Ashton turns 5

Taking after her mom, Ashton has had a most excellent birth week celebration. Her birthday was on a Thursday this year so she celebrated from Thursday through the weekend. This had Judy making more then 50 cupcakes and 3 different cakes for the series of events.

There was a cake on her birthday, cupcakes at her school on Friday, cupcakes at her kids party on Sat and a beautiful Barbie cake for her family party Sat afternoon.

Jacqueline, not to be left out, also requested a "blue Dora cake". Judy delivered on that request as well much to Jacqueline's joy.

The kids party was at Safari Run. Here is a group photo of the kids. It was a lot of fun for Ashton to have so many friends celebrate with her. Lots of running and playing was happening. Jacqueline was thrilled to be joining in, especially since she was supposed to wait until she was 3 years old to participate. In fact, she couldn't attend this group photo because she was too busy climbing the structures with her dad.

A big bonus for this years party was Grandma and Papa Terry were here to celebrate. Terry is back from Iraq (we hope for good of course) and they are out for a few weeks to visit and celebrate the birthday. Cute photo huh?

On my side, I'm already enjoying five years old. The independence is wonderful and I'm still amazed at everything that Ashton can do on her own. In addition, the gifts for five years are very Barbie-focused. Which means that you can store a lot of gifts in a much smaller space. A great help for our small house.

I really can tell we are about to enter a new phase and I think we are all planning to enjoy it. We are back in ballet on Saturdays and also starting a parks and rec dance class next week. Kindergarten sign-ups are week after next. The times they sure are 'a changing. Can't believe that I have only one toddler in the house!