Birthday party with friends!

Here I am again, posting two days in a row!  If you didn't see yesterday's birthday post, make sure you scroll down to see all of the pictures after you read this post!

Charlotte got to have many birthday celebrations this year, including her first ever party with friends!  Six kindergarten friends came over to create homemade stick horses, eat cupcakes, open gifts, and gallop their stick horses around the neighborhood!  I'll let the pictures tell the story.

 

Decorating their horses!

 The horses all in the "corral."

 Happy birthday my big girl!

 Charlotte and her best friend from school.

 They are so silly!

 Speaking of silly...it was impossible to get one picture where they were all looking at the camera AND all smiling.  Physically impossible.

 We tried really hard.  :)

 When Mercy woke up from her nap, she was the center of attention!

 That is, until there were gifts to be opened.

 Then it was time to go out galloping!

 She named her horse Rainbow Brite Clover.  She didn't put many decorations on her horse because she wanted it to look like a real horse.

 Hey!  Where's my horse?!

 On your mark, get set....

 GO!!!

 It was HOT and HUMID, so the galloping didn't last long.  We headed home after not very long outside.  Here Rainbow Brite Clover is stopping to nibble some flowers.

The party is over and the horses waiting to be picked up by their owners and parents.  

Happy Trails and Happy Birthday!

Happy 6th Birthday!!!

Charlotte is six.  Wow!  We can hardly believe it!  In some ways it feels like not very long ago she looked like this:

But in some ways it feels right that she is six now.  She's growing up and becoming such a lovely young lady.  We want to share some pictures of her birthday celebrations with you, so without further ado, here they are!

As always, the birthday is celebrated with berry picking!  This year we picked strawberries at Firefly Berries on the 4th of July.

 Someone enjoyed holding the bucket for a while...  

 This same someone also enjoyed having a big sister feed her many, many strawberries!

Forty-five minutes of picking = 2 full buckets and 4 full tummies.

A birthday party needs a cake, and this year it was a pony cake!  Previously, she's had a puppy cake, bee cake, kitty cake, butterfly cake, and bunny cake.  The pony cake is the only one I have an actual shaped pan for, so it was kind of exciting not to have to carve the cake this year!

 Cousins Liya and Linnea with Charlotte at the kids table.  There was a lot of playing and laughing, but not a lot of eating going on!

 Who is this big big kid?!

 Party guests.  The rowdy grown up table.  :)

 Charlotte wanted to sit by her cousins, even though her plate of food had to stay on the other side!

 Mercy LOVED those balloons!

 Mercy got Charlotte matching shirts for her birthday.  They LOVE to match!

 Charlotte was obviously excited about the new toy horses!

 New horse books to go with the toy horses!

 All the cousins got matching pajamas from Grandpa John and Grandma Sharon just like when my sisters and I were little!

 Poor pony...

 Uncle Travis brought fireworks to celebrate!

 Grandpa John and Grandma Sharon with the girls.  We're so lucky to live just down the street from them!

 I think this might be the best picture of Mercy smiling that we've ever gotten!  She loves Linnea!

 Family walk.

 And family games!

 And family dollhouse...

That was all on the 4th of July, the day before her actual birthday.  On the 5th we had a quieter day.  Daddy had to work, so we had a special morning together with breakfast and snuggles.

Then it was off to Caribou to have a free birthday drink with Auntie Kate.  Of course, in matching zebra shirts that were Mercy's gift to Charlotte!

And I will leave you with this picture while baking a cake for her friend party.  Let's just say that my second attempt at a pony cake was not as successful as the first.  We may have gone in a different direction cake-wise after this episode.  I will post pictures from her friend party tomorrow!

Charlotte and Daddy's Rainy Day Movie Creation

Does anyone still read this thing?

So I haven't written on this blog for a LONG time, and I apologize.  If you still read this, will you please comment below so that I know it's worth still putting pictures, videos, and stories on here?!

Here are a few snippets of our lives recently...

 Charlotte reads books by the pile.  I didn't hear a word from her for at least an hour while she devoured one book after another.

 Mercy likes to take care of her babies and rock them.

 Charlotte and Mercy just love to be together.

 Crawling through a big tunnel is fun!

 At cousin Megan's graduation (but with cousin Chelsie in this picture).  Yes, that is a cardboard cut-out of Megan in the Iowa shirt!

 Mercy and Margaret---what a good pair!

 They could have played in this bucket for hours after the grad party!

 Craig and Sue, parents of the graduate.

 

Chelsie and Mercy.

 

Mercy learned how to wave!

Mercy LOVES to ride Misty, Charlotte's stick horse!