A Birthday and Blisters!

Well, I now have a five year old. Alyssa's birthday was this last Saturday and we made a whole day of it. I've told the girls we aren't doing a huge birthday party every year (instead we are going for the every four year idea - four, eight, twelve and sixteen) - on non-party years, its a family celebration with the birthday girl picking the activities for the day. I figure when they get older we can add in a friend or two, but for now, this seems to work. Both Alyssa and Katelyn had soccer games in the morning, so we spent a few hours out on the soccer field. As a brief digression for the birthday discussion, I have to comment that Katelyn has improved so much in soccer, it amazes me when I see her pass the ball to her team mates or really go after the ball. As for Alyssa and soccer, she sometimes listens to her coaches now (which is pretty good because most of her team mates don't really pay any attention to the coaches or to the fact that there is a soccer game going on around them). Alyssa scored a goal this weekend, so she was pretty excited! :)

Alyssa wanted to go bowling after soccer and Katelyn talked her into trying the newest bowling alley in the area, PINS. We ate lunch there and bowled for an hour. The girls had a good time, but I creamed them! Mike claims he let me win, but I'm not sure I'm buying it! :)

After we went bowling, we went home for about an hour to relax a little and then we were on our way again. We took the girls for a horseback riding lesson. They got to groom the horses, saddle them, and then ride them for about a half an hour. They were just circling in a ring, but they got to turn the horses and steer them whichever way they wanted to go and they ended the lesson by trotting the horses (Alyssa was bouncing quite a bit and she couldn't decide if she liked that part or not, she slowed the horse down and then said she wanted to do it again, so I think it was a hit all the way around!). We were the last lesson of the day, so the instructor let the girls feed one of the horses. I think we would have been there all night if not for the fact that the girls were getting hungry and Mike finally made them leave.

Alyssa got to pick where we went for her birthday dinner. She chose Red Robin. Before we even sat down she told the lady seating us that it was her birthday. They gave her a sign with balloons and after dinner they sang to her and brought her a sundae. She was in heaven. But better yet, she got two treats because when we got home she got her Barbie cake. I'm not sure if she was more exited about the presents or the cake.

By the time we got done opening presents, it ended up being a very late night. Today was just as busy, only we spent it all out in the yard raking (hense the blisters in the title). Mike rented a power rake and that brought up ALOT of dead grass. Then I ended up raking up all that in the front yard while Mike tackled the back. I had planned on washing windows, so I dressed in grubby clothes. I needed the grubby clothes, but I didn't get to the windows because I spent all day picking up grass. I have spots of red/pink skin where I missed with the sunscreen and blisters on my hands from the rake (I'm pretty much a mess!), but we finished in time to go to a friends house for a great dinner (Thanks Bo and Scott!) And that was my weekend. My kids crashed hard tonight and I'm going to go do the same!