a couple of jars of her favorite candies out. We hung up a sign and then called her downstairs.  We all yelled,"Surprise!" and she was so thrilled.  She immediately hugged me tight and said, "Thank You, Mommy!"  It was a lovely tea party with special princess music playing in the background.  I just love having little girls.  :)

Ashley 5 Years Old

Hanging Out After Church

Ashley's 5th Birthday Party

Ashley turned 5 this year and we had a beautiful Princess party for her about a week before her actual birthday.  We had a big family party with cousins and it was so much fun.  The girls all dressed up in their princess dresses and started out by decorating wands.  Then we played musical princesses and gave out Cinderella stickers for prizes.  Then there was a knock at the door and we discovered a puppet messenger with a letter from the dragon saying he had stolen the palace because he thought the princess had stolen his eggs.  We had to do a true princess test, princess and the pea style and luckily everyone passed.  Then we went on a quest to find the 12 missing eggs, which we found outside.  After that we took them back to dragon, who still wouldn't give the palace back.  So the princesses used their wands to cast a magic spell of kindness on the dragon and he gave the palace back - which was a pinata.  Everyone pulled the strings and got a lot of yummy candy.  After that we opened gifts, sang to the birthday girl as she blew out her candles, ate lunch and had cake and ice cream.  The children played outside all afternoon in the beautiful weather.  We are so blessed to have Ashley in our family.  She is such a funny little girl and is always saying or doing something that makes us laugh.  She radiates joy and is almost always cheerful.  She has a huge imagination and lives in a continuous world of make believe.  She's super smart and reading and has knowledge that continually amazes us.  She loves to give gifts to others and is always making projects and giving them as gifts.  We love her so much!

Butterflies

For Christmas, Nana gave Ashley a butterfly kit.  All of our kids have raised butterflies so far and she was excited to continue the tradition.  It was a fun process watching them grow and change and all 5 of them made it to butterflies!  We each named one:
Daddy - Bubba
Mommy - Skyscraper the 3rd
Alexis - Sapphire
Emily - Dafodil
Ashley - Hearty
We let them go finally and Ashley sadly bid them farewell.  One actually stayed around on her flower for several minutes while Ashley and the other girls encouraged her to follow her siblings, which she finally did.  :)

Little Lady Liberty

One evening after we had read stories, scriptures, sang a song, had prayer and tucked everyone in, the two oldest girls remembered that they had forgotten to brush their teeth. So we left them to do that. After a long time we were still hearing a lot noise and giggling. Emily came downstairs to tell me they had the Statue of Liberty in their bathroom. Apparently this is Little Lady Liberty.

Evening at the Park

Don had been busy helping a friend out several days this past week, so we decided to meet him at the park one evening when he was through for a little pizza picnic.  After we ate the girls played and Adam cooed and smiled at us.  Then we took a walk and fed the ducks and even got to see some baby ducks.  They were so sweet.

Evening at the Circus

We attended the circus tonight.  The children were sick will colds last week, so we didn't buy tickets until the morning of the circus when we were sure they were well.  They were so surprised and excited.  Ashley, especially was so excited during the show.  She kept standing up and clapping and shouting, "Yeah!" and jumping up and down.  Alexis' favorite part were the trapeze artists.  Emily loved all of it.  Ashley favorite were the "bubble girls".  They were these girls who danced in these clear plastic balls that hung from the ceiling.  We were surprised how well Adam did.  He slept through the first half and the attentively watched the second, only fussing briefly once to nurse.  It was SO loud, too, that we were amazed.  Afterwards when we were taking pictures, a kind worker came up to us and gave the girls clown noses.