Brooklyn’s 6th Birthday Festivities

This year we decided to do something a little different to celebrate the girls’ birthdays. Last year we hosted parties at our house for all the girls’ birthdays and invited friends and family to come celebrate with us. Brooklyn’s party was the pancake and PJ party. Savannah’s was the bubble party in our backyard. Abigail’s was “twinkle twinkle little star” themed. I really didn’t go crazy with a bunch of decorations and activities, but I feel like any birthday party no matter how simple still requires a good bit of work to organize and pull it together. Combine that with the fact that Brooklyn had already been invited to SO many birthday parties by the time her own birthday rolled around, and I was honestly just a little burnt out on parties this year :) I know we will have parties for the girls again in the future, but this year we decided to try something a little different. In lieu of a birthday party, we decided to go on a day trip to a fun place that the girls would enjoy. We still had small family celebrations with our immediate families, but other than that, the trip was the big birthday celebration.

I have really enjoyed doing the day trip thing this year so far. (Since I’m so far behind on this blog, we’ve already taken a trip for Savannah’s birthday too…haha). It’s much less stressful for me than planning a party. You just pack up the kids, hop in the car, and go. And it’s just a fun way to make memories as a family. Maybe we will try this again at some point in the future! So, here’s the recap of all we did to celebrate Brooklyn turning SIX:

Here was Brooklyn’s wish list for her birthday this year. I love that she can write her own lists now :)

On Saturday, February 9th, Paw and Rae Rae came up to our house for the afternoon for a quick supper and birthday celebration with Brooklyn. We kicked off the fun with Brooklyn opening her gifts, of course!

Brooklyn asked for a doll house for her birthday and was really excited to get one from Paw and Rae Rae!

She also got some doll house accessories (people and pets).

She was really excited about the Lion King 2 movie!

She also got some “jewel” stickers, a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, a look-and-find Usborne book, and a scooter! She didn’t ask for a scooter specifically, but some of our neighbors have scooters, and she seemed interested. I knew she’d love having her own!

Abigail enjoyed reading books with Paw while they were here…

…and playing with the bows from Brooklyn’s gifts!

Brooklyn had fun setting up her new doll house with Rae Rae and Savannah.

We also watched a little bit of Lion King 2 before eating supper!

Brooklyn requested a unicorn cake for her birthday :)

You would’ve thought the candles were trick candles…

…because she could NOT blow them out!

It took at least 3 or 4 blows…haha! It was pretty funny.

Hopefully it was worth all that effort!

Abigail definitely thought so!

One happy baby after all that sugar :)

Brooklyn’s actual birthday fell on a Wednesday this year. We decided to save one gift for her to open on her birthday. She really liked the new Grinch movie that we saw over Christmas break, so I knew she’d be excited to get her own Grinch and Max stuffed animals! She opened them before she left for school…it was a fun way to kick off her birthday!

I decided that we would go eat lunch with Brooklyn at school that day to help make her day a special one. It was my first time to take Savannah and Abigail up to the school for lunch, and it went pretty well overall. I loved that Mrs. Patterson let Brooklyn wear her birthday hat all morning :)

Abigail sat in the stroller right by the table and ate her lunch. I was proud of Savannah for eating her sandwich more quickly than she normally does at home. (She is a notoriously slow eater, so I worry that she’ll never finish her lunch at school). But that day she did pretty good!

Brooklyn had to give Abigail a hug before it was time for us to go. It was so funny to see how excited all the kids were to see “the baby”! So many of them greeted Abigail with a “Hi, baby!” or a “Bye, baby!”. She was like a little celebrity :)

My big 6 year old!

We celebrated Brooklyn’s birthday at Cici’s house on February 17th! I don’t think Brooklyn minded having another opportunity to blow out a birthday candle :) Gifts included: a watering can, her very own umbrella (perfect for walking home from school when it’s rainy!), some new books, and a baby doll.

The next day (February 18th) was President’s Day, and Brooklyn had the day off school. Travis was off work too, so it made sense to use that day for our family birthday celebration/day trip. We decided to head to Chattanooga to check out the children’s museum there in town. We had planned on going during the same trip that we went to the aquarium back in 2017, but that trip didn’t turn out exactly as planned due to Abigail’s early arrival. So…we made it into a fun day trip for Brooklyn’s birthday!

We had scoped out a local pizza restaurant for lunch, but I made the mistake of not checking their hours closely enough…and they were closed on Mondays. So, we ended up at Five Guys instead :) I don’t think the girls minded too much. Savannah re-discovered that she actually likes grilled cheese sandwiches, so that was a big moment for her since she is typically all about some PB&J :)

Abigail was happy to be out of her car seat and eating some food!

….and Brooklyn?? Not sure what face she was making! :)

After lunch, we walked over to the Creative Discovery Museum and bought our tickets. The first area you walk through when you get inside is the water area. Abigail loved it!

There was also a climbing area above the water tables, so Brooklyn ran off for a few minutes playing with other kids while Savannah and Abigail played in the water.

Brooklyn enjoyed the water too once she checked it out!

I liked how this part of the museum had glass walls where you could see outside.

Savannah enjoyed rolling a ball down this “rollercoaster”. You could move the pieces of the track around to change things up.

There was an art area that Brooklyn enjoyed!

…and Brooklyn and Savannah really enjoyed digging for fossils in the sand.

Savannah got sand in her eyes at one point, but we were able to wash it out and she wasn’t too traumatized :) This was one of their favorite parts of the museum!

There was an outdoor area on the second floor with several activities…including bubbles :)

Brooklyn tried to pull herself up with the rope, but her arms weren’t quite strong enough to do it without help. Maybe next time!

Next, we checked out the science section of the museum. Savannah really liked playing with these gears!

This was Travis’s favorite part of the museum for sure ;)

The girls were totally fascinated with this activity: you could make your own parachute out of a plastic grocery bag and a piece of trash/recycled material. Then you put it in the clear tube, and a blower would shoot it out of the tube, and it would float down like a parachute. The girls stood there for a long time putting their parachutes back into the tube and trying to catch them as they came floating down :)

Sometimes the simplest activities are the most fun!

Somebody slept through part of the fun, but she woke up in time to enjoy the water for a few minutes before we headed out!

We left the museum a little after 3 PM. We didn’t have time to cover every square inch of the museum, but we saw enough to make it worth our while! Overall, the kids had a blast and really enjoyed the day. A lot of the activities are similar to what the McWane Center in Birmingham offers. There are some things that are unique to each museum though, which makes it neat to go to both and try them out. Travis and I definitely prefer the McWane Center over the Creative Discovery Museum after doing both. The McWane Center is more spacious and much easier to navigate with a stroller. The Creative Discovery Museum just doesn’t have a lot of extra space to maneuver, and it was frustrating at times trying to push the stroller through crowds of people and find spots to park it out of the way. We just like the layout and setup of the McWane Center better. We still really enjoyed the day, and we are glad we went and checked out the Creative Discovery Museum!

We couldn’t leave Chattanooga without stopping for a little sweet treat for our birthday girl! The Cupcake Kitchen was right down the street from the children’s museum, so we walked over there for a little afternoon snack before heading home.

It was a yummy way to end a fun family day!

We got home early enough that we could eat supper, do baths, and get the kids in bed at their normal time. Overall, we really had a great day, and I thought it was a fun and different way to do a birthday celebration. Happy 6th birthday, Brooklyn! You are so much fun to celebrate!