Brynn Turns 5 Years Old!

It doesn't seem possible that we were blessed with the SWEETEST little girl 5 years ago today. Every day she amazes us with her intelligence, care and concern for others, and happy disposition. We are so in love with you, Brynn Tressa!

Darren and I took the day off today to spend it with our favorite 5 year old girl...and our favorite 2 year old girl got to tag along :)

All ready for her surprise day!

We didn't tell Brynn we had the day off today and surprised her when she woke up, but we didn't tell her what we were doing or where we were going. We started the morning off at IHOP (Brynn asked us to make pancakes for her on Monday morning for breakfast...not really a weekday breakfast at our house) so Brynn could get her fix of pancakes. After breakfast we headed straight for the Water Park of America. Brynn has been oohing and ahhing over this place for at least 2 years and we've always told her she is not old enough. We still didn't tell her where we were going after breakfast, but as we got closer I asked her if there was any place in the area she would like to go. She pointed to the huge waterslides outside the waterpark and said, "I would really like to go there. Do you think I am old enough yet?" When we told her that was where we were going she said, "Really, Mom? Are we really going there? You're not teasing me are you?" She was giddy for the remainder of the ride!

The waterpark was AWESOME! And I am really not a waterpark fan. The temperature inside the building was at least 80 degrees and all the pools were like bath water. Surprisingly the slides were all accessible to kids too as long as they are wearing a life jacket. So, even Brynn and Cara were able to giggle down the big slides. In addition to zero depth areas for kids to play they also had a big "park" with tons of water guns, dumping buckets, and slides.

Brynn loved this cool little contraption that she insisted on trying. She was by far the smallest one trying to make her way across the logs and on her third try she did it!

I can't even count how many times Cara went down this slide...and every time she got to the bottom she would say, "The water splash in my face!" all excited!

I knew the girls would be tired on the way home so I packed a lunch for them to eat in the car (in hopes they wouldn't fall asleep so they could get a good nap in at home). Here Cara is half alseep eating her apples. We did have to continue to talk to her all the way home to keep her from drifting off, but we were successful!

After dinner Brynn was able to open her presents. Her wish came true and she got another Bitty Baby so she can have Bitty Baby twins (and now she won't have to fight Cara for Cara's Bitty Baby).

Here she is with Karen's debut.

Brynn has two favorite names: Sally and Karen (at times Karen is interchangeable with Hallie). Every doll or stuffed dog she has one of the two names.

Since it was 67 degrees out (What? Sixty-seven degrees on March 13!) we all went for a walk in the neighborhood tonight.

Part way through the walk the girls found some large branches laying on the side of the road and proceeded to have a stick fight. Kind of dangerous if you ask me!

After our walk we sang "Happy Birthday" one more time then ate Brynn's lemon cake. She LOVES lemons so I thought it was pretty appropriate to make a lemon cake. It was a hit!

Finally, the girls took a quick bath before heading to bed.

What a great day we had celebrating our 5 year old!