Olivia's 6th Birthday!

Our darling daughter is now 6 years old! It's so hard to believe. She growing into such sweet and smart little lady. I'm so proud of her.

For her birthday, she had a list of requests. :) She wanted a banner, macaroni and cheese for lunch and a hot dog for dinner. She also wanted to go bowling. Well... we had another surprise in store for her.

Rebecca had the brilliant idea to fill her room with balloons while she slept, so I pulled the air compressor hose from the garage and we stood in the living room filling balloon after balloon. We carried them in by the armload, trying to be careful not to pop any and wake her up. The end result?

A whole mess of balloons. :)

We did fulfill her other requests, too. :) We told her Sarah (the dog) made her the banner. She thought that was pretty silly.

This morning was actually really nice because I got to stay home and eat breakfast with everyone. We started the morning with some cinnamon rolls, which are a favorite of everyone in the house.  Afterwards, we let O open her presents.

First was a pretty pearl bracelet. She loves her jewelry, but what woman doesn't? (This was a free gift from the jewelry store and no we didn't have to buy anything. But don't tell her. ;) The charm on it says I am Loved.)

Next was a Ladybug Tea Set that Rebecca had picked up when O was just a baby. She immediately insisted that we had to all sit down and have tea once she opened her last gift.

Last was a new scooter. She already has a little pink scooter from her Aunt DD, but O's had a little trouble keeping her balance on it. This one's got two front wheels, so it's more stable and she can get used to the pushing and stopping with one foot thing. She plans on passing it on to Gabe as soon as she gets the hang of it.

Last week, her Grandma and Grandpa gave her this pretty bible bag for her to carry her bible to church. She got a purple hippo pillow pet that she was SO excited about. Her response, "I've wanted a pillow pet all my life!" She named it Purple and has it all the time. Not sure why we missed getting a picture of it. 

She did get to have her mac and cheese for lunch and we took her to Emma Key's, where they have some tasty burgers and hot dogs, for dinner with Nana and Pop Pop.

After dinner, it was time for bowling! Olivia just LOVES to go bowling. She loves to encourage everyone and tell them how well they're doing. She loves to give high fives to Gabe whenever he hits a single pin. Most impressive was that she said earlier in the day, "I going to get 100 when we go bowling tonight!" Her score for the first game? 100. Now, of course, she does use the ramp and have the bumpers up, but hey, 100 is 100. :)

"Daddy, I'm going to use more force than ever before!"

Both Nana and Pop Pop used to bowl when I was Olivia's age, but hadn't been in years. They had a great time and seemed to pick it back up pretty quickly.

Gabe just loves to run up, puch the bal down the ramp and run back. We kept having to remind him that he got to push the ball twice each turn. :)

At one point, Gabe was beating both Mommy and Nana. Bumpers and ramp work wonders. :)

All-in-all, we all had a wonderful time celebrating our daughter's birthday. I can't say I really look forward to celebrating more birthdays, though. I want her to always be my sweet little girl.