Bella turns 5!!!!

Yesterday was the big 5 for Miss Bella. I tried to make the day fabulous for her from beginning to end......I actually MADE her pancakes for breakfast, lol.
We knew we wanted to go have a birthday lunch with daddy...but I had been looking for ideas for the rest of the day. James suggested the Fort Worth Botanical Garden. This is somewhere I've ALWAYS wanted to go...but I thought it cost money! Nope, totally free (unless you want to go into the conservatory or the Japanese gardens)...even parking! And it was so much fun...we just wandered around for awhile.

The Birthday Girl....she was so happy...that, more than anything, made my heart soar! Wearing her shirt I made for her (the night before, but I'll talk about that later...lol).

Stopping to smell the roses....and oooooooh did they smell good!

The girls loved this bird bath with the two birdies kissing...every time we passed it they would get so excited.

I told you! She was HAPPY...at this particular moment, she was SO HAPPY that she got to see purple flowers.

This was my favorite area....I think they call it the Rose Ramp. It's not as in bloom as I can imagine it will be in the spring, but it's still just breath-taking. I think this picture of Bella is hilarious...it's like she's getting sprayed...lol.

I made several attempts to get pictures of the two of them...not much luck there. I ask Bella to say 'cheese' and you can really tell she's trying to say it!! And Aube...well, she refused to look at the camera...thanks, babe. But they are still cute...makes it easy to forgive!

We came to this crack with running water...it was maybe 6-7 inches wide...small enough to where you could totally jump over it. But the girls were just AMAZED by it...like it was the Grand Canyon, or something. Bella would ask "Can we walk IN it, Mommy?" Ummm....no.

So, they jumped...

And jumped....

My VERY favorite picture of the day.

Looking at the GINORMOUS Koi...at least I think that's what they were. Or just really big goldfish.

This isn't zoomed in...they were just huge.

Looking down from the top of the Rose Ramp.

After awhile, we left the Gardens and met daddy for lunch at the Purple Cow. The same place we took Bella to last year for her birthday.

Bella was quite excited to have purple Sprite (or grape Fanta, but she wouldn't hear of that).

And some purple ice cream...

Aube is more fond of all things orange.

After lunch....we went ahead and headed back to the Gardens! lol. There was time, so we explored some more.

They have this Texas boardwalk....the girls had fun at all the little stations, especially this one that showed all the birds and their songs.

Bella wanted to see an armadillo SO BAD...she saw a picture of it and kept looking for it everywhere. But she did get to see a snake...eeek. It slithered past us all non-chalantly down the steps. I LOVED this butterfly chair...so cute!

Watching the turtles.

We finally left the gardens and went home for naps. After we all woke up and were ready, we sat and waited for daddy to get home. During this time Bella got a phone call from Cinderella to wish her a happy birthday, she was SO excited! (And I took video, which I'll post later).

For dinner, we went to The Magic Time Machine restaurant. I've been excited to take the girls back here since we went back in the beginning of 2008 with Papa when he came to town. It was a little more ghetto than I remembered....and I was HOPING to get a princess waitress, since they knew our occasion was a 5 year old birthday. But nope...we got Lara Croft Tomb Raider (we think...still not sure...could just be some chick with a really bad British accent, dressed in black) even tho we did get Snow White bringing our food.

They sat us in a Tiki hut (which smelled a big like pee....maybe?).

At the end of the meal, all the characters crowded around to sing to Bella. Woody from Toy Story, Cap'n Jack, Snow White, Shaggy, Lara...and sing they did....handing us a big ole EMPTY plate. It was HILARIOUS....just not to a 5 year old. She was kinda like, What is this?!

Seriously, you can't find a little scoop of ice cream to give a kid!? lol.
Where's my cake?!

So James made the best of it...and they all had a their own slice of "cake".

Even with dinner being a bit of a flop (the steak did taste good, have to give them that...) it was a really fantastic day! I love to make my girls happy and I try to make their birthdays as special as possible.
Now we are getting geared up for their party next weekend...then on to Aube's birthday on the 18th!