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| The birthday girl turns 5! |
Cassidy had so much fun turning 5 this year! On the morning of her birthday, she woke up and opened her bedroom door to find a curtain of colored balloons hanging in the doorway in her honor. (Erik and I couldn't help ourselves, we hid near her door to watch her funny reaction as she came out that morning.) We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, she opened some special gifts from family (we skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Reder so she could open their presents "together"- such fun), and we headed to the beach to spend the day with friends. It was a blast! Later in the day, we made our way to Chuck-E-Cheese for a night of kiddie fun with just the 4 of us. Cassidy and Gavin played all sorts of games, earned tickets, and got to use them to purchase
incredible items such as tiny plastic animals and sweet tarts (ha). They posed for a photo with Chuck himself and had a fantastic time. We headed home for homemade "turtle" cupcakes (attempting to resemble Squirt from "Finding Nemo"). She was so excited to see Squirt, but then got teary at the thought of eating him. So, she opted for a plain cupcake so Squirt could be saved. (Although, a few days later when he was headed for the garbage can, she decided it might be OK to go ahead and eat him.)
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| Birthday morning surprise |
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| The mouse himself! |
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| My best attempt at a Squirt cupcake |
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| Enjoying the birthday treat |
Before her actual birthday arrived, we had some other fun celebrations. Cassidy had a special birthday treat with her classmates at school prior to the start of summer...
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| Cassidy and her friend Adeline - both celebrating their summer birthdays! |
...and then closer to her birthday we had a backyard party with all the girls from her class. We had a lady from the local pet store come to entertain the girls with some live animals that they could hold, pet, and watch as they crawled across blankets in the backyard (2 bunnies, a bearded lizard, a snake and a white rat!). We also had our 2 teenage baby-sitters who live on our street come over to do some fun face painting. We had pizza and cake, and lucked out with a beautiful day - 83 and sunny. It was such a simple, fun party with the kids just enjoying summertime.
Also, the weekend after her birthday, the celebration continued with a great visit from Grammy Brown, Aunt Mel and little Jackson. We had lunch together and had so much fun spending the afternoon with them.
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| Grammy Brown and her 3 grandkids |
We really can't believe our little baby girl is 5 years old! She has made us so happy and proud over the past 5 years and we are honored to be her parents. We can't imagine our lives without her! We love you, sweet Cassidy!
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| Baby Cassidy on the day she was born - 6/28/07 |
