Lucy's 6th birthday

Since Michael was out of town at conference, we went to Grammy and Poppa's house for Lucy's birthday. Lucy lost her first tooth on her last night of being 5! She was very excited! :)

Then on Thursday morning, we woke up with a six year old in our house!! It's so hard to believe!!

 During the boys naptime, Lucy and I went and picked up cupcakes for her birthday dinner. While we were there, Lucy saw that they also had homemade gelato. And what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets! :)

After naptime, we headed outside to play. Lucy and the boys were a big fan of the stomp rocket.

We also had lots of water table fun. I think that the kids enjoyed playing with the hose more than anything. . .

Well, except for trying to splash Grammy! :)

Lucy decided she wanted steak for her birthday dinner, so that's what Poppa fixed. We had a great meal and then Lucy wanted to open presents.

More princess dolls!!

Lucy's last present that she opened was a big one. . . a castle for all her new princess dolls to play in. Once she opened it though, she discovered that the box was empty. She stood there staring at it for the longest time, confused. . . .

And then she turned around and saw that Poppa had brought in her castle, all put together and she was so excited!!!!

Alex wanted to check it out too. ;)

We played for a little while but then it was time for cupcakes before bed.

All during cupcakes, Alex and Charlie sang "Happy Birthday" for Lucy. 

Charlie had a hard time believing that Lucy was really six. . .

I have a hard time believing that she's six years old too, Charlie. I still think she should be three years old. :) Happy birthday, sweet Lucy. What an amazing kid you are. We are so proud of you and so thankful you are a part of our family. We love you!!!

Lucy's first dance recital!

Last Tuesday, Lucy had her first dance recital. She has really enjoyed her dance classes this year and was so excited to show off her skills on the stage. This little girl loves to dress up and be the center of attention, so this is right up her alley!

Backstage, ready to perform!

 She was in a class with 3 other girls and this year she took a combination tap and ballet class. I wasn't able to take any pictures during the recital, but I snuck these on my phone during dress rehearsal. Sorry about the quality . . .

After the recital, everyone had flowers and gifts for Lucy. The princess was definitely in her element!!

We got home and even though she was tired, I think she had a good time overall. She was already talking about how she only had two more years of dance recitals before she got a trophy from Mrs. Kathy. :)

Lucy's favorites at 6 years old

6 years old!! Can you believe it!!!???

What is your favorite color? yellow
What is your favorite toy? Princess Cadence, ponies, Barbie-size princess dolls
What is your favorite fruit? bananas and strawberries
What is your favorite TV show? Sofia the first 
What is your favorite movie? The Little Mermaid
What is your favorite outfit? seahorse t-shirt
What is your favorite snack? Cheese-its
What is your favorite book? Frozen chapter books
Who are your best friends? Lilly and Brooklyn
What is your favorite animal? giraffes
What is your favorite song? Let it Go
What is your favorite holiday? Valentine's Day
What do you sleep with at night? Pig, "huggy blanket", bunny, Princess Cadence, Princess Luna
What is your favorite drink? lemonade
What is your favorite breakfast food? Bebo's (this is what we call Pecan twirls at our house)
What do you like to eat for lunch? Ham sandwich, yogurt, water ( I think she answered this because she was eating lunch as I was asking her these questions and that was what was on her plate.)
What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner? steak ( a girl after Mommy's own heart!)
What do you want to be when you grow up?  a doctor ( I asked her why after all these years she no longer wanted to be a Princess and she informed me that being a princess is not a real job!)

