Mary Kate is 5

FIVE! Really? It seems like just yesterday I saw her little heart beating on the screen, after which Joel and I drove from Griffin to Columbus to surprise our families with the news that Baby Kennedy was on the way...and there was a heartbeat. From that second on, Mary Kate has brought so much joy to our lives. She was such a fun, easy baby, a hilarious toddler, and is such an insightful, creative, fun five year old. And, she loves a party. She makes everything into a party. She decorated for a month to have a Valentine's party, she throws pretend birthday parties, she had a bike-riding party for Ford when he got his new bike for learning how to party, she gave me a "feel better" party tonight because I've been feeling icky from allergies, so you can imagine that when it came to her birthday party, it was going to be a bang. She planned this party for 2 months. Her plans were much more elaborate, involved, and costly than what actually came to fruition, but I think she had a good time. I was just crossing my fingers the whole time that she didn't bring up the fact that we didn't make her a stage for her and all of her guests to put on a Peter Pan play (something that she had consistently included in her plans...but was never going to happen). She is a "big idea" kinda girl and I'm a detailed moma, so we butted heads many times (I see our future ahead of us). Anyway, it was so much fun putting this party together for her and to have so much of our family here to celebrate this milestone together.

Both of my kids have been hooked on anything Peter Pan for the past 6 months, so when I asked Mary Kate what kind of party she wanted, of course she said Tinkerbell. We had our own little Neverland Adventure.

Click on the picture below if you want to see the album.