Olivia's Birthday

I can hardly believe it, but my sweet little girl turned 6 today. 

The day started off with cinnamon muffins like she had requested. 

Then it was on to opening gifts.

Thanks Grandma Elaine for the Tangled book

and the Strawberry guys (neither of which 

she knew she had purchased!)

Zach was also interested in the new lego addition. He thought that it was his and that Christmas had come all over again. He even went to look in the front room to check that nothing was hiding under the Christmas tree.

Olivia enjoyed playing with her cupcake set. She has wanted it for ages. To be honest though after she managed to ruin one of my favorite shirts of hers, I wish I hadn't bothered. I guess that I just thought that a kids toy would have contained a washable marker and not a dry erase one. Thanks Melissa and Doug for failing to think that one through!

Olivia didn't really have too many expectations for the day, which I found difficult since I was worried if she was enjoying herself the whole day long. She was very specific though about what she wanted to eat. She told me that she wanted Red Robin for lunch, followed by a trip to Panera for dinner. So that was what we did.

Waiting for their food at Red Robin

She wasn't very happy about what she had to do to get

her ice cream sundae though

Later in the afternoon I convinced her to go with me and use  the gift
certificate that dad had given us for Christmas to go and get our nails done. 

Olivia went with purple this time

It was then time to head out to Panera

Here she is enjoying her bagel

We all feel like winners when someone wants to go to Panera!

Since Cold Stone is right next door, Olivia convinced us to go in and get some of her favorite sweet cream ice cream. 

A smile of joy

Everyone lucked out

And that certainly wasn't all. The night was still young!

There were cupcakes

And then Olivia wanted to finish the night off with us all playing games together. We put Zach to bed and then pulled out the new games that we got for Christmas.

'Sorry' isn't always fun when you get sent back to home!

We finished off with The Game of Life. We played until way too late, but we all had fun. Olivia lost interest part way through, but then wanted to join in as she saw me add more and more babies to my car. All she wanted to do was have some babies! I have never seen that side of her before and it made me smile. Thomas ended up with a pretty great job and just one child. He had the opportunity for a 2nd, but decided to pass. He later decided that he regretted his decision! Thomas and I worked well together to take as much money from Spenser as we possibly could. By the end of the game, Spenser ended up at Millionaire's Mansion married, but without kids. He had laughed at me when I had to pay for my 4 kids to go to college, but he said that it actually made him a little sad to not have anyone at the very end. Maybe he thinks that his real family isn't so bad after all!

We had a fun day together as a family. We love our sweet Olivia. She can at times be demanding and a little emotional and she still likes to suck that thumb, but we certainly love her to pieces. I love that she walks to the beat of her own drum. She doesn't care too much about what others say or think. It has been a joy to see her blossom in school and make friends. I love to see her with her brothers. I know that she loves them. She is especially good to Zach who often demands that she play with him. I have often watched her go off and do something with him when I know that she would rather be doing something else and I love her for that. Olivia, keep being you!