Happy Birthday Alyssa and Katy!!!

Happy Birthday to the two most beautiful girls on the planet! Alyssa and Katy turned 5 today!! Where have the last 5 years gone? Unreal.

So if you didn't catch it, Lisa posted on facebook today that we have started our annual March for Babies fundraising efforts. We decided to do things a little different this year because we aren't going to be around for the Anchorage walk in May. So instead, we are going to raise money during the 39 days that the girls spent in the NICU...April 5 to May 13. (We will however be participating in the MOD Walk Thru the Whittier Tunnel on Father's Day if anyone is interested in joining us!!)

The Ballards got us off to an awesome start on our way to our most ambitious goal yet, $5000!!! That's right! For the girls golden birthday, we're aiming to raise $5000! Last year I wondered if we'd really be able to make $4000 but we blew right by that and actually reached $4500. So why not this year?! Let's do this!

Before we get to the birthday celebrations, I spent a part of the day going back and reading "our story". It's an insanely long read but if any of you haven't read it, it's worth reading. Actually brought tears to my eyes. Our story can be found here.

So five years, eh? Where has the time gone??? The girls amaze me every day. It's hard to believe how far we've come. Today was the "low key" birthday celebration. Saturday is going to be the mass-chaos birthday blowout with 20 kids!! After dance class this morning, the girls drove Lisa crazy because they had to wait until I got home to open their presents. FINALLY this evening they got to dive in.

Excited much??

Their theme this year seemed to be outdoor princess?? We got them their own hiking backpacks from REI with water bottle. The grandparents took care of some other necessities like sleeping bags, garden supplies, and plenty of clothes and other outdoor goodies.

The final gift from me was fishing poles. As much as I'd like to get them their first fly rod, let's start them out slow with a couple of princess rod and reels. Yes...princess rod and reels.

I think the girls liked them.

A couple of days ago we asked the girls where they wanted to go for their birthday dinner and they both agreed on Red Robin! We've seen dozens of birthday celebrations over the years at Red Robin but it was hilarious to see the girls finally be the center of attention. Not surprisingly, the second the group of waiters arrived the girls buried their heads in our sides. It was pretty funny to see them go from ecstatic to embarrassed instantaneously.

But as soon as the birthday song ended, the girls were ready to dig in to the dessert. One problem, Katy wasn't interested!! She was waiting for her birthday cake at home. Alyssa had no problem digging in!!

Wow...

Then it was back home to have their real cakes!

So we're off!! Every day that we get a donation, I will post on the blog! We have a long way to go some I'm fully prepared to post every day until May 13th. Spread the word and let's raise some money!!