Happy 6th Birthday, Bennett!

Oh my goodness. My baby girl is 6. I started this blog when I was pregnant with Bennett and my hope was that it would be a digital scrapbook of sorts for our family. I don't share opinions very often, even though I have a lot of them. I don't really use this as a forum for giving advice. I just mainly like to keep a record of our lives. And it is usually on someones birthday that I get extremely sentimental and so I am thankful that I have a record of all of my children's birthdays on this blog so that I can go back and reminisce. And try not to tear up too much.

We are having Bennett's party this weekend so today was mainly just a normal day with a fun few surprises thrown in for our special birthday girl. We always fill their rooms with balloons the night before their birthdays. This year was no exception. Bennett woke up at 5:40 (!!!!)  ready to go. She then woke up Lainey who woke up Will. So all three of us were sitting on the couch before 6 am playing with balloons. Ugh.

We picked up our carpool buddy, Luke, early and went out for a breakfast treat. Bennett told me later that this was the highlight of her day. She was wearing a birthday girl ribbon and kept walking around intentionally so everyone could see her ribbon. Seeing her that excited was very special. She is just so appreciative. Man, I love her.

 Luke gave her a special birthday present.  Notice the ribbon prominently displayed.

We checked Will out of pre-school and the whole family went and had lunch with her at her school cafeteria. We brought a cookie cake for her to share with her class.

Hanging out at school with the birthday girl

 I teach drama at our church on Wednesday nights so the poor birthday girl, who hadn't been home since 6:50 am had to hang out by the stage while I taught.

 But all the kids sang to her and made her feel very special.

 She finally got to open presents at 5:30 pm. That's a looonnnggg time for a 6 year old to have to wait. She was about to burst to open her presents from her family.

 Her big present was a new desk. This kid loves to draw and loves art so a new desk was the perfect present for her. We filled the drawers with paper and crayons and she got a tape dispenser and a stapler. You would have thought she was in heaven. Sweet girl.

 We told her we would go out to any restaurant, but she wanted pancakes at home. Done. We told her to pick anything to put in the batter and so she chose chocolate chips, blueberries and nuts. We can handle that.

 You have to put candles in birthday pancakes.

 And then we did take her out for yogurt after dinner. Notice how she is still proudly showing off her ribbon.

 After Bennett went to bed I kept hearing noises upstairs. I went to check on her and this is what I found- she had gotten in her sleeping bag and she put all of her presents around her. I told her to go to bed and she sighed and said, "I wish I lived in China. It's still February 26th in China." When I told her that it wasn't she said, "Okay, fine. London then."

There really aren't enough words for me to express how much I love that little girl. I love who she is becoming. I love her creativity, her sly sense of humor, her wit, her love of life, her joy, her passion, her heart for others, and her love for the Lord. Although I still really miss the little bitty thing who wore pigtails and wanted to ride around in the car looking for horsies while clutching her sippy cup, I am loving this stage of life as well.

And I am so grateful for each and every stage. Looking forward to her big birthday party this weekend! Happy 6th Birthday, my Bennett. I love you to the moon and back.