Never Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Robyn turned...

....yesterday. It was a great day, if not the busiest day of the year so far. Things kept coming up, and I would see they were on the 27th of April, and I would *sigh* mark them in the calendar. I believe there was a whole 45 minutes of down time that day, and I spent it making cornbread.

We managed to
- Attend a ward breakfast and service project
- Have a horseback riding birthday party
- Go to Ivory's Gymnastic competition
- Cart our way up to SLC for Supercross

One right after the other. But amazingly, we did it all. But this post is mainly about the party and the birthday girl. We actually opened family gifts first thing in the morning. Robyn didn't want to waste any time.

She was happy with everything she got.

Have I mentioned her obsession with Littlest Pet Shops? I actually got her 27 of them and let her have a new one every other day for a month. (I will miss seeing her little face first thing as I opened my eyes, with her saying, "Pet shop??") She got a few more on her actual birthday, and she wasn't disappointed.

Here are some of her new ones.

And you may remember that shelf I made her last year. Well, she still uses it all the time, and now she has so many pet shops, they hardly fit on there. Spoiled, I tell you. (And yes, she knows ALL their names.)

Oh, I need to put this in here. Ivory made Robyn a birthday card. It was huge, but you could tell that Ivory had taken a lot of time on it. I like when the girls take extra time to make a thoughtful gift.

Robyn's big present has been on her wish list for quite a while. I got her some skates. Oh, and not just skates...rollerblades.

She wanted to try them on right away. And watching her today, it won't be too long before I can rest easy at home, not worrying about her breaking her neck at any moment.

Now fast forward through a service project, which was very good, by the way. I took 1, 4, and 5 and we weeded our hearts out at a neighbor's, and Tyler took 2, and 3 and they helped stain a fence. Robyn and Ivory came home covered in stain. And since it was red, it looked like they were bleeding. I made Robyn at least wash her face before we left for her party.

We did a horseback riding party, and it was FAN. TAS. TIC. I found a place online, (Lucky Star Horse Stables) and thought, why not? And it was perfect. The lady has a horse corral (spelled right mom) in her backyard, but also a playground. So, she takes the kids two at a time to ride and the other kids play. Plus, she decorates super cute.

And she provides party bags and plates, etc. I'm trying to think of something negative about it, but I really can't. Well, the only sad thing I can think of, is that she raised her prices after I booked. So, now if I want to go back again, it would cost more. But in my mind, it is still almost worth it to not have all the craziness at my house. In addition, I feel like I spend just as much with a home party regardless.

Everyone had a good amount of time on a horse. The owner would start off leading them, but when they felt comfortable, she would let them walk the horse on their own. Look at all these cute riders.

We let all the birthday guests ride first, so my kiddos had to wait a bit. I think they were pretty patient.

But finally it was time for the littles.

Yep, even my Pearl took a spin. This is significant progress because last year, if you got her too close to a horse, she would cry. So, I was super impressed with her. June gets props for being the very last kid to go. But since she was older, they let her walk on her own more.

Tyler had the camera there at the end to document the riders, so I didn't get any pictures of Robyn blowing out the candles. Oh, wait...there weren't any candles. I forgot them. But, here is the cake. (For the record, the only horse cake design Walmart had was My Little Pony. I decided to skip it.)

And Tyler did stop by for a brief shot of the feeding frenzy. I let Robyn cut the cake, so the slices were generous, and the entire thing was gone before we left.

Which is good really, because I don't really eat leftover cake.

So, super fun!! I did get Robyn balloons as well, but I was cheap and didn't put high float in them, so they are crawling around the floor already. Oops.

But, Robyn can't complain, because we took her to ride horses. Actually, she did quite the opposite. She made a point to tell me how great her birthday was, and how she liked all her presents and riding the horses and it was all great. And that was the best part of her birthday in my opinion. Nothing like a little gratitude. It sure goes a long way.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Robyn.