One of our birthday traditions is to take the kids to the mall, ride the carousal, and eat at Bennigan's (they have the best birthday dessert)! The kids love to ride the carousal at the mall.
Hannah was beaming with pride the entire ride!
Hannah really wanted them to sing to her at Bennigan's, but apparently she thought it was a little too loud! She plugged her ears the entire time! It was all worth it for that huge Brownie Bottom Pie, though (of course, she did share it with everyone at the table)!
Hannah and Ellie loved the soccer kick...Hannah sure is flexible!
Face painting...
Here is a picture of all the kids while they took a snack break. Front left: Aubrey, Kalin, Jaclyn, Cameron, Jack, Paige. Back left: Hannah, Paige, Haidyn, Ellie.
The kids had such a blast bobbing for apples. It was a little bit hard for them, though, so most of them ended up grabbing an apple with their hands and then putting it in their mouth. I just love this picture of Ellie!
Aubrey and Hannah had balloon cupcakes to go with the carnival theme.
Aubrey and Hannah opening presents.
I was so proud of Hannah when she opened this box of candy Dots. She absolutely loves sweets and doesn't get them very often, but when she opened this box of candy, she immediately asked if she could pass them out to her friends. What a kind, thoughtful thing for her to do! She has such a sweet, generous character, and she often thinks of others before herself...I am so proud of this little girl!
I just love that Hannah and Aubrey have gotten to be such good friends over the years! It is so much fun to see their friendship develop! Happy birthday, girls!
Hannah and Ellie love their school boxes...they think they are so big!
This is the beginning of their first project. They learned about creation and made a creation book. They both did such a great job!
All of the families: Thad, Suzy, Kaylie, Brandon, Haidyn, and Kira Barker
What a great looking bunch of kids!
Greg and I like to have piggy back races with the kids some evenings in our backyard. The kids usually pick the course. It's usually something like; around the garden, touch the sandbox, through the swings, down the slide, touch the house, etc. It is actually a lot of fun, and always results in a lot of giggling. We decided to have a piggyback race with our faith family.
On your marks, get set...
GO!
All of the kids eating some great food!
Greg is so good with all of the kids. It is so much fun for me to see him play with all of the kids. You may not be able to tell, but he is under all of those kids somewhere.
We walked through a little petting zoo. The kids were all very excited about the animals until we tried to walk by this camel. It was completely packed with people and there was only a little walkway between the cages, which made it very hard to move quickly with five kids. Poor Ellie was so scared to go past the camels, who were much too interested in us (I have to admit, I was a little scared, too, when they started sniffing at our heads!). I was so glad to get out of there. (Note to self: next year, skip the petting zoo!)
The Aubrey, Cameron, and Hannah also got to take part in a big wheel race. At home, Hannah loves to race her bike and always has to be first, so I thought we might see her competitive nature come out.
I guess not! She was so thrilled to be doing the race that she just laughed and grinned the whole time without even trying to race fast.
There was a really neat exhibit called "Little Hands on the Farm" where the kids got to harvest crops, gather eggs, milk cows, drive little pedal tractors, etc. This was definitely our favorite part of the day! The kids had such a great time!
Zach wanted to do everything the big kids got to do. It was so cute!
At the end, the kids got to "sell" their crops for some money to pick out a treat at the store. Cameron and Ellie picked out popcicles.
It was quite funny to watch the kids with the butterflies. They were so scared of them, but loved them all at the same time. The look on Hannah's face in this picture pretty much sums up how she felt about the butterflies...super excited and wanting to touch it, but too scared to actually touch it. Ellie got brave enough every once in a while, but she was much happier picking them up if they were on a toy so she didn't actually have to hold them.
