{and then she was five.. }

my little rowan is five! how can this be? i'm in total denial. last year around her birthday, we had just found out i was pregnant (surprise to us!), and we were two weeks away from moving into our new house, so i took it easy and said we were going to have an "off" year with the birthday's. (and much to my surprise, i stuck with it!) so we went to chuck-e-cheese and called it good. well, i don't know, this year i wasn't really feeling it either. life is just crazy right now. but truly, rowan begged me to have an ariel birthday with a piñata this year, and at the last minute, i couldn't refuse anymore. so a few days before, we sent out invites. and then i made the mistake of getting on pinterest. oops.

me, go overboard on my kids birthday? no way. but rowan went out to lunch with her daddy for her birthday and as soon as she walked in and saw all of it she said "MOM! i LOVE all my decorations!!" and then asked if i could leave them up until she turned six. so, that made it all worth it. i love her so much.

i got her cute invite from this darling shop on etsy.

i bought lots of paper streamers and twisted them up the wall to make them look like seaweed, and then cut out a ton of sea creatures and taped them throughout. i also blew up a bunch of clear balloons that were different sizes and hung them up on fishing wire so that they looked like they were bubbles. they were my favorite! i hung an octopus from the ceiling, and a couple jellyfish as well. it really felt like we were UNDER THE SEA! (wink).

it really was such a fun little party for all of rowan's little friends. and then the party continued all weekend celebrating with our families!

happy birthday rowan paige. you are the light of our lives!

{ to my rowan }

my sweetest, sweetest, sweetest, rowan girl...

today is your fifth birthday! say whaaaaa? i cannnnot even believe you are five. it just flew by so fast! was it really just five years ago that you made me a mom for the first time and i was holding your tiny little self in my arms up in logan? insane! but also, at the same time, i cannot believe you're only five. you are beyond wise for your age. 

i seem to get emotional on birthdays, but i tend to get a little extra emotional on your birthdays. alot of it is because you're my first of everything. it seems like i am chasing time and i just can't catch up! you're getting so big, so fast. i could bottle you up and savor every ittty bitty piece of you.

but the biggest part of me getting emotional is because you are so so so special to me! someday's i just dont know how i get through the day without your help. life has been a little bit crazy for all of us since baby radd came and you have been the biggest help to me, to dad, to greer, and to baby brother. sometimes i feel like you could run the family and we'd all be just fine ;). you have been very aware of my emotions, which has made me feel guilty at times, but you get so concerned and it absolutely melts my heart. you have said things like "are you crying because it's just so hard to have three kids now?" just saying things that no 4 year old should even comprehend! 

there have been plenty of times where greer has been crying or brother is crying and before i can even get to them, you were there helping them without being asked. i have ended up in tears so many times over that. one time i heard you get up with greer in the middle of the night and the next morning i asked you why you did that, and you said "i wanted to help her because i knew you and daddy were so tired." i mean, seriously child. (que the tears).

you sometimes cry at shows. 

you are pretty dang shy still.

sometimes you call greer "sweetheart" and its hilarious, and so sweet.

you absolutely love to dance. even if it's to a commercial.

you love to color or paint.

you are very logical and want most everything explained until you completely understand. sometimes you'll say "mom, i'm confused by that." such a smarty-pants.

you still have the most incredible memory, it blows my mind!

your teachers at school and primary love you because you're the best listener. 

after your birthday party tonight, i just wanted to talk to you and tell you how special you were to me and daddy, and i could barely get a word out. i know Heavenly Father loves me, because he sent you to our family. i literally feel blessed beyond measure to be your mom, rowan. i don't know if i'll ever be able to make you understand the love your daddy and i have for you... and what an incredibly special little girl you are! i pray everyday that you keep those redeeming qualities that make you the most precious little five year old in the whole world. never ever change!

happy birthday to you, my amazing girl.

love you beyond belief! 

love mom.

{ a woodland party..}

we f.i.n.a.l.l.y got to celebrate (the way that i know how) our little greer's birthday! if you know me, you know that i love to party. i love to throw parties. i always have! and when it comes to throwing a party for my girls, well.... it's nothing done on a small scale. ;) we had grandparents out of town, and my husband, over a two week span, which was the reason for celebrating so late. i guess the one-year-old doesn't care. but we were for sure not going to let a FIRST birthday go by without a party. i was trying to think of something fall-ish we could do without actually doing a fall theme. 

so a little woodland party it was!

 the invite

truth be told, i still didn't really know what the theme of the party was when i made these.

 i was kind of on the "woodland" track, with gold accents, but not quite there. i probably would have done something different had i known. ohhhhh well.

the party

i had soooo many plans to set up the party early so that i could take pictures while it was still light outside. i'm not a photographer by annnny means, but i know that lighting is KEY to good pictures. well, that didn't happen. i'm so disappointed in the pictures- they just aren't that great of quality... due to zero lighting that we were working with. it just doesn't do it justice. but any picture is better than none at all. but a huge thank you goes out to my mom for all her help. (and to her friend Linda who let us borrow all the awesome woodland stuff!) okay, enough talk. on to the party....

those little acorns were so time consuming to make, but i thought they were way too cute.

definitely one of my favorite pinterest finds. 

{made with a mini vanilla wafer, hershey kiss, and mini butterscotch chip}

and these darling acorns my mom made!

{made with donut holes, frosting, sprinkles & a pretzel stick}

this DARLING cake, along with the greer's 'smash' cake that you will see below,

was done by my sweet and long-time family friend, Jessie Buckner-Edwards. 

(you can find her on instagram @jbuckneredwards, she does amazing work!)

we had a sit-down dinner since it was just for our family.

greer was HILARIOUS opening her presents.

 i thought she'd be into the wrapping paper, and that was it. but this girl was stoked that these presents were all for her! she really couldn't contain her excitement! those little feet of hers were circling so fast.

.....and then she saw me bring the cake out.

we sang happy birthday to her and she was just staring at it like "wait, are you gonna give that to me?"

and she broke off a few little pieces of the frosting, and then all of a sudden she grabbed the whole thing with both hands and just dug her face in! it was waaaaay too funny to watch. she really hasn't had any sugar up until this point so i could just picture her thinking that she better take advantage while she had the chance.

and thanks to all of our party guests for coming and spoiling our little girl!

{not pictured: any of my siblings. what the heck, guys?}

happy birthday, 

my sweet and precious little greer.