Birthday Breakfast and Fun with Mom, Dad and Stocky

Sitting outside IHOP, ready for her BIRTHDAY breakfast!

I can't believe she is 5!

Giving Hello Kitty a bath

So proud and happy of her new Hello Kitty (that she has wanted for months)!

The final product!

Awwww a new baby to love and hold

Annabelle's birthday was tricky this year. We planned a party for all her friends and family, but it was scheduled for a few days following her real birthday. Nevertheless, we still wanted to take her out and give her a gift from mom and dad before the party festivities began. The tricky part was that Annabelle did NOT want her birthday so much as mentioned until the day of her party--that was it, that was the celebration day in her little mind. Relatives called and sent texts on the big day and I had to tell them to call a bit later, after I could be sure she would be excited, thankful, and courteous in her response :) Thankfully it didn't take long for her to come around to the idea of having a mini celebration on her birthday before partying hard in a few days. The afternoon rolled around and she was super excited, taking phone calls, and eager to be the birthday girl! :)

Josh and I were very excited to take her to the Build-A-Bear Workshop! She had wanted to go there for so long! Each time we would visit the mall, her eyes would linger, her steps would slow, and sometimes if we weren't in a rush, I'd let her go in and browse all the fun animals and fashions. She would tell me which ones she would choose, and which ones she thought Stockton would like too :) I knew before we even entered the store that she would choose Hello Kitty! She ran to it almost instantly and told us she had made her choice. Josh started pointing out all the other options, and I just laughed inside because I knew it didn't matter what else was there--she had made her choice and she was in love! We stuffed Hello Kitty, gave her a bath, then watched the clothing selection begin. It was almost as fast as choosing Hello Kitty herself! Annabelle saw the blue satin dress, the sparkly pink shoes, and she was done! We offered to buy Hello Kitty more accessories: a purse, a cardigan, some socks, underwear? Annabelle couldn't turned down the underwear, but nothing else was needed :) Hello Kitty was absolutely perfect just the way she was! Less is more :)

Following breakfast and Build-A-Bear, we headed home for naps and downtime. And she still had the big party to look forward to! We LOVE you Annabelle!