Amara's birthday dinner

Not to be outdone by all the OTHER birthday activities, Amara wanted to go to Asian Fusion hibachi restaurant for her "actual" birthday dinner. We happened to drive near it when we were fabric shopping for her party and she asked, so I thought it was a great idea.

She ordered steak, her favorite and gobbled it all up. The chef played his happy birthday music several times and we all enjoyed a great evening together. On our way out, another chef stopped by for a photo op, putting his hat on her and giving her a drink of what i think was cherry juice (or i HOPE!) and we saw our friends Payton and Kennedy. Amara asked to stay--so we let her. 

They brought her home shortly after we got home and played a bit too. It was a really great night for the special bday girl's dinner out.

Amara's beach party

Amara asked for a beach party this year and Eric and I of course stepped up to the challenge. First, we asked ourselves, what can we do to create a beach in Ohio, right? After just a day or two of planning, we were rolling, and Amara jumped right in to help.

First up, friends--gotta have all of them. I think we sent out over 20 invitations. She was so happy to see her school friends, old buddies, and family here too.

Cake? of course! Amara and I started a Pinterest board of her ideas and she found a sand castle cake idea that we both loved. Amy stepped up to make one of her creations and we were not disappointed! It was beautiful and delicious!

Of course, that also meant I had to serve the 3 tiered cake--good thing for me everyone had bathing suits on for the mess and were forgiving of my slowness :)

Drinks! Something special for the grown ups and cute for the kids. I spent the morning of the party scooping out melons and adding adult libations to some...

while daddy and I put stickers on the others. Amara picked out a blue punch too that was the color of a pool--and Melissa helped me make it just right with blue cool aid, ginger ale, lemonade, ice and lemon juice--it was yummy and the adults liked it too!

Balloons are the kids favorites and really make the barn festive. The fishy backdrop helped really make things feel be beachy too, and the whole thing really felt like a tropical get away.

Melissa helped with the flowers on the tables and for decoration. She and Amara raided our yard before the party started, adding some last minute decorations for the big event.

Little sister Cora had a blast too--the kids got to do some crafts at the sand art table and shell bracelet making station we had set up for them. All the kids got to make one and several of the grandparents ended up heading home with gifts too.

The Kona ice truck came too--for some cool treats for the kids. Everyone was surprised to see them come, and lined up quickly for their hawaiin shaved ice. The flavors that were the most popular were the blue raspberry and cherry from what I could see.

Amara's beach party was a great time for all of us. Since Amara asked for pizza and doritos--i didn't have to do any fancy cooking, and the kids could eat on the go--I think i have a future party planner on my hands. 

And like a good host, Amara, daddy and I made these fabric baskets for gifts for our friends. We filled them with beach themed cookies and candies for the kids to take home, but I saw plenty of them eating before they even got to leave! i love that Amara loves to pick out fabric and make plans with me and that I have such a great helper in Eric, who stayed up late 3 nights working on them to make his big girl's party special.

I feel pretty confident that Amara and her friends had a great time. She is already talking about an "orange" party for next year, but we will see--it's not even June yet and we haven't lived here at Denton a year, but we have so much to do and plan and experience this summer. This was the last big hurrah for my almost kindergardener--but I hope she had as much fun as we did helping to execute her dream. love you beanie girl.

Amara's 6th birthday, making the cake (and birthday morning)

On the very happy day, 6 years after Amara came into our lives, we all stayed home together and got to do some amazing things together. Amara has been (for the first time, really) been asking for a few things she saw on TV for her birthday--namely sketchers, an American girl, and magic sand :) 

When she got up, I got to work on her cake, but she quickly came down and wanted to jump in--why would I turn that down!? So we mixed and colored and baked and the house smelled amazing, and we had a blast. After baking, we decided to do a present with her before we got on the road to King's Island, Isabelle, her American girl doll ;)

She recognized her at first glance and was so excited! We unpackaged her and she got to work right away putting the purple highlighted pieces of hair on her while we waited on our cake.  After her gift, and the cakes coming out, we sun screened up and got loaded for the car ride. (Isabelle came too)

We left the cakes to cool and head for what would be an incredible day, but were happy to get home to finish and frost (and eat of course) our masterpiece. Amara chose chocolate--and the cake had plenty of color without anything else. She helped me frost it, and with a few candles, we were ready to celebrate!

