Birthday girl

Once upon a time we had three children. And then number four arrived, on September 21 of 2005. Our third girl baby. Her oldest sibling, our only boy, shed a few tears when he heard the news. He has since gotten over that.
We celebrated this girl's birthday in a strange succession of events this week. On her birthday we had a cross country meet to go to, and then rushed off to church for Awana. So we weren't going to be able to have our family celebration until the late evening. However, plans had to change when we got home and discovered our dog had escaped again. With thunder and lightning overhead our dog got scared and ran. So we spent a lot of time tracking her down -- the Internet was a wonderful tool that night, connecting us with a mutual friend of the family who found our dog. By the time we were settled back at the house we only had time for presents. So we had cake and ice cream the following night.

And then yesterday she got to have a birthday party with friends. This isn't a yearly occurrence for our kids. With five of them, if we had parties every year for each of them, well ... I might be a little crazier than I am now.

She wanted a Hawaiian theme party. So we got out the decor, made up some games, and bought some leis. We had the girls play a getting-to-know-you game by throwing around a beach ball that had questions on it. Since some friends were from church, some were neighbors, and a cousin was here, they all got to meet new friends.

We also played a Fishy game ... I strung gummi fish and dangled them from the ceiling in a line. They girls formed teams and had to eat the fish off the the string, no hands allowed. It was pretty funny.

And then there was place the coconut on the palm tree game. Lots of laughs with that one!
Cake and presents took up the next hour and after a relay race outside, using extra large shoes, it ws just about time for parents to pick up their kids.

16 young ladies at our house, along with a couple of younger cousins. We had a lot of fun!