Jewel's Birthday

Last Friday we celebrated Jewel's birthday. It is amazing that she is already FIVE years old! This was the cake that she "designed." She said she wanted flowers so I said that I would draw it on a piece of paper and she could tell me what she thought. Well, evidently, my original idea wasn't what she had in mind...I had to throw the first attempt away and start over...this time carefully following her instructions. I think that I achieved what she had in mind! :) She wanted one big flower in the middle, five little flowers around the big flower (since she was turning 5), and (my one suggestion that she approved of) spelling out her name around the edge of the cake alternating one letter between each of the 5 small flowers. She picked out the colors of blue, yellow, and pink...and informed me where she wanted each color. She also asked that the inside of the cake be chocolate.
Jewel received a couple gifts Wednesday night at church that she opened the minute she got home from church. :) Thanks, Yangs and McCords!

Birthday Morning...
I asked Jewel to tell me what she wanted to eat on her birthday. She actually picked oatmeal for breakfast (which I rarely make). As soon as she woke up she put her hat on and sat at the fireplace waiting to open her gifts. I told her that we wouldn't open her gifts until after we ate her "oatmeal" breakfast. She then informed me that she no longer wanted oatmeal...she wanted something quicker! :)...but I had already started making it so she had oatmeal anyway!

After breakfast, we assembled in the "fireplace" room for Jewel to open her gifts. She loved everything that she got. One of her favorite things was the red wallet from Nana and Papa...she told me that she is so glad she got one because she was tempted to covet Jane's that Jane received a couple months ago on her birthday. She was happy that now she no longer had to covet Jane's! :) She especially loved the "business cards" with her name printed on them that were inside the wallet.

It was time for new shoes and a new swimsuit so that is pretty much what she got from us...among a few other smaller things.

She really liked the sign that her cousin Sarah had included in the birthday box that they sent her.



Birthday Outing--Florida Caverns

After breakfast and getting dressed, we packed up and headed to the Florida Caverns. We had a fun time. It was a pretty hot day, but the cave was nice and cool! :)

Here is the one place in the cave that they let you actually touch...we were informed not to touch anything else in the cave. The discoloration on this part of the cave is from the oils in our hands.

When we first entered the cave I said something to Jewel like, "How would you like to live in a cave?" I knew that would be something she would like to think about! So in every room we went into she would say what room it would be (the living room, bathroom, bedroom, prayer room, thankful room, etc.).

A rare family picture...

Getting one last sip of water before heading to the cave tour....

Here are the girls inside the visitor's center. We were really thankful we had an hour so before our cave tour left, because we really enjoyed watching the videos about the area and the caves...especially since our cave tour guide wasn't the best.

Stay tuned for Jewel's birthday dinner...