McKenna turns 5!

McKenna, Reagan and I went to Famous Dave’s for lunch.  Yum!

McKenna asked me all day if she could open her presents.  I kept telling her we would do it after dinner with daddy and Hunter.  She talked daddy into doing before dinner.

She has been asking for a dream lite pillow pet for several months now.  She shook with excitement when she opened it.

We will be doing preschool this year with 5 other moms from church from 10-12:30 so we got her a lunch box.

Beads galore for my budding artist.

McKenna requested pancakes and sausage for her birthday dinner.

Saturday we had her friend party.  We had a safari theme and it was a lot of fun.  Here’s Abby, McKenna and Ian stretching their necks like giraffes to eat a peach-alo.

Getting prepped for an elephant eating contest.  We bought big orange circus marshmallow peanuts and they had to eat them as fast as possible with no hands.

Hunter was the victor (again.  He also won the giraffe game).  Some of the elephants didn’t like peanuts.

McKenna and I made these vests out of paper bags and I purchased these hats for their safari hunt.  RJ hid some safari animal puppets outside and our little rangers hunted them down and kept them as their goody “bag.” (Left to right: Hunter, Mary, Ian, Izzy, Allison, McKenna, Charlotte, Abby, Leah)

We played some circle games like lion, lion, hyena (duck, duck, goose).

RJ blindly judged the lion roaring contest and Ian won.  His prize was a glittery crown made by McKenna which he wore proudly as king of the jungle.  He took it off, looked at it and said, “McKenna, this is beautiful.”

We split into two teams and had an elephant race.  The leaders right arm is the elephants trunk and they stick their left hand between their legs as the tail.  The person behind them grabs their “tail” with their “trunk” and so forth.  Too funny!

The kids colored animals when they arrived and we used the cakes as the body.  They had a great time loading their animals up with candy and frosting.

McKenna was so antsy to start opening presents and the time finally came!  She got spoiled with squinkies, polly pockets, a cash register, bubbles, jewelry, a book of 365 things to do and make and more.

Happy Birthday McKenna!  We love you so much.  That doesn’t mean that you are at an easy stage in your life (hello bossy, drama bully) but we love you still.  You are an awesome big sister to Reagan and so giving with Hunter.  You make daddy smile when he comes home from work with your excitement to see him.  You warm your mom’s heart with your beautiful singing.