annas birthday

so with all the craziness our life has brought with the last few weeks (months, years,) i did not get to tell you all about anna's "Ice Princess" birthday. we had planned for months on having a birthday party here at our house where we would invite all of her friends from her class at school and we would have a "movin' groovin' "party . we were going to use her karaoke player she got for christmas and incorporate quite a few musical games i do at school for my music classes. about two weeks before her birthday, she saw the movie, Ice Princess. she asked then if she could invite all of her friends to go ice skating for her birthday. i checked into it, but it was going to be way too much. i told her she could invite one friend. she agreed and she invited her friend manning, who lives two doors down from us. we invited their family to go with us and we enjoyed presitdent's day at the galleria ice rink.

i was a little nervous because i could tell from her conversation, she expected to be able to do double toe loops first time out. i explained that it is a lot harder than it looks and that she would fall down some. i told her that when you fall down, you just laugh and try again. she did really well. she could walk on them fine, which took some getting used to for some of us. all of them did incredible, ( including myself and bekah!!) i had not intended on getting out there with bekah because i am not the best on the skates to say the least, but bekah was determinied to get out there. we skated for a couple of hours, which was quite a bit longer than i expected, before we decided we were too hungry to keep going. all went well, except for the nine year old that came with us whose father skated over her finger. it bled quite profusely. she was a great sport about it, however, i felt so bad for my brenna. bekah did NOT want to leave the ice. she, too, was convince that she would be an ice prnicess before it was all said and done and did not want to leave until she accomplished her goal. i was proud of all of us.

after the ice skating, we went to the top floor of the galleria, the most exclusive mall in the metroplex, to eat at none other than every five year olds dream restaurant...Mcdonalds! eqipped with happy meals and ice cream cones we filled our tummies so we could go out and have some more fun. we played at the extraordinary play area at the mall for a little while until all were ready for the ultimate experience of the brand new American Girl Bistro and Boutique. after some coaxing of bret, we were able to get anna the perfect five year old big girl gift to remember and keep forever! she got Mia, the ice skater, and the 2008 american girl of the year. it was perfect (expensive, but perfect!) we came home early enough to get a litte rest and enjoy playing wit mia all evening. (bret went on to the church for the eldersmeeting that would happen that night as he would tell them of our decision to leave and go to montgomery. it was nerve racking to say the least.) it was the perfect american girl ice skating birthday!! we really appreciated the biggerstaffs for coming with us and making it such a memorable day!

s