Dear Friends and Family,

The biggest news of the week is that our baby is 5 years old.  I can hardly believe that Robyn  is so grown up.  And there was no doubt in our home that this was her birthday week as we had too many plans to squeeze it into just one day.  Despite her telling everyone about this huge imaginary party she was having with all her friends, complete with huge gift bags, a pinata with lots of candy, wands, and lots of cake - she managed to enjoy our family party.

Monday the kids were out of school.  Robyn got her hair cut into a cute bob so she would look just like Allison and be beautiful for her birthday.  We met Jason and Kelly's family at Pirate Island that evening for our family party.  I am glad we were able to do it on a non-school day as it was a fun, loud, chaotic time.  Pirate Island is like a pirate's version of Chuck-e-cheese.  Unknown to us, Monday is FHE karoke night.  So I sang my first karoke every with my girls doing Dancing Queen.  Allison held onto the mike for all she was worth but belted it out.  Ate a bunch of bad pizza, watched kids become ecstatic or tearful over the different games and how many tickets they won.

Tuesday, Robyn had a few friends over for a birthday picnic.  To help her get over the fact that she was not having a big friend party.  We made little pizzas, jello and cupcakes.

  Wednesday we all woke up Robyn with breakfast in bed and singing Happy Birthday.  In the mornings when we wake up Robyn she goes into her turtle impression for family prayer.  And she was out of instinct rolling up into her blanket, butt up in the air but then she realized it was her birthday and shot straight up with a big smile.

Robyn got to take cupcakes into school, go out to lunch with Jeremy, take in treats for her gymnastics class and then come home for her favorite dinner - chicken noodle soup with cheese bread (literally slices of home-made bread with cheese melted on top) - and a few more presents.  She sort of lost it around 7:30 after a very happy, happy day and collapsed in bed saying that she loved everything about her birthday.

Friday night I had a few friends over to watch Time Traveller's Wife.  I had read the movie awhile ago but had never seen the movie.  Thought they did a great job on it.  I have decided I need to do that more often for all these chick flicks I want to see.  Kids don't think its fair that I kick them to the basement while I watch a grown-up movie occasionally - but they will live through it.  We had a cousin night on Saturday to make up for it so we were all good.

Sunny skies returned to us this week along with a bitter cold wind but you can feel spring is in the air.   Love to you all, Heather