Hailey's 5th birthday party

Last night we celebrated Hailey's birthday. We did it early because Darrin and Jenna are going out of town and we have another party we got invited to down in VA on Saturday. It felt a little "off" to me because it was so many days before her actual birthday, so I was having a hard time getting into the birthday spirit that day BUT seeing her excitement changed that pretty quick :)

At 9am she was setting the table, at 10am, she was hanging decorations and asking me to blow up balloons. By 11am the house was decorated and guests weren't coming till 5pm. The enthusiasm of kids, wow...haha, it's so great.

She was so cute because for a while now she has been coloring all the pages in her Disney princess coloring book that are scenes from Sleeping Beauty. And she had been telling me that they were to hang for her birthday party. And that was exactly what she did. She brought me the coloring book, asked me to carefully tear out all the pages she colored and she proceeded to hang them all over the house! We had scenes from the movie on her colored pages everywhere. I love her attention to detail.

I had also bought her a bouquet of red roses (obviously because of Briar Rose and she holds a rose when she is asleep) and then each girl got to take a rose home with them.

After Owen went down for his nap we started working on her cake.

this doorway was just begging to be a castle gate, so I obliged.

I love how we are looking at each other in this one :) Also, Owen is a giant.

we look like a family of dunces. Why do they love party hats so much??

I had printed images of Aurora and Philip and Hailey helped me glue them to party hats. Girls wore the princess and boys wore the prince.

We gave her a new bike (she learned how to ride without training wheels last week!!) and a set of sheets and comforter that was Sleeping Beauty themed. The bike also had disney princesses on it including Aurora. I had found all of it at a yard sale that I randomly decided to stop at, just to see if I saw anything I wanted. Seriously, the Lord loves to love us in the smallest details!!! And she was just over the moon about it all.

My favorite things she said:

While decorating the house:"I am the leader today."

Randomly: "Casey, I am a grown up now."

(which is too funny, and SMART because we tell them things like, you are getting to be so grown up....you are so grown up now, etc!!! And we refer to ourselves as GROWN UPS! It killed me.)

While getting ready for bed: "Mommy, everyone likes me."

I stopped what I was doing and got down in front of her, looked her straight in the eye and said, "Yes they do! Because God made you so special and sweet!" And I felt compelled to add, "And if ever someone doesn't, they are the silly one."  And she gave me the biggest smile and hug.

I am so proud of her because she is blossoming so much and did so well with the few guests that we had over. She is talking more willingly to people she has been extremely shy and nervous around in the past. She really is growing up :)

Have Courage and Be Kind

Ever since I took Hailey on a mother-daughter date to see the new Cinderella, I have often thought about the phrase from the movie, "have courage and be kind." I so badly want to instill these things in my children. 

This morning, I got choked up as Hailey told me something that really shocked me.

You see, when Hailey was 10 months old, on the eve of Mother's Day as it happened, I put her to bed with a little pink blankie/bear. That night she slept through the night for the first time, and never looked back. (It was a wonderful Mother's Day present from her! I remember waking up and realizing I had slept through the night because Hailey had!!!) Ever since that night she has been inseparable from it. She would take it to church, the grocery store, the library, to bed, she would hold it close whenever she was upset, nervous or afraid. We lost it in Washington DC and we retraced our steps to miraculously find it on the sidewalk. She chewed the nose off and I patched it. The bear head/arms fell off and I patched it. She loved it so hard there were holes it in. And I patched it. I washed it and bleached it. And she kept on loving it.

This past week we were visiting family in Wichita, KS and as usual, Hailey went to bed with it every night. We left on Friday morning and broke up the 1200 mile long trip by crashing with some friends in St. Louis that night. They have a boy and a girl same ages as ours, Rose and Gus. And I remember seeing Hailey with the blanket in the driveway as we were getting our things to take inside for the night.

But after dinner and playing, as I was putting her to bed, it was no where to be found. No where. And I looked every.where.

My sweet girl tearfully went to bed without it and I told her we would keep looking. The next morning we still couldn't find it. We had a 14 hour drive ahead of us and we told our friends to mail it if they found it!  I felt so bad, I was holding on to hope!!

During the long drive, she told me a few times she missed it, and wanted it, and cried again at one point. She kept telling me, "My blankie is so special to me. You gave it to me when I was a baby. It is my friend. I miss it." (it made my heart ache a little for her!)

When we got home around 11pm, I put her to bed with another blanket from when she was little and told her I would search the car in the morning.

After combing every inch of the car this morning, I told her it wasn't there either. She didn't get upset, she just didn't say anything.

Then a few minutes later, as I was getting dressed for church, she came up to me and said, "Mommy, Rose and Gus can have my blankie now and I can have this one instead." (she was holding the one I gave her to sleep with the night before)

Luke and I looked at each other like, "can you believe this??" I got down next to her and told her how brave and kind that was. Because it was. And maybe we are the only ones who recognize it as such, because we know how attached she was to it. It was so innocent, so unprompted, and simply pure sweetness.

This afternoon I told Luke I would know whether or not it was going to stick when bedtime came. I didn't know if she would decide she still missed it or wanted it. But when I told her it was time, she wondered outloud, "where is my blanket?" and walked over and picked up the one from the night before.

I really am proud of her. These things can be hard when you are young! 

Summer 2011, 15 months old

Christmas 2012

Halloween (in her hands) 2014

Last week :(