Five is Fabulous!

Well, for our Maelee Mae, being five has been pretty fabulous so far!  Leaving just two days after her birthday for a week long trip to FL with four days at the Disney World parks, she has been a pretty happy little girl.  Stay tuned for the big Disney post with LOADS of pictures within the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are a bunch of shots from the big day itself- April 22.

As her "best friend," Laney, celebrated her 5th b-day just a few days after Maelee, we decided to do a joint party with pre-k friends at a nearby park after school.  Laney wanted safari animals and Maelee wanted sea creatures, so a wild animal/creature theme it was!

the impressive angler fish watermelon, carved by daddy

Opening the stuffed angler fish from Aunt Kim-

we thought Maelee was pretty unique in having one stuffed angler fish (a stuffed "football" angler fish from Uncle Dan) but I'm pretty sure she's one of the few kids out there to have TWO stuffed angler fish! :)

With a light-up orb and glow-in-the-dark teeth to boot!

Angler fish cupcakes.

Use your imagination.

Little Lilee was just happy to be along for the ride!

Maelee was happy for big tire swing rides!

Doing what had to be done to make the shark pinata work!

It was at least nice to be called "awesome" by my daughter for it :) Hehe

This shark is ready for some whacks!

The birthday girls :)

The WILD cupcakes :)

Complete with a plastic angler from a crazy deep sea creature kit from Uncle Dan

Safari animal face paint!

Grr, goes the tiger!

Followed by a safari animal scavenger hunt!

 

 Get ready, get set, go!

Initially found the monkey...

Giddy to play with the tiger

then Maelee had to have a tiger, too, since Laney did...

Pinata time!

Each kid got to take a few swings before it came crashing down.

The birthday fun continued with Nana & Pop-Pop later in the evening with a celebration of pizza, "Frozen" cupcakes, and the gifts (!!!).

Ready to tear in...

 

Totally unsuspecting the significance of the Cinderella dress 

but very excited over it none-the-less

Happily modeling her fancy dress from Mee-Maw & Grandpa

Then came the big moment- the Disney reveal!!!  

We had a Disney Princess Autograph Book for her so we talked about needing to go somewhere to get these special signatures, then had her read the words "I will go to Disney World" that were written over a few pages.  It took a moment for it to sink in that we meant we actually, literally were going to Disney World, just two days from then.

The excitement

builds!

She really could hardly believe it.

Click on link to see the sweet video below!!!


Maelee's 5th Bday Disney reveal! from Becky Mason on Vimeo.

(sorry it's so massive...)

We had pizza so we could talk about the exciting trip before finishing the gifts.  It was sooo great to finally have it out there!  We'd been keeping it a secret for nearly 9 months!!!

So excited for my sweet girl

What we do to make "Frozen" cupcakes using what was used to make angler fish cupcakes!  

Yay for small plastic storybook figures!!!

Our big FIVE year old!!!

Her wish must've came true!!!

It was quite a day celebrating this little lady.  I was in knots for most of it, both over the forecasted windy/rainy weather that could thwart the playground party plans, and over the big surprise Disney reveal!  Needless to say, it was kinda nice to have the day over with but there wasn't any time to relax as we had to go right into Disney prep mode to get ready for the trip just two days later!  It was all worth it though.  We had an amazing time in FL and I'll get to those pics eventually.

For now, enjoy some final pics of the birthday girl.  She is one unique gal and we feel sooo incredibly blessed that she's our unique little gal :)

Slideshow of more bday pics:

Eggs, Monsters, and Settlements... Oh my!!!

April has been a doozy!  And we're just now starting the biggest week yet!!!  

It has been a good month so far and it's about to get even happier with our upcoming (surprise!) trip to Disney World at the end of the week.  As the previous post set up, Steve has now begun his work as a Medical Director with The Healthcare Consultancy Group, a company based in CT but still allows him to work remotely, and we are now home owners!!!  Still can't believe it...  

We went to settlement last Thursday and are still in shock at how smooth the process has been.  We'll have several weeks to make changes and will move in at the end of May.  Pictures of our new home to come as progress is made! :)  Thankfully, it is by no means a fixer-upper but there are still quite a few projects that need to be done.  And all is "so far so good" with Steve's new position!

Our Easter was a sweet one as we were able to celebrate both with our church community AND family!!!  A wonderful church service, yummy and fun brunch with our community group complete with egg dyeing and an egg hunt, and a delicious dinner at my folks with another egg hunt! That week we had a fun little Easter egg hunt with Maelee's pre-k class mates, and we did some egg dyeing with Nana, too.  It was great that Maelee's class talked about the significance of the Cross and she is understanding more and more about its meaning.  She wasn't as into our exclamations of "He is Risen!" on Sunday morning... but we are grateful to see planted seeds beginning to sprout!

 

 

 

 

It was an awesome day, but Lilee was exhausted and had enough!

 Enjoying chocolate bunnies from Too-daddy :)

More Easter Pics:

Last weekend, we finally ventured into DC as a family.  Parking was a bit of a nightmare given that it was a Sunday and just about every garage was closed AND it was peak cherry blossom season with the parade that weekend, too, but we eventually lucked out big time with a nearby open garage which was also cheap!  What were we doing in DC you ask? Well, attending Monster Fish and Spinosaurus exhibits at the National Geographic Museum, of course!  Maelee was giddy the whole time and even Lilee enjoyed herself!  It was well worth the trip.

And then there was settlement!!!  There were lots of signatures, but thankfully lots of smiles, too :)

First shot of many!!! 

Taken after the last walk-through before closing, while Maelee was at school and before dropping Lilee off with my mom.  Excited for many more pics!

And in case this post didn't have enough pictures, the next ones will be even crazier with Maelee's big FIVE birthday this week and the Disney trip...  whew!  What a month!!!