Cindy is now 6! Which is great because....

On her new Connect 4 game "it says on the box you have to be 6 years old to play it! And that is so perfect!" :)

Yes, Cindy turned 6 on Tuesday. And it is safe to say she had a pretty great day. I have been letting her stay up late pretty much all week and so on Monday night at about 10:30 she finally said she was going to bed so that I could "get everything ready for her for the morning. You know, like all the decorations and streamers and stuff." Ummm, yeah. Because I was totally going to do that.... So on Tuesday morning I woke up early to put something together for her birthday (I figured the swim party was her birthday, right?) I went running first, just to mentally prepare for the day. And also because Publix didn't open til 8am. But I got some balloons and set out her presents. Poor Luke woke up first and when he saw them he shouted "It's my birthday!!!! Which present can I open?" He was a little crushed that none of them were for him. But Cindy finally straggled out of bed when Luke went in and reminded her in her sleepy stupor that it was her birthday. She was pretty excited :) And she chose cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast. (Which might be the real reason I felt so motivated to go running that morning....)



She got the new Barbie Mermaid Tale Movie!!!!! And books, and some clothes and daisy clip for her hair.


















Cindy requested a Mermaid cake this year, so after some brainstorming with my mom, I did a rectangle cake with blue frosting, a border of Cap'n Crunchberries, swedish fish to swim around the edges, edible easter grass as my seaweed, and a little cupcake "rock" for the Mermaid to sit on. And since my mom got Cindy one of the Mermaid dolls from the Barbie movie, we just sat her on that cake and Voila! Nothing to it :)


I did trick candles again this year and they were amazing! Almost too much. Cindy and Luke had the best time blowing them out, over and over and over and over....



We had a small party at Grandma's house. A chance for Cindy to be an actual mermaid on her birthday. I think everyone had a pretty good time. She also loved getting to spend time with her cousins- including Laurel, who happened to be in town at just the right time! Yay for good timing!



Cindy has very kind friends who gave her some very sweet gifts. Little Nathan Bailey gave her this framed picture that he made himself- complete with castle and princess. ADORABLE! She already hung it up in her room. Can't wait til they are both teenagers and it's still there :)



And just so everyone knows, Luke is a swimming maniac!!!


Don't let the smile fool you...



The night capped off with watching the Barbie movie for a third time and Happy Meals at McDonald's. Good job on having your birthday be on a Tuesday, Cindy. It was meant to be.

And I always take pictures of Cindy on her birthdays- most parents do that, right? And these were the better ones. The only bad part about our habit of making goofy faces all the time in pictures is that it is hard to remember how to actually take a normal one when it kinda matters. It's my own fault, really. But she managed a few good ones. Out of the 41 I took.








And just for a slice of nostalgia, (and also because I just recently got all these pics scanned into my computer and I don't want to waste my work) here are some pics from birthday number 1, which was like a million years ago, I think. She has come a long way! :)