Birthday madness

Olivia turned 6 on August 4. Seriously, where has the time gone? My sweet baby girl has been replaced by an iCarly fanatic who has lost three teeth already and is going into the 1st grade! She's still sweet, though. Most of the time.

Olivia at 1 day old. I can still remember her at this age. It's crazy to think that this was 6 years ago!

We celebrated her birthday early on Monday and went to Chuck E Cheese's. We did not eat there. Not only are we too cheap for that, but we aren't fans of their pizza anyway. The kids had a blast winning tickets and riding the toys. I actually rocked the Wheel of Fortune game and won 250 tickets. You're welcome, Olivia. 

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On her birthday, we let her choose what she wanted to do, and of course that meant going to get a Happy Meal for lunch. We went to the McDonald's across from Adam's work so he could join us, and Celeste and her kids joined us too.

Adam surprised Olivia with some flowers. She was so excited to get her own flowers for once!

After lunch Olivia had fun playing the Wii with Jack, and then we went to Red Robin for dinner. We always go to Red Robin for birthdays. Not only do we get a free dinner for the birthday person, but I know my kids will eat there, and they have balloons. My kids will do anything for balloons.

Adam and Olivia.

Yeah, she's a little crazy. Do you see that she's holding a spoon in her left hand, but choosing to eat with her fingers instead? The girl seriously ate her body weight in macaroni and cheese.

Jack was being difficult. Do you see his cute little smile? I was trying my hand at some reverse psychology and saying "Jack, don't look at me, okay? Just don't!" so my plan backfired and he smiled but didn't look at me. I never win.

The closest we got for a smile from Jack.

Our server was awesome and made a "hat" for Olivia (two balloons tied together with the ribbon going under her chin and around her ears) and made her hold her ice cream up "like the Statue of Liberty". He got nearly 15 other workers to come and sing and clap for her birthday too. It was loud! She loved it. Madelynn, though, had a face mixed somewhere between fascination and terror. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that.

After dinner we went to my parents house where we had stored her birthday present. We made her close her eyes...

Yay! She got the bike she has been wanting from Toys R Us.

It took her a little bit to get the pedaling down. She can actually pedal just fine, but she's learning that the brakes come on when she goes backward so she kept suddenly stopping. And yes, we are getting her a helmet, I promise!

For Olivia's birthday party, we decided to have a pool/luau theme. We rented a blow up water slide (the lady threw in the bouncy house, the same one from Celeste's party, for $20 extra). Unfortunately the weather was not super cooperative, but at least it didn't rain. My kids were super excited to see the water slide go up though and had a great time. I hope the other kids had fun too. It was hard to tell because some of them were so cold that they really didn't do much sliding or bouncing.

I really want to buy one of these inflatable slides! How cool is this?! The kids seriously had a great time, despite being slightly cold.

I made these cupcakes using vanilla frosting, graham cracker crumbs, Fruit by the Foot and Teddy Grahams with a cocktail umbrella. They were really yummy. Maybe I should have frosted bathing suits on the bears, but whatever. Thanks Summer for the idea!

My dollar store luau decorations.

This was about as close as Madelynn got in the pool. The water was a little cold for her, and she was too young to climb up the wall to go down the slides.

Jack, though, had a BLAST. He didn't come off the slide for over an hour. He's the one going down the slide in the picture above. He was in little boy heaven.

So, we finally got him off the slide for cupcakes and icr cream. I sat him down and covered him with his towel, and then handed him his plate. He was shaking and shivering so much that his cupcake and ice cream literally shook off his lap. It was hilarious, and a little sad. So I video taped it a little. This was actually after he had settled down a bit, but you can still see him shaking!

Most of the kids would sit in the water where it was warmer, and then go down the slide a couple times, then sit in the water again. I'm so bummed that the weather wasn't warmer, but hopefully they all had fun anyway.

Olivia got so many awesome presents. She loved every single one of them and she is so blessed to have such good friends.

This is the only picture I got of the candy leis I made for all the kids. It took me three hours the night before, but they all got done. And they were a hit. What kid doesn't like candy around their neck?

Do you see a difference in this picture? THE SUN! As soon as the party was over, the sun came out in all it's glory. I made Adam keep the water slide up for another hour and a half because I wanted to get my money's worth. We will definitely have to rent the water slide again because it was so fun!

So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! I'm so excited for what this next year is going to bring. You are such a beautiful person, inside and out. You love your brother and sister and you love to please everyone. You are super smart and are getting better at reading every day. You are definitely girly and you want me to paint your nails and curl your hair all the time. Here are six facts about Olivia:

LOVES:

iCarly

Pink and purple

Cupcakes (which we make a lot of at our house) and pancakes

Wii and Leapster

Going out to dinner

Playing with friends and cousins

HATES:

Taking naps (she really only does this like once a month)

Wrestling and playing rough

Medicine

Tomatoes, onions and pepper (as in salt and pepper)

Getting her hair combed

Watching Mom's shows (Rachael Ray isn't that bad!)