Double Birthday Celebrations

So I have to tell something funny Dakota said before I explain anymore. We kept telling Dakota that on her birthday, she was gonna turn 4 years old and be a big girl. Well yesterday someone asked her how old she was and she said 5. I told her no sweetie, you are 4 now...you'll be 5 next year. She said no mom, on my birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese's and I was 4. But then I had another birthday with Scooby-Doo so I am 5 now. SMART TURD! Not sure how we'll convince her otherwise but for now, she thinks she is 5. I guess that's what we get for doing two different birthday celebrations for her.

The first thing we did was that we took her to Chuck E Cheese's on her actual birthday. She has been so excited about her daddy taking her there and playing all the games with her. We had tons of fun and dad couldn't believe how grown up she was. When he left, she couldn't play most of the games without help. She's officially a gamer :)...and for the record...VERY LUCKY!

Then came the birthday party. I always ask Dakota each year (well I guess for 2 years now LOL) who she wants to have at her party. And I start to write the list as she names the people. Well, this will probably be the last year that I actually invite everyone she names :). Let's just say there were 15 kids there by the end and as many adults! She had also decided that she wanted a Scooby-Doo party so I got to work. I showed her tons of pictures of cakes and she kept pointing out The Mystery Machine complete with "the gang." And that's just what she got. She also told me that we had to solve a mystery...and that "maybe we could have clues on dog paw prints." So, here was the party. The guests arrived and a "ghost" made the presents disappear. You should have seen the look on the kids faces when they saw them missing...then the rest of the party was spent finding clues to where the presents were hid. They bashed in a ghost pinata...played musical paw prints...and stomped ghost balloons in the front yard. Yes, it was as crazy as it sounds. We then had her open the presents after the kids found them in the trunk of my car and then sang happy birthday to her. Dakota isn't a big fan of being the center of attention...so when it came time to blow out the candles...she wouldn't do it. She decided that she would just wave out the candles...but it worked...so whatever.

I really enjoy trying to make birthday's special for Dakota...she is always pretending she is having a party or serving cake...so it's the one chance I have to actually bring her imaginary world into reality. Trust me, with her imagination...this is a toughy!

Here is a slideshow of the pics that were taken from both times :)