We partied hard!

Kelly had an adorable ballerina birthday party with adorable friends and a lot of pink.  We started out with the Ballerina Transformation Station - lip gloss, shimmery eye shadow, tutus, and a mirror to check themselves out.  Kelly decorated a ballerina for us to pin ballet slippers on.  We played musical ballerina {chairs} and there were some really sweet moves by our tiny dancers {it brings me happiness every time I picture it}.  We decorated ballet slipper sugar cookies for the girls to take home and share.  Kelly received some really sweet, perfect gifts.  It was a great afternoon!

The next day was the actual day of birth and it was just as fun because Kelly loves to celebrate and gets so into it.  She, of course, wore the beautiful dress to church that Kynnedy gave to her for her birthday the day before.  I went and grabbed her out of sharing time at the exact moment of her birth and told her that I held her for the first time at that exact moment 5 years ago.  It was a sweet little moment.  We hugged and I had tears in my eyes.  She smiled and then asked, "Can I go back in now?"  Sister LOVES singing time and they were singing a favorite of hers.  It made me chuckle and I let her go back in and headed back to my primary class {where one of the boys was climbing out the window :)}  We enjoyed giving Kelly her gifts.  

One gift in particular I was especially excited about!  Here's the evolution of it:

• In Decemeber, found a bag of kid kitchen dishes/pots and pans at Goodwill for $2 that I couldn't pass up.  Had in my mind that I might make Kelly a kitchen for her birthday.
• We got a new range hood for our kitchen and the box went in our garage.  Kelly walked past the box in the garage one day and I thought, "That's the perfect height!"  Upon closer examination, I realized that it was perfect in every way - really sturdy, perfect size, and FREE
• I was at JoAnn looking for material for curtains and while I was waiting at the cut counter, I was looking at some nearby shelves that had red tag clearance material that was an additional 50% off.  Among them?  Hot pink pleather!  I called Tyler to measure the box and got myself some hot pink pleather to cover the box for the kitchen for $4!
• I bought a small silver bowl at Goodwill for $2 to be the sink.
• Two nights before Kelly's birthday, I brought the stuff inside, intent on making it happen.  I rallied the hubs and we made a rock star kitchen out of stuff in our garage!  Sink PVC pipe for the faucet {spray painted metallic silver, which I had on hand}; a rack for our pizza stone that I've never used as the base for the stove top; the mesh grate from our old range hood - cut and molded to the top of the rack to be the stove top to set pots on; lids from spray paint cans {spray painted metallic silver} with a long screw through the middle as the stove knobs; an extra cupboard handle we had sitting around for the oven handle; a light switch for fun; some other little silver thing that looked like it should go on the kitchen so we made it into a decorative temp thing.  
• I also bought material and made her a little chef's hat and apron; material was $9
• TOTAL COST for the kitchen, plus apron and chef's hat - $17!  It won't last forever, but it will last a l o n g time.

Another gift we were really excited about was that we bought tickets to take Kelly to see the BYU Young Ambassadors.  We planned to take her to get her free birthday kid's meal at Red Robin beforehand and then go to the show.  Things got a little complicated when we found out Max had a school concert the same night.  We got the babysitter, got him to the school, watched him perform, and our dear friend brought him home for us {her son was performing too...plus she took them out to ice cream!}, we hurried to Red Robin where we had a really fun dinner with our Kelly girl.  I love one-on-one time.  Then we rushed to make it to the show on time.  We did, with just a minute to spare.  Kelly literally sat on the edge of her seat for the first 45 minutes.  She lOvEd it.  My favorite comments of the night were: "I just feel like going up there and hugging them!" and "Do you think they know that we're all watching them?"

We grabbed an ice cream cone to eat in the car on the way home {it was almost 10 p.m.} and Kelly thought it was the best night ever.  I just loved watching her soak in every minute of the evening.  She is a delight!  She finally let me take off the Happy Birthday chair cover the night of the date because that officially signified that it was over. :)