We celebrated our beautiful Hallie's 6th birthday over a couple of weekends in September. The weekend before her birthday, we visited the Portsmouth Children's Museum.
Our angels posing outside the building
We played in the bubble room
And enjoyed the coral reef exhibit
Hallie and Emma got to dress up as manta rays
They found a climbing spot in a mural art area before we left the museum.
The following day, we celebrated Hallie's birthday with the Jester family
She chose a Krispy Kreme doughnut birthday cake
We swam at Dan's parents' pool and partied all afternoon. One of Hallie's favorite parts was having her first pinata full of candy!
She also loved her gifts, of course. She got a Cutie Cuts Scruff-A-Luv from Dan's parents, which she got to shave, groom, and beautify.
She was also excited to get a Magic Mixie toy, which creates lights and sweet-smelling smoke before revealing the stuffed animal toy inside
Emma had gotten a Magic Mixie for her birthday, and Hallie was excited to have one, too!
Another favorite gift was this Disney princess toy suitcase set from my parents. She's ready to travel!
The Friday before her birthday, Hallie's class sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She shared homemade chocolate chip cookies with her classmates and handed out party favor bags.
The weekend of her birthday, we flew to Texas for our annual family reunion
We gather each year with my mom's side of the family at my Uncle Brian and Aunt Margaret's ranch house. It's an amazing place with enough beds for all the adults, and floor space for the kids to sleep on sleeping bags and air mattresses. We spent the weekend visiting, eating good food, playing games of all kinds, and watching the kids play. It's such a great time and we always love catching up with everyone.
A game of slam ball
Our family loves playing spades tournaments
And we learned a new game called Garbage, which was great for the younger kids.
The girls were happy to be reunited with their cousin, 8-year-old Sadie! Most of the kids in the family are boys, so these girls are tight.
They had so much fun playing with toys together.
My cousin Emily enjoys decorating the girls' hair and nails. She has two boys and never gets to do girly stuff. Hallie loves all things fancy.
Emma's not normally a fancy girl, but even she couldn't resist getting a blue streak added to her hair.
Emma loved fishing in the ranch house's stocked pond. We didn't get up early enough in the morning to catch anything, but it was fun to try. The kids enjoy swimming in the pond, too. The water level was too low this year for most of the adults to brave it, since we'd have to swim through the plant life around the edges to get to the deeper center of the pond. I'm not okay with anything touching me underwater, so I watched from the sidelines and prayed that no one would need me to dive in and rescue them.
My cousin, Brad, takes the young kids on a joyride each year in one of the golf carts. He drives super-fast and takes them around the edges of the ranch land. They absolutely love it, and we know exactly where they are from their shrieks of terror as they fly by!
On Hallie's birthday morning, Uncle Brian made the best loaded pancakes in the world. Made to order with berries, chocolate chips, sausage, or a mixture of everything!
The girls opted to swim in a kiddie pool instead of the pond in the afternoon.
After lunch, we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Hallie, and she shared cupcakes with everyone.
We saved a couple of gifts for her to open in Texas. She loved this Rescue Runt puppy from Uncle Steve, Aunt Sheila, Meera, and Rowan! Uncle Steve was able to come to the reunion this year, and we hope that the rest of his family can come next year! We missed them!
She also got to open a beautiful dress, high heel shoes, a headband, and nail decorations. She looked just like a princess!
Her chariot was a golf cart, driven by Emma! Emma did a great job driving around the ranch, with Dan as her instructor.
As the weekend came to an end, we experienced a sudden, severe storm at the ranch. We could see the wind and rain coming across the horizon very quickly, and the guys ran outside to collect anything that might blow away. Most of us sheltered inside, but a few were brave enough to watch the storm roll in.
During our layover on our flight home, the girls each tried a new food and loved it! Hallie has eaten hundreds of chicken nuggets, but that day she ate her first Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, and almost finished the whole thing. I think she might be in a growth spurt!
Emma's been wanting to try an Annie's pretzel, and she got one for lunch at the airport. It looks like all her dreams came true!
We had the best time celebrating our 6-year-old! She's kind, spunky, creative, and people oriented. She's super fun and enthusiastic, which makes her a joy to be around. She's the only morning person in our family, so we do struggle a little bit with her enthusiasm first thing in the morning. She loves to include everyone in her games and ideas, and likes to be in charge, but will almost always compromise to keep the peace. She's been ready to go places ever since she was born, and one of her favorite questions is "Are we going to go anywhere fun today?" For some reason, she says school doesn't count as "fun." Ha! She's doing really well in school, though, and has grown tons this year in reading, comprehension, and memorization. One of the only things she enjoys doing independently is crafts, and you had better not touch her craft if she didn't ask you to help her!! Otherwise, she's always looking for a playmate. She's willing to try new things regularly and doesn't worry if things don't turn out perfectly. Her go-with-the-flow attitude and versatility will serve her well in life. We love you so much, Hallie, and we pray that the Lord will guide you as you grow and learn this year.
