Birthday Week

Abby turned five (yes, FIVE!) this past Sunday. All three kids were on the tail-end of colds and Kevin was still fishing, so we didn't do much to celebrate on the actual day. I told her we'd do a party with cake later in the week when Daddy got home and that was okay with her. Fortunately, she shares a birthday with a boy at church whose mom brought a cake and Abby got to be included in the blowing out of the candles and enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday to them. And my mom came over in the evening and brought Abby a new game and puzzle, so she did get to have a little celebration and fun on her actual birthday. :)

Two days later, Kevin was home, with tuna season finally over! Yay! We promptly went out to dinner to celebrate Abby's birthday and the end of tuna season. Abby had the choice of several restaurants where she would get a free birthday meal and she choose IHOP.

To top it off, we then went to Cold Stone Creamery where Abby got a free birthday ice cream (pink colored, of course - who cares what flavor as long as it's pink! And Ben got blue ice cream, of course! The rest of us just had spoonfuls of theirs :). It was Kevin and the kids' first time there (I'd been once before years ago), and the kids really enjoyed it. It was a very special evening.

I love how Abby was "mommying" Jake in the upper right-hand picture and was wiping some spilled ice cream off his jacket. :)

And the celebration continued for several more days. Abby had decided to have me make her special birthday cake for the Marks family quarterly birthday celebration and thus we didn't really have an actual party for her. When my mom heard this, she brought Abby's "real" present over, along with a balloon.

Yesterday, Abby and I got to go on a special lunch date to Red Robin for one of her other free birthday meals. We dropped by Target afterward to search the clearance racks for a new outfit for her 5-year-old pictures (that we'll have to wait to take later when we have the opportunity and some nicer weather). It was a very special and fun mommy-daughter time.

Enjoying chocolate milk while she waits for her meal.

So, even though the poor girl didn't get a "real" party this year, I think she came out on top in the end, as it really turned into an entire birthday week for her!