'Just' a Mom: Parker's Sixth Birthday!

Parker turned six this week and had a lot of fun celebrating!

We did a little party with family on Sunday (we did it early to accommodate some family schedules). Parker wanted an Aladdin party and "a cake with chocolate cookies smashed up inside it" (or a Cookies and Cream cake). She got both!

Ashtyn helped with some of the decorations and made the garland.

And the kids made these in the week leading up to the party, playing with them as "toys" until I hung them up.

We got her some books (this year, she got That's Not Mine and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up) and a new tradition--a photo book of her artwork from the past year! I was really excited to give her the photo book. She also got some cards with money from grandparents and some picnic supplies and books from one of her grandma's. Auntie Hannah made her a purse and Parker hasn't left the house without it since. 💗

Wednesday was her birthday. I put more streamers up and blew up some more balloons for when she woke up (I love for them to wake up to things like that). I also made glazed donuts in the morning, and she wanted her glaze to be pink. We tried making the donuts in our air fryer this time and it worked really well!

While the donuts were raising, Ben and I had a special surprise for all the girls. Parker had a gameboy that used to be Ben's and Ashtyn had DS-I that used to be Caleb's. For awhile, Parker has wanted her own DS and has been saving up for a 2DS (which are about $90 on eBay--a lot for a kid to save up!). We had been planning on getting them all a 2DS for Christmas, but we decided that was too far away and we used some of our tax return to get each of them one (we already had one gifted to Ashtyn from a cousin) and do it for birthdays. We gave Ashtyn and Rylee to them "for their birthdays" but early, so they could all have them at the same time. It was really fun to surprise the kids!

While Oliver napped, the girls all played on their new 2DS and ate donuts. Then it was time for Parker's birthday date with Mom and Dad!

Despite my offers of other activities, Parker wanted to go to Walmart for her date. She spent time in the arcade and then looked at everything next door in Claire's (wanting to buy it all). Then we got her some popcorn chicken and took her to the clothes and toy section. She picked out matching pajamas with Ashtyn, a pink dress, and a Barbie with a Barbie toy. She was excited to have some birthday money to spend since she no longer needed to save up for her 2DS.

After Oliver's second nap, we picked up some pizza and went to Remember the Maine. It's a neat local place with a creek you can walk along and a playground near the parking lot. It's one of our favorite places to go and Parker had a blast.