Birthdays are a big deal in our home so we had a lot of fun celebrating K’s birthday this year.  Adam had to work on her birthday so he took her kayaking the night before.

My handsome man!

K took the pictures of Adam.

She requested breakfast in bed (our bed for some reason) so I made the PW waffles with fresh squeezed OJ.

We climbed trees and swam on her birthday and then we celebrated as a family that evening at dinner.

The following Saturday, we celebrated again with her friends; we are so blessed with an awesome group of friends. Her party “theme” was reading with a table to make bookmarks and a book exchange. I loved the idea of asking people to NOT bring presents and to bring a used book instead. Each child had the opportunity to decorate a bookmark and then pick a book out of the pile to take home (I laminated the bookmarks so hopefully they will last longer than a week). My in-laws were wonderful hosts and everyone loved the peaceful, country setting. There was a sandbox, a swing set and a bouncy house (thankfully we own it) and of course lots of trees to climb! K requested a homemade strawberry cake and homemade peach and strawberry ice cream. I had peaches and strawberries in the freezer from the summer harvest of a local farm and everything was delicious!

My cousin, Derek, came from Pensacola. The kids love him (we do too of course)