Fierce Fives

Each year of a child's life seems to have something that stands out and stays in your memory.  For McKenzie I think that her fifth year will show how fierce she is.  We have always seen little hints of this with her determination and stubbornness but I'm starting to see her using these traits together to form a very fierce little girl who is ready to take on the world.  There are so many differences in her from a year ago that it is hard to fully capture them all as time goes on.  I look back at pictures from a year ago and it seems so long ago.

For McKenzie's fifth birthday we celebrated more than she probably ever will again.  Since her birthday was on a Saturday so she took Popsicles to school on Friday to share with her classmates.  On her birthday she woke up as usual to the kitchen table decorated just for her.  This year she has been very into doctor kits and art so she was thrilled to get a doctor coat, bag and equipment and a very special Big Book of Boo Boos that I made special for her. 

This is how McKenzie rolls, asleep one minute and wide awake hula hooping the next she is fast asleep. 

Then we went to the kids' tee-ball game and brought treats for the team.  After the game we packed up the car and told the kids we had a surprise and that we *might* spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house since we packed our overnight stuff.  Then we headed down I-5 for the Great Wolf Lodge.  The kids were thrilled to go to Great Wolf Lodge again and we had a great time enjoying the warm temperatures and the water slides.  McKenzie was big enough to go on all of the rides except one.  Ben still has some growing to do but he enjoyed the big kid area most of the time instead of the kiddie area.  He also loved the wave pool.  Our water camera had some power issues so we didn't get any pictures so you'll have to trust me about how many smiles there were.  My favorite part was watching McKenzie go across this line of floating lily pads holding onto a rope bridge above her head.  It was very doubtful as we stood in line that she could even reach the ropes but she could and she powered her way across and had strangers clapping for her.

I learned a very valuable lesson on that trip - you never ever even pretend you're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Poor Ben was happy to go to Great Wolf but still felt he was going to see his grandparents and asked to go to their house the entire way home.

After that big weekend of fun we still had McKenzie's actual birthday party.  We had a pink pirate themed party for her birthday with friends and family over.  In total I think we had about forty people over which was a bit wild but it worked out and McKenzie loved it.  The weather put a slight damper on the decorations since we had to put up some tents to cover the patio and table but overall the guest didn't seem to mind the intermittent showers too much since it was so muggy that day.

We had plenty of activities planned to go with our pirate theme:
- Make your own pirate ship to float in the stream
- Canon ball toss game with teams
- Canon ball on the ankle where you keep people from popping your balloon
- Treasure hunt complete with pinata at the end

Such a fun day and McKenzie is so spoiled to have so many wonderful friends and family members to help her celebrate.  And of course I must give Pinterest some credit for helping with the games, pirate themed food and decorations.