Happy Birthday Kate!

I can't believe that my little Kate is now 5 years old!  Its just a constant reminder that time continues to fly by.  I love the saying "the days are long but the years are fast" because that truly sums it up to a tee.  I could write so much about Kate.  This girl is such a sweet, kind hearted, laid back, go with the flow girl!  She is the biggest animal lover you will ever meet and keeps us laughing.  She loves her brother and sister, but is content to play by herself and can occupy herself very well.  She is our little soccer player and will play most any game.  She recently has started playing tennis and will be going to tennis camp later this month.  She is very adamant that she wants to take gymnastics now too.  She is an absolute joy and I am so lucky to get to be her Mama!  We celebrated her 5th birthday with an animal party of course!  She wanted a jungle party.  Since Kate has the summer birthday in our family we enjoy having her parties at our house and getting outside!  This year we bought a water slide for the kids to play on and brought back the redneck slip-n-slide from last year.  "Back by popular demand!"  I also had water balloons for the kids (and adults) and did a fun I Spy game with the kids which I was really excited about.  I think it was a hit too!  Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated our sweet Kate with us.  She loved her party and has told me she wants to have another birthday very soon!  We haven't had her official 5 year check up yet but here are a few things about Kate at 5 years old:

• LOVES animals!  She will catch any bug, frog, lizard, you name it!  She has several bug houses and I don't think they ever stay empty.  The most recent was a baby praying mantis that Sug had caught for her, and also worms that she digs to go fishing with.   She also will spend hours doing animal books and playing with all her animals.  We are going on a special vacation this summer that is going to be full of animals for her to enjoy!
• Always has the best attitude in all situations. Very rarely do you hear her complain or cry.  I know something is wrong when she does.  
• Loves her cousin Addison.  These 2 are the best of friends and play very well together.   I know she is going to be so sad next year because Addison will go to kindergarten while Kate will stay back in pre-K.  
• Right now Kate is our sporty girl.  She plays soccer, recently likes to play tennis and will play all games with us at home.  We will see how this continues.  She wants to start gymnastics like I mentioned earlier. 
• Loves books and will often come to me during Bryce's nap time and tell me its now "Mama's day with Kate"  which we will usually spend doing her animal activity books.  She is starting to be into writing more so we have some new letter books to do.  

We love our Kate!  She is such a bright spot in our little family!

Roaring like a lion on the water slide

Cohen & Carolina were twinning!

I caught Kate snatching some Cheetos!

For the "I Spy" game each child got a card with 9 things to find on it.  They then would dig in the "slime" to find each one.

The adult water balloon toss!  Kelly & Westley tied with Jason & Lindsay!

Sadie was having some fun getting Denny with the water gun!

The most beautiful cake!!  

Bryce could be found out on the lawn mower most of the party!

Every year we get a group picture and this year was probably the best they have been! A big sign of how big everyone is getting!

PARTY ANIMALS!

At the end of the night Kate wanted to rock with me and I wasn't about to turn that down.  Even at 5 years old I can still rock my baby to sleep!

Every year I like to take one last picture of the girls (and boy too) on the night before their birthday.  I was on a little surprise girls night away when Kate went to sleep on Friday night so I took this one right before I left.  My last picture with my FOUR year old.