azalea's 5th birthday

what a weekend! not once in the last 5 years has azalea's birthday fallen so close to easter. it was a lot of work getting everything accomplished, but it was all worth it to see the kids have such a good time all weekend. i have lots of pictures to share, so i'll post our easter recap later in the week. 

most of azalea's birthday on saturday was pretty relaxed. we started off the day with a skype date with grandma jan while azalea opened her gifts from her.

then i took her to fred meyer to pick out balloons for her party and to get a few other last minute supplies. it was a fun little date with my girl! after lunch, she opened a few more gifts. she got lots of fun stuff like a foam floor puzzle of the united states, stamps and ink, a baseball t ball tee, a belle (beauty and the beast) doll and a playground ball. 

this cracks me up every time i look at it

it's taken 5 years, but she has finally started pushing back on taking naps. we had a good run, right? :) we know that she can be a bit of a bear after waking up, so we thought perhaps it was best if she didn't nap before her party. well, she was bored or tired enough and decided to take one in the end. sure enough, the process of waking up (and getting changed and out the door) was pretty stressful for everyone involved. lots of tears. thankfully she was her normal happy self by the time we got to the children's museum. 

we had to park a couple blocks away and carry all of our stuff (including balloons, cake, and a rolling suitcase) all the way there....with both kids in tow. the party started at 4pm and we got there about 3:45 to set up the room. 

 we were expecting around 20 people (5-6 kids from her class plus family members) and everyone made it! the kids played at the museum for the first 45 minutes, then we had cake and snacks in the jungle room, followed by present opening.

then the kids ran around and played some more until the museum closed at 6pm. i'm so glad everything went well and it was pretty stress-free! the museum even does all the clean up for you. woo hoo! 

after saying goodbye to friends, we headed upstairs to grab some dinner. the museum is in the basement of the armory and there is a huge (really nice) food court above it. after dinner, we headed outside to see the famous seattle center fountain before heading home for bed! 

ok five, we are ready for you!