Birthday Month

February is Birthday month at our house!  Not only is it Malea's (12th) and Keith's (14th) birthdays, but my brother Sam's (19th), Keith's sister Jenn's (4th), Jenn's daughter Lily's (21st), and Keith's brother David's (21st) birthdays, and I think there are even more I'm forgetting! Then add Valentine's Day in there and it's like sugar overload!

On Sunday the 10th we had some family and friends over to celebrate Malea's 5th birthday and Keith's 30th birthday for a little combined shin-dig.  I wanted to make Keith's 30th birthday a bigger deal but he is not a big fan of parties so we settled on a combined party with Malea :)  

Blowing out the candles :)

Isaac was all about that cupcake, lol!  Love his smile (he was saying "cheeeese!")

I surprised Keith with some BYU basketball tickets for his birthday :)  He ended up taking Malea for a little daddy-daughter date, which was fun for them

Me holding my cute little baby nephew Marshall, only a few weeks old here 

Happy 5th Birthday Malea!

Malea on the morning of her actual birthday.  I made pancakes and tried to make them special by putting strawberries on it in the form of a "5" (not super creative, I know, but I had just worked the night shift so that was the best I could do, lol!)

Malea's birthday countdown, we took off the last chain! 

That afternoon/evening we took Malea out for a special birthday date.  We ate dinner at Smash Burger and then took her to Build-a-Bear for the first time!

Birthday kisses from Mommy XOXO

She picked out a kitty :)

Birthdays at our house are more of a week-long celebration, so the Saturday after her birthday we had her "friend" party at the house.  She wanted a Hello Kitty theme so we went all out!

Some of Malea's buddies :)

Eating some pizza

All the girls loved playing with my friend Alisse's cute little baby Maizy!

Opening presents!

Malea doing the pinata, Keith was brave enough to hold it up by a stick, lol

The kiddos getting the loot from the pinata

I can't believe my baby girl is 5!!!  Where has the time gone?!

Pirate Day

Malea has been spending the last year at pre-school learning her letters.  Each week they learned about a different letter and did different activities geared around the letter of the week.  Her pre-school teacher is so fun and creative!  At the beginning of the year she gave all the kids a book called "Shiver Me Letters" that is pirate-themed and goes over each letter.  Then they worked the whole rest of the year on the letters, leading up the the end-of-year Pirate Party.  It's hard to believe that the year is almost over and she'll be starting KINDERGARTEN this fall!! (sniff, sniff)

She gave all the kids a message in a bottle for the invitation, so clever! 

The treasure map invitation inside 

(Tried turning the picture but it won't do it for some reason, grrr)

Malea wanted to look like Izzy from "Jake & The Neverland Pirates", this is what we came up with!  Not too bad for being at the last minute, lol

Teacher Lynda had the whole place decked out, it was so cute!

All the kids made swords out of swimming noodles!

She also had lots of fun games and activities for the kids, as well as yummy treats

Malea with Captain Hook (Teacher Lynda)

And Mr. Smee (Grandpa Dutch)

"Walk the plank"....love it!