Today was Gracie's birthday! At 8:55 am, she officially became a 5 year old girl. She even acted like it for most of the day. She shared, she said sweet things, she cleaned up, and she even brushed her teeth by herself! We decided to wait until tomorrow to give her our birthday gifts because Daddy had to work early this morning and we had a family party that would go until night. (Menards always ruins the fun huh?) Anyways, I couldn'r resist and let her open some this morning. She was so excited.
This is the 3rd year now that I have made her a little book with pictures. Pictures from the past year. Kind of like a scrapbook if you will. If caps all the highlights of the past year and I wrote it like Gracie is telling the story so that she can learn to read it herself! I love these and I think she likes it too. It's such a neat trasdition I think and since her scrapbooks are only up to age 2, this works for now!
She also got a Princess and the Frog game for Wii. We haven't played it yet but I'm sure we will tomorrow.
Next we headed to Crispy Waffle (one of our favorite restaurants) for some breakfast. Gracie ordered waffles.
And then after, the waitress came and sang to her and gave her a chocolate cupcake. Yum!
After that, I took her to Toys-R-Us, not an easy task to do by yourself with 3 kids. They were running everywhere and wanted to buy everything! But because it was her birthday, they gave her a crown and a balloon.
And our main reason for going there was to pick out a backpack for Kindergaten! They had lots to choose from but after some careful consideration, she chose the Rapunzel one. And they had a deal going to that if you buy a backpack, you get a free lunch tote. She got Barbie!
After some lunch and naps, we headed over to Uncle Jerry's and Aunt Karen's for the Annual Mueller 4th of July party. Now this isn't just any party. My uncle goes all out. His backyard is amazing and lots of people come. It is so fun. This year we got there just in time to see "The Little People." They were dancing around.
They came over to see us but all the kids were a little bit scared of them.
But I thought they were darling. If you look closely in this pic, you can see one of my kids peering through the window of the playhouse.
But Amy and I managed to get the girls in for a picture.
This playhouse has been around for years. There is a kitchen set inside with a table and chairs and play food. As a kid, I used to spend hours in this with my cousins. It was the best. Now my kids loved it! Isn't it darling? I wish we had one.
Of course, in Mueller tradition, there was shuffleboard tournament going on. Winners got a trophy. Same with horseshoes and beanbags.
There is always something to do in Uncle Jerry's yard. He's got a volleyball court in the middle, a beautiful porch with wooden tables and benches build right in,
the playhouse, the gazebo, a pool with a slide, and he also rents bouncy houses for the occasion.
All of my kids finally love these things. And all of them can finally climb them by themselves. You know how hard it is trying to climb these with a kid in tow?
This boy has come a long way as far as bouncy houses go.
He had 3 big bouncy houses. This one was a huge slide.
The twins loved climbing this thing too!
Evie is such the daredevil and would go down on her back lying down.
And because it was so hot, we had to cool off in the pool.
There were lots of kids swimming so it was fun. Gracie was all ready to swim by herself. She sat on the raft with Meredith.
I am so proud of my girl for finally learning to swim on her own.
I even took her down the slide. But after once, she was all set to go by herself!
Daddy finally showed up to come swimming with us.
But then we found these super cool water guns and had to try them out. I will admit, they were cool and I had just as much fun with them.
But getting Daddy wet was the best part.
Grandma even got a special cake just for Gracie so that we could sing to her. She even thought the party was for her. Before we left, she was like "Can we go to my party now?"
A princess cake for the princess.
Presley wanted to help her blow out the candles.
This year my uncle really outdid himself. He rented this traveling video game trailer thing. 2 TV's are outside each sporting a different dance game.
And inside there are 4 tv's with benches along the other side to sit and play. There were all kinds of systems in there. My kids went in and had a blast playing Mario Cart.
Check this thing out. The owner said that the Bears have him booked to come to Boubonais for when they have practices as a downtime event. Super cool!
After all that, the party still wasn't over. Every year my uncle and my cousins put on a fabulous fireworks show! Here we are getting readyg to watch.
But first we had to try some sparklers.
Evie thought these were the bomb.
Then we moved over by Grandma and Amy to see better.
The fireworks are always fantastic and they always have them to patriotic music!
The show rivals any city fireworks too. They last about 20 minutes.
And here is my Uncle Jerry. He is he best. Presley went and thanked him and told him how much fun he had!
Thanks Uncle Jerry and Aunt Karen. We had a blast! We always do! Can't wait for next year!
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