Another Birthday Down!

It's the day after Dannika's 5th birthday.

I can now stop calling her "birthday girl, Dannika" (like she requested), and we can move on.

I did my best to make her day special, and make her feel special since I knew she'd be a little sad that her daddy wasn't home this year.

Her day started off with a morning wake up from her favorite little brother, and we all sang Happy Birthday to her.

 This was her first birthday outfit...the one she chose to wear to the gym.

Ready to start the day!

 

For lunch, she wanted to go to Uno's. 

They have this "make your own pizza" option on their kid's menu, and she LOVES it.

I personally hate Uno's, but she's the birthday girl...

This is her second outfit...princess crown....and she added an extra piece of "flair" to her outfit.

I took her on a shopping spree at Toys R Us.

I bought her an "InnoTab 3S" (basically a children's ipad), and out of everything in the store, she picked out a "Littlest Pet Shop" toy with a million little pieces...of course...

And of course, she wanted to ride the cheesy 50 cent Dumbo ride....

 

I know I've mentioned many times before on my blog about how awesome my neighbors are.

I am genuinely sad to be leaving them when we move, and an aspect of military life I HATE!

I want to take them all with me....

That's how wonderful, awesome, amazing, spectactular, and fabulous they are.

They welcomed us with such warm open arms when we first moved here, and they've become family to us over the last 2 years.

For Dannika's birthday, I didn't plan any big celebration.

Since we already threw her a big party in May before Nick left, I wanted to just keep it low key.

I was thinking along the lines of just taking her to her favorite restaurant, a little shopping spree at Toys R Us, and a small cake with some candles on it for her to blow out.

I called our neighbors last week and asked if I could bring cake over to their house for her birthday.

I just wanted to sing happy birthday to her and have her blow out candles.

They suggested we also come over for dinner, which we cordially accepted.

Little did I know that they had thrown together a whole little birthday shindig for my Dannika, and had invited ALL the neighbors!

Third outfit change....

Party hat from Mrs. Linda

This is a homemade vanilla bean cake from the Roche Bros. bakery.

This little cake was all I had planned originally for her birthday!

And thanks to technology, Nick got to partake in her blowing out candles via FaceTime.

The food spread....seriously, my neighbors went all out.

Salmon burgers, turkey sausages, brioche buns, salad, and Indian butter chicken.

Fun candles!

Her birthday was absolutely divine!

Dannika was surrounded by such love and amazing people.

We truly are so blessed!

Lastly, Dannika had her VBS performance at church today!

I FaceTimed Nick so that he could watch her perform her songs and dances at church.

She was thrilled he got to watch her, and he was equally as happy to be able to "take part" in little parts of her life.

Thank God for technology these days, huh?!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Thank you to everyone who wished my princess a happy birthday whether it was via Facebook, FaceTime, Skype, text, and phone calls!

She truly felt so special, and I hope one day she can look back on this birthday and realize just how much she is loved!