Miya is FIVE!

8/23 - Miya and I went on a little date two days before her birthday. First we went to Target and got her pictures taken there. She was adorable and so sassy I loved it! I usually only get three poses of each kid and it was so hard to pick just three. After the pictures we went out to dinner together. She said she wanted spaghetti and I instantly thought of Fazoli's. I love their bread sticks and so does Miya. She had a spaghetti kids meal and discovered that it's fun to dip her bread in the sauce.

8/23 - I got a picture of Miya and me on our date.

8/24 - The night before Miya's birthday everyone pitched in to help decorate. It was a lot of fun to have Miya's input about the decorations. They all helped me stretch out the balloons so they were easier to blow up. We did five because she turned five.

8/24 - Miya was the most excited about the streamers. She wanted red and blue twisted together. With Alex's white balloon it all looked quite patriotic for a little while.

8/25 - Miya had school on her birthday. I missed her and Aaron went to the school and had lunch with her and they played together at recess. After Miya got home from school we made a chocolate cake together. She loves her cute apron that has her name on it. For the first time I let her help me break open the eggs and she did a fabulous job. She got all of the egg and none of the shell into the bowl and we were both so proud of her.

8/25 - Miya also helped pour the cake mix into the bowl. It took a lot of concentration to get it in there without getting everywhere else but she did well.

8/25 - Later Miya was giving me a play by play as she stirred up the batter. "Look mom, it's getting darker! Look the eggs are mixing in! Now it looks kind of wet all over." It was pretty cute to listen too and to watch her as we baked together.

We opened presents while we waited for the cake to bake. She got a card from Aunt Suzi, another one from Grandma and Grandpa, and a third from Spencer. She also got three more present from Mom and Dad in addition to the bike that she opened early with the helmet and matching water bottle from Nana and Papa. It was quite the haul.

8/25 - She loved the card from Spencer and I love the 25 candles because her birthday is on the 25th. The cake looked really fancy too and Spencer colored it in Miya's favorite colors.

8/25 - Littlest Pet Shop has become Miya's new love and this present has some of the coolest ones I've seen. It has a dog that can walk by itself and push a wagon. They were a big hit with everyone.

8/25 - She got another set of pet shops too. These have sparkles all over and they are just so girly.

8/25 - I secretly made her these animals and she loves them. It was quite hard not to let her see what I was working on and involved some working at night but totally worth the ooh face when she opened it up.

8/25 - Here is the fancy pet shop dog walking back to his house. Everyone was cheering it on.

8/25 - She has quite the collection and I can think of two that weren't there but there may be more. I love the big grin.

8/25 - Notice the tongue as she is frosting? She did a great job and only needed a little help spreading it around.

8/25 - Miya is learning how to write her numbers and she has a little poem that we said together as we both did the sprinkles to make her #5. It was a chocolate cake with Butter Cream frosting. It looked and tasted good and she had a great day.