Izzy turns 5 -Birthday Extravaganza!

Our baby turned 5 today! Happy Birthday Izzy!! We love you so much.
We had a birthday party for her on Sunday and today had another small celebration with just the family. We have a ton of photos, so I'll post lots =).  We were hoping to go to fireworks tonight, but everyone was super tired after the last few days of preparation and partying. Here's the birthday celebration in pictures...

Sunday we invited some friends and had a bbq in our backyard. It was a beautiful sunny day, the perfect temperature, and we enjoyed good food and good company.

iz at her backyard bbq party

pink flowers for our pink girl

Izzy had her best friends over for the party, and she had planned to play dress up with them, so she was happy when they agreed. Her besties share her wild and energetic spirit, and they enjoyed running around together and at the end of the party we found them all dancing and jumping on izzy's bed in their undies. It was too cute. We parents figured it may be the last year where that is something they would think of doing, or would be acceptable, so we laughed while they went wild.

friends playing dress up.
izzy got a princess costume for her birthday which she had
wanted for a long time. She wore it and slept in it for 2 days straight!

girls running and dads chatting

say cheese girls!

more cheese

my bobo cutie pie with the best "cheese" smile ever!

rainbow cake! that thing weighed a ton! and was super yummy!

 It was so windy out that when we tried to light the candles they would immediately blow out. Love the picture below that shows 4 adults trying to get the 5 candles lit at the same time so that izzy could blow them out. Gotta love our friends that realize how important it is to have those candles lit! =)

love her face here, looking at the cake

Make a wish and blow iz, blow!

 Love watching the relationship develop between graham and izzy. They love to try new things together, and graham has the touch with knowing how much to push and how to talk with her to encourage without pushing. Love hearing about their "knock knock joke nights" and park adventures when I come home from work nights. She loves her daddy.

Bodie was great during birthday preparations, and picked out these purple princess shoes and purple necklace for iz as we were out party supply shopping.

the princess at her party!

And then onto pictures from her actual birthday, today! =)

As usual I try to carry on my mom's tradition to decorate some of the house after bedtime so that she could wake up to a fun birthday surprise. Trying to think of new decorating ideas each year is fun, and the night before I enjoy the preparations and have made graham the official balloon blower-upper.=) Iz requested pink and purple colors again this year!

presents in the play area, with crepe paper to bust through

a balloon path from her room to the play area and presents

happy birthday sign with a picture of izzy on her 0-4 birthdays!

relaxing after the decorations are done while g takes some pics!

 And then the birthday morning....Izzy officially turned 5 years old!!!

 

Here she was last year on her 4th birthday!

 and the day she turned 3 (oh my goodness she looks so little to me!)

 and her 2nd birthday!

 and look at her on her 1st birthday! ha, so cute

 

and now...Such a big and beautiful girl. She has matured so much this year. She is independent, spirited, kind, determined, smart, and creative. I love watching her grow. You teach me so much iz, I love you!

love that she puts up with all the pictures. such a sweet smile

Iz Bo

and she's 5!

 Iz opened some of her presents in the morning and some after cake in the evening.  We are so appreciative of our family who sent many generous presents and cards- thank you all. Bodie got one "jealousy gift" and that helped a lot. It's hard to be the sibling of the special birthday one! We let Izzy be princess for the day and she enjoyed making decisions about what to do and where to eat. We had lucky charms for breakfast (my tradition of buying a box of lucky charms 1x year on their birthdays), pancakes for lunch, and went to Ella's Deli for dinner (grilled cheese and fries, with free birthday sundae). We went to St. Vinnie's where they each picked out a stuffed animal (for 40 cents, gotta love the thrift store) and then Iz had a fashion show at home while I made the birthday cake. She chose Ella's Deli which is a place by our house we had not been before which has a big carousel out front. It was very "busy" inside with toys flying along the celling and displays everywhere, but the kids had fun and Izzy said it was her favorite part of the day.

opening presents in the morning

bodie getting excited to see what it is!

opening gifts from aunt mel and uncle c

super excited about her locket with her picture inside. thanks mel!!

so happy about her izzy's shirt!

opening her cards

new clothes!

my favorite- an adorable new hippo night light

new birthday outfit with her locket. A very happy little girl

perks of the birthday for everyone - lucky charms breakfast!

happy birthday breakfast

playing with the new toys- so much fun!

vet dress up kit doubles as a dr. kit.
bodie is wondering what the outlook for his health is here... =)

 We did some roller skating outside and iz wore her new skates while bodie used a pair we had gotten from our wonderful neighbor in Virginia. She was pretty good at shuffling around and staying upright- I was impressed!

 After we got back from lunch, fashion show time with her new outfits. We had the music going and she did poses and danced. It was hilarious and so super cute. Here are a few pictures from her "fashion show".

 Bodie wanted in on the action. He showed off his new robot building toy. love you bobo.

getting crazy with her moves =)

strike a pose

 Iz said she wanted a bunny cake this year, and helped me figure out how to make one by drawing me a picture. Pink cake with cool whip (super short cut and less sugary!) frosting. It was perfect for a second birthday cake, that's for sure!

 Opened a few presents after dinner, the ukulele from Gpaz was the big hit. She was so super excited (as was graham and bodie). Can't wait to try out learning some songs together.

Graham helps on the camera during cake preparation time- thanks babe.

you know how I love your photos.

 

I try to convince everyone to take a family photo on birthdays. That way we would be guaranteed to have 4 photos of all of us each year. No one is thrilled when I request it =), but I'm always so glad to have them.    Loved this photo of the gang while I'm setting up the camera...

 And yup...this was the best one lol. Classic us...

 What a wonderful time to celebrate our little girl. She is growing up so fast, I just can't say that enough. I'm so grateful for each day we have together and to watch her grow and develop. It's such a challenge and the greatest source of joy. I'm so proud of the girl you are iz, and how hard you try to learn new things like doing the monkey bars (you go girl!), tying your shoes, and reading words. I'm so blessed to have you as my daughter and love when you ask for me to "stay" when we are saying goodnight so we can snuggle a few more minutes. You are kind and have become a very good playmate and big sister. You work hard to be independent, but also are great at following rules and being safe. My heart feels so happy when I watch you use your imagination during play with your friends and while playing with bodie-I'm proud of all the new things you are learning and your persistent spirit. I love you and can't wait for so many more years together. Happy Birthday Biz!