she's six.

six years ago yesterday... our lives changed forever when our baby girl was born. more reflections to come this week, but for now... payton's carnival birthday celebration.

a celebration of payton's life. a celebration of down syndrome. a celebration of every thing that she is... and so much more.



the snack bar.


i made this after being inspired on pinterest. isn't it adorable? i love the pennant flags!

icy cold lemonade.



swirly pops and popcorn.





cotton candy and nachos. churros and roasted peanuts.





carnival games.

duck pond.







bean bag toss.



clothespin drop.





face painting.







photo booth.



party hats, rock star sunglasses. and don't forget the lips and mustaches. just don't glue the mustaches upside down like i apparently did... oopsie.


i adore this photo... payton and some of her classmates.

when we had a garage sale fundraiser a few years ago for our adoption of nika, someone gave us a polaroid camera and film. we didn't sell it and it has been sitting in storage since. kyle pulled it out and found it was fully functional... yes! photo booth perfected.







my absolutely scrumptious niece. love her.



the limbo.







hold the line please. snack break.


she's a trip.



the prize booth.







happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!
happy birthday dear payton, happy birthday to you!



for party favors... we sent each of the girls home with a goldfish. i was really nervous the parents would kill me for this... but i knew the girls would love it. we wanted to make sure they all had some food on hand, so we borrowed some ketchup containers from *cough* a fast food chain *cough* to hold fish food.

*snickers*



trying to keep 35 goldfish alive is hard... we bought them the night before the party and 19 of them died. that is not a typo... seriously! stupid fish. we restocked the morning of the party. lessons learned... do not feed the fish and do not admit to the pet store that the fish are for a birthday party or a carnival... because uh, they aren't allowed to sell them to you if you do. why yes sir, we do have a 10-gallon tank of um, just goldfish.

*grins*



i have to say... the goldfish were damn brilliant. love it... and i think everyone else did too.

after most everyone went home... we went outside so payton could let her balloons go into the sky. whew... that made my emotions let loose a bit. the finale to an amazing party... sort of symbolic, sharing the love and happiness from our day with the world.





and then more than half of the damn balloons got stuck in the trees.

*sigh*



let's just pretend that part didn't happen.



bye boons... in the sky!



the perfect ending.

best part of the day... seeing the happy, giddy faces of payton and her friends. there is so much that you miss when you are the party hostess and have your face behind a lens. but... i loved hearing stories from our friends and family after everyone went home.

it makes my heart happy.

happy 6th birthday payton... i hope your day was everything you could have ever hoped for and more. one thing is evident... you are loved and supported by so many.

we are blessed beyond measure.

::


party tips... coming in a bit...

happy new year.

our christmas eve traditions are some of my most favorite things.

to say the kids were excited this year would be an understatement... especially mason.

the anticipation of christmas morning was a lot for him to handle.

he had a christmas eve checklist to get us through the day.

put out the reindeer food.

he left it up on our upper balcony... with the help of his father.

you know... because the reindeer land on the roof.

track santa.

kyle surprised the kids with a projector so they could track santa on the big screen.

they thought that was the best.thing.ever.

light our christmas eve luminaries.

it is a community wide event... yet we were one of maybe two houses on our street to have them.

mason was offended and called the rest of our neighbors grinches.

no offense to our neighbors, of course, but i agree with him. ha.

dinner at grandma's. and the festival of lights.

church.

we went to a new church this year for christmas eve service.

i liked it... very contemporary.

instead of lighting candles in the pews, everyone went to the front to light tea lights.

so calm. so peaceful. so pretty.

pajamas from the tooth fairy.

when we got home from church, the kids found gifts of pajamas on their beds.

the tooth fairy brings them every christmas eve.

it's tradition and has been since i was a kid.

'twas the night before christmas. and put out cookies and milk for santa.

christmas morning mason was the first to rise.

he was so excited and woke me.

"mom, can i just go sit downstairs and wait?"

needless to say he and i ended up waking everyone else.

isn't that how it goes? chop chop!

one of mason's favorite gifts, from his grandma...

a wooden bat and a warm up jacket for his travel baseball team.

another favorite.

american girl dolls.

yup... we took the plunge.

i have no idea where this smile came from... but it is making an appearance a lot lately. hilarious.

even gigi would like an american girl.

i took her with me to the american girl store when i bought the girls' dolls.

it was like trying to get a kid out of a candy shop.

so cute to see her light up like that.

payton is such a good little mommy.
i love watching her with her doll.

"aww!"

nika fought hard to keep her laptop to herself.

darn big sisters.

it was pretty funny... picture nika rolling across the floor, holding on for dear life.
home girl is learning to stand up for herself.

when we were in russia, we brought home a matryoshka doll for nika.

our intent was to create a collection for her...

but we don't really have access to authentic matryoshka dolls.

enter her grandparents... they got her one for christmas.

it was purchased from the moscow ballet... which has a traveling show that was here in the states.

love!

another of mason's favorite gifts this year.

as if we needed another nintendo ds in this house.

and one of my favorite gifts this year.

headphones for the kids.

black for mason. pink for payton. purple for addison.

mostly i love that they have not been buried in the madness.

the kids still grab them and throw them on.

three points for me.

we had a very blessed christmas day.

nice! a huge thank you to my in-laws.

we spent christmas evening with some of my extended family.

love them... and love that my kids will have these memories.

the kids each got small gifts to open.

and we played charades... so.much.fun.

we spent a lazy new year's eve at home as a family with my mom and grandmother.

playing games.

watching the times square celebration on television.

mason made it to about 11:50 p.m. before he just couldn't keep his eyes open any longer.

happy new year.

ps... today marks day one of my 365 journey... click here to read more. my challenge to you is to join me... pick up your camera and document your life.

pps... i finally redirected my blog to the url i bought a few years ago. i think this may mess with rss feeds, google reader, yada yada... not too sure, but check it out and edit the address if you need to... so sorry! the url is www.ourperfectlyimperfectlife.com