a special day

Having 3 kids, I never wanted the pressure of throwing 3 friend birthday parties a year. So when Abigail was 5, I introduced the kids to the new tradition of having a big friend party every other year. The alternate year they were allowed to invite one special friend for the day. This year Abigail's cousin, Evelyn spent Saturday with us and celebrated our almost 7 year old. It is way less work for me and allows Abigail to still have a special day and one on one time with her chosen friend/cousin. I allow Abigail to choose the activities for the day (with some guidance). Here is how Abigail spent her day.
We started the morning off with a trip to Michaels. They were having a free craft morning for kids.
The girls made matching puppets. We had lunch at home and the kids were happy playing outside and creating with the playdough. Andrew took them for a long bike ride to get ice cream and then to the park. When they returned, Jesse was up from his nap and we went to a local diner, Angel's, for supper.

Both Abigail and Nathaniel wanted to sit beside Evelyn the entire day. Here they are waiting for our supper.
Jesse taste testing Andrew's chocolate shake. As soon as it arrived at the table he exclaimed "Too!?" Of course he wanted some too!

The servers surprised Abigail with a special birthday dessert.
She was thrilled with the special treat and had an amazing day!

Her actual birthday is tomorrow and I will post more pictures later this week. I was busy this morning baking cupcakes for her class and a cake for our family celebration tomorrow night.