May 4

Oh goodness, I've gotten behind with the blog again. Today was Daisy's 5th birthday. We celebrated with the family last night, but we still did some fun things today.

I always like to decorate the kids' doors with balloons on their birthday, and Daisy remembered this tradition. Days ago, she matter-of-factly informed me that she would like five purple balloons hanging from her door on her birthday. I love that our traditions are now something the kids just expect!

Chris was awake this morning when Daisy got up, so he captured her with the balloons.
She got to bed late last night, and was being a bit ... difficult... about going through the door.

Later, Eli showed me a new trick.

What? Can't you tell what he did?

How about now?

He stood unassisted for the first time! He was so proud of himself! The boy will be walking soon!

It was a lovely morning, so I took the kiddos out to scout locations for some photo shoots I have coming up. While we were out, we happened to come upon a field of daisies.
On Daisy's birthday.
It was providence.

So we pulled the van over and all got out for Daisy's five-year pictures.

Note to self: do not leaves chairs unattended. Eli will climb them.

The light was definitely not ideal; I would have loved to come back to this field later in the evening! Still, we did the best we could.

Daisy was delighted by the field of daisies. Please notice her pink tights and white, high-heeled sandals. The girl is fancy.

While I took pictures, Eli crawled all over the place, Lily picked flowers, and Caleb found two opossums!

This girl. At five years old, I hold firm to the old nursery rhyme to describe her:
There was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
she was very, very good
and when she was bad
she was horrid.

My Daisy is spunky, sharp, and sweet. When she is well-rested and happy, she is the sweetest, most thoughtful, most helpful child ever. 
There are other times, too.
But the good outweighs the bad, and I know that this girl will one day move mountains. She is strong, and she is confident, and she is mine.

Happy birthday, sweet Daisy!

After our little photo shoot, we loaded into the van to head home for lunch and naps. But as we left the park, I spotted some lovely purple flowers off in the distance. I had to check them out, to see if they could work as a location for photos! There was a hiking trail down to the flowers, so I decided the kids and I could make it. 

As I unloaded them, I realized that Daisy had those darned high heeled sandals on. There was no way she could hike in those. By then I had committed to checking out the flowers, though, so I improvised a solution. 
Yep. My newly five year old in the Ergo on my back, and Eli in the ring sling on my front. Caleb and Lily walked, and we dominated that hiking trail!

The flowers were lovely, but ended up not being a suitable location for a photo shoot. We kept on hiking, though. It was actually kind of fun, except that I was carrying nearly 60 pounds of children.

Don't let Daisy's face fool you; she was thrilled to be in the Ergo! She was just grouchy and tired. Finally, we made it back to the van and headed home for lunch. Daisy really could have used a nap, but Chris had already planned to take the afternoon off to take Daisy out on a birthday adventure. They had planned to go kayaking, but it was so windy that the kayak rental people weren't sending people out on the lake. 

Instead, they did the same thing they did last year for Daisy's birthday:
Bowling and milk shakes.

I love this!

They got home in time for dinner, and after dinner we headed up to the YMCA for Caleb's swim lessons. The little ones swam with Chris while I worked out, and afterward I snuggled my girls up with warm towels.
They were so cute I couldn't resist snapping a selfie.

After swimming was over, the kids changed into their jammies for the ride home. Daisy looked so funny that I had to take a picture:
She's wearing her new Star Wars jammies (a gift from Caleb, in case you were wondering) and her too-big high heels because "they are easy to put on". She is so funny.

And before bed, one last birthday tradition: 
Happy birthday, Daisy!

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