Lucy's 6th birthday party

We had Lucy's birthday party last week since her Daddy will be out of town on her birthday. I still can't believe that she is getting ready to be 6 years old! We went to the splash pad and swimming pool at Tanglewood; originally, we had planned on doing this on a weekday but ended up having to go on a Sunday afternoon. It was very crowded and we didn't get to swim long but it didn't seem to bother Lucy. Of course, we promised her that we would come back soon! ;)

I don't have any pictures from swimming. . .it's difficult to take pictures at the pool! I spent my time going back and forth between Alex, who wanted to be held the entire time and Charlie, who wanted to do it all by himself even though he has no idea how to swim. ;)

After swimming, we went to the picnic shelter to have our dinner and open presents. Poppa showed the kids how the water pump worked and it was just as exciting as being in the splash pad! :)

We had pizza for dinner from one of Lucy's favorites, Cicciones. 

After our pizza, it was time for cupcakes. Lucy wanted to have cookies and cream cupcakes for her birthday but we got some vanilla cupcakes in case anyone wanted something different. I don't know what we'll do next year - it was hard to get 6 candles on one cupcake!!

We went to Whole Foods to get some vegan cupcakes so that the boys wouldn't get left out!

Uncle Michael and Rosa had some snuggle time too. :)

Then it was time to open presents. The boys wanted to help Lucy and she was very gracious to allow them to help her.

Lucy got lots of cute clothes and new books but what she was most excited about was her Barbie size princess dolls. :) She has been asking for these and was just thrilled to not only have princess dolls but their princes as well.

The first thing we had to do when we got home was get all of our dolls out to play!

Silly boys!

We tried to get a picture with Uncle Day Day since we don't get to see him very often . . . 

Unfortunately this was the best we could do! (It was close to bedtime so we had some really silly kids!)

Lucy got one though with Uncle Day Day :) 

I can't believe that I will have a 6 year old in my house at the end of this week! Of course, with Lucy, we have been celebrating for about a week and a half now and will celebrate some more for the rest of the week. She told us at the beginning of June that it was her "birthday month." :) Here's to more celebrating!!

A trip up the mountains

Michael was asked to come back and speak at a graduation banquet at our "home" church in Mills River. ( I say that because I think Mills River will always feel like home to us since that's where Michael first began his ministry. We moved there right after we got married and spent the first five years of our married life together there. Lucy was born while we were there and we became the "Flack Family" . . . so even though we love being where we are now, we still think of Mills River as our home.) So after Lucy's awards at school on Thursday, we got in the car and headed up the mountain. Since we had all the kids with us, we wanted to hit up some of our favorite places while we were there. We stopped for lunch at Juicy Lucy, a great hamburger place.

Alex was excited!

Lucy ordered a hot dog but decided that my burger tasted better. . . we told her to order one, but oh well! (On a side note, I love Charlie's face in the background!)

And a trip to Juicy Lucy wouldn't be complete without a milkshake!

After lunch, we went to one of our favorite places to play - The Play Lodge!! The kids were so excited to run and play and explore. They had the best time. They played for a solid two hours with no stopping. And the best part was that they played nicely with each other and with other children. 

And then I took these pictures to compare to the ones from the last time we were here. This picture is from this trip. . .

And here was last time, right before we moved to Lewisville. The boys are 9 months here. 

Alex with the duck back then. . . .

 And now. . . time sure flies!!! Slow down babies - you're growing too fast!

It took the boys a little while to warm up to the slides, but once they got started, they didn't want to stop!! :)

After the play lodge, we went to the hotel to rest a little before our evening at MRUMC. I told the boys they could have their MiMi's but you had to be up on the bed in order to have it. Lucy came up to join Charlie. . . apparently he thought the rule was that everyone on the bed had to have a Mimi because he promptly placed one in Lucy's mouth! :)

We had such a nice time seeing so many people at MRUMC and it was a wonderful evening celebrating so many wonderful graduates. It's hard to believe that when we left these kids they were just finishing up with 8th grade and now here they are, graduating! It was such an honor to be asked to return to help celebrate them and their many accomplishments. We are so proud of the amazing young men and women they are becoming and grateful to be able to claim them as our own. (After all, all those kids from our youth group days will always be "our kids" even when they are all grown up!)