 The cake was great, the day was better, but our girl was the best part by far ;) Love baking with Amara, especially on her birthday and now with her friend Isabelle to help too.

Mother's day 14

Eric came up with some awesome activities this year for Mother's Day and I really enjoyed it. Saturday, we all went up to the movies--and had dinner at the movie with grandma and grandpa Jahn, Rio2.  The girls were pretty good, a little squirmy at the end, but they made it.

Sunday, Eric told me he had planned for us to go out to Young's dairy farm for the day--a perfect day at that. We got to do so many fun things--the girls rode in a barrel train, fed goats, Eric and I hit at the batting cages too.

There was an area with tunnels, a bounce house, putting green and bales of hay too--they loved that, and the giant slide I'm pretty sure could have entertained them all day long if we let them.

The boots we got them last weekend came in handy with all the climbing, and the lunch and the ice cream we all had at the buffet after playing was scarfed down for sure!

The girls gave me the most AWEOME piece of artwork that Eric helped them make with Sarah too--i LOVE it and it's already hanging next to my bed. I can't wait to see it every morning and night forever. I LOVE IT!!

I'm so thankful to have had an awesome day with my favorite people and loved what Eric and the girls planned. I'm sure we will go back again. Eric loved the ice cream and we got plenty of treats to take home too. It was really a great day and I am so lucky to be a mom to two amazing girls.

Kindergarden orientation

May was a time of lots of transition for us--the biggest possibly of which was Amara heading to her kindergarten orientation at Darbydale.

Amara's preschool graduation

Ms. Christie at Grove City Christian was kind enough to reach out to us and ask Amara to be a part of her preschool class graduation. We were so excited to be a part of it and the grandmas and grandpas were there to join us.

Her class sang three songs during the ceremony and then Amara got to walk through the arch and was presented her certificate from Ms. Ashley.

They read some notes from each of the kids and Amara's about her career was to be a veterinarian--something not at all surprising to us :)

Amara was thrilled to see some of her classmates and teachers there during the evening, and we showered her with flowers and pictures throughout the night.

Things did go late though, so we quickly got home and to bed afterwards while the grandparents went to dinner--but we are so, SO proud of her and were just thrilled to see our baby girl so happy.

Now onward and upward to kindergarden!

Amara's 6th birthday at King's Island

We decided to change things up this year for Amara's birthday and try Kings Island, instead of the standard zoo trip--and boy are we glad we did!! We had a blast!

We got there not too long after it opened, and it was a great day. Warm, but not scorching, breezy (storms in the area but not on top of us) and since schools weren't all out yet, not packed at all.

The kids rode as much as we could get to. Swings, bumper cars, coasters, the log ride (twice) and kept going and going. We took a small break for some blue ice cream--a traditional thing there, but it was back to the rides for Amara. I think the only "slow" thing we did was the train--and Eric said we probably don't need to do it again, lol.

The roller coaster was the biggest hit by far though. If they rode it once they road it twenty times. Especially once it rained--we were convinced we were going to miss a little storm that popped up on the radar, but nope. We got caught--and we were at the coaster. The girls didn't mind, they just kept on riding. It was awesome.

After a few dozen coaster rides, we decided to just walk and splash in the rain and make fun out of it. We found every puddle on the way from the rides to our car. As a bonus, we walked past some stores and popped in to buy some awesome dresses for the girls as souvenirs. As Eric pointed out, I'm sure we made a few peoples' days-the girls running in splashing in the puddles was pretty darn cute ;)

By the time we got home, we were dry--and the girls couldn't wait to put their dresses on. They were PERFECT for them and I love them so much. We had  just the best day ever and I'm so glad we tried it, I'm certain we will be back!