double header birthday parties

Wednesday the 24th was our daughter Kyla's sixth birthday!  I know I don't look old enough to have a six year old, but alas, I am.  Because her birthday fell smack dab in the middle of one of the craziest weeks ever, we held off on the real celebrating until yesterday.  And because she is such a popular young lady, we had to hold two parties for her since our house would have been bursting at the seems if we would have tried to fit everyone into one party!  This is the first year since she was born that we weren't living either a six-hour flight (Los Angeles) or six-hour drive (Charlotte) away from family, so everyone was excited to be together! We started out with the party for her friends and my nephews and nieces in the morning!  Here's our big girl wearing her birthday crown Sarah made for her last year.

I had an old roll of photo background paper we used to use for the photobooth laying around in the garage, so we cut up big sheets of it for the kids to draw themselves.  That was  a huge hit!

Next up, we moved on to the first round of cake and presents!  I love watching Kyla's expression with her friends.  She loves them so much.

Once that party cleared out, my brother Matt  stayed around so that the cousins could play together for a while.  In all reality, I think he stayed so he could have an excuse to jump on the trampoline!

My nephew managed to get some pretty serious air too!  Matt looks like he's in one of those old Toyota commercials in this one.  "I love what it does for me!  Toyota!"  Sorry, I used to watch too much TV.

The second party began a little later, and soon grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends filled the house!  It was a great gathering and Kyla scored some pretty cool presents!  Avery lucked out pretty well too because she got a few presents herself.

Then it was on to cake, part two!

The day wrapped up with a trip to get pizza with everyone, two tired little girls, and two exhausted parents!  It was a fantastic day, though, and one Kyla will hopefully always remember.  Birthdays are supposed to be magical for little girls and a little exhaustion is worth it!  Kyla, happy birthday!  We love you so much!

And speaking of little girls, Sarah's sister Rosie is due pretty soon with our second niece!  Here are Sarah and Rosie together with their pregnant bellies!