Happy 5th Birthday Mckenna!

Today Mckenna hit the big "5". Last night I was a little distraught that I didn't have more on the agenda for her birthday. Life is so chaotic right now...sleeping on air mattresses, wearing our shoes inside so our feet stay clean, eating everything on paper plates while sitting at a card table, searching for clothes out of garbage bags and boxes...the insanity of the past few weeks hit me hard last night and the flood gates opened. I just wanted to give her a special day and considering how stressed and tired and lonely I have felt I wasn't sure how we could adequately pause and give her a great birthday.

Brad went in a little late to work so he could wish her a Happy Birthday...she wasn't up until about 8am (kinda early for her!:). The morning has to begin with the donning of the official family birthday hat.

Daddy and his girls...well 2 out of 3 since Brooke slept until 9:15!
Mckenna opened a few presents this morning including a Webkinz cat from Baileigh. She has been asking for this cat for the past few months so she was pretty excited!
We stopped for breakfast at Panera Bread which is only half a mile away...that could be dangerous.
Mckenna ate the entire cinnamon role by herself.
After breakfast we went to Kidz N Motion which is an indoor inflatable play place that I noticed just down the street.
My little monkey...my 5 year old monkey!
This little plastic car on a ramp was one of Mckenna's favorite things...over and over and over.
Our old friends (and only friends in the area!) joined us to play...this is Brooke and Anne.
After playing we decided to get smoothies. It was about 11:30am so I thought we would push back lunch a little with this late snack. We went to a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins I noticed but discovered it was 5 days from opening. So we headed the other direction to another DD/BR (no Jamba Juice around here, bummer!) Once we arrived at Baskin Robbins we discovered their power was out so the only thing they could do was scoop ice cream and for only $1 since the power had just gone out. By this time it was noon so the girls ate ice cream for lunch. I think it was the highlight of Mckenna's day!
Continuing in our eating theme we went to Red Robbin for dinner...Mckenna's choice. We were joined again by our faithful, and only, friends. Mckenna dressed herself "fancy" for her big night...including beautiful pink and blue nails I painted at her request that afternoon. She was very excited to see "the bird". Her comment after this picture was "Baileigh, did you see the bird wasn't wearing any underwear!" Our friends spoiled Mckenna with some Barbie toys.
Baileigh, Anne and Mckenna.
Mckenna had talked endlessly about the dessert where you get a sparkler at Red Robbin...something she had seen at least a year prior but remembered. Guess what...no sparkler tonight. Thankfully, being the "worst case scenario" mom that I am...I grabbed my 5 year old candle on the way out of the house and borrowed the waitresses lighter. She was pleased with the "sparkly candle" even if it wasn't a sparkler! Phew, crisis adverted!
I think she had a fun day. Tomorrow we're going to swim at the neighborhood pool for the first time and then open one or two more presents in the evening and have some ice cream cake at home.

That is the summary of our day...it's 9:20pm...parties over, time to strip wallpaper.