Happy 5th Birthday to Anya!!!

Look who's 5!

Anya Celebrates her birthday for the first time ever!!!!

Anya celebrated her 5th birthday on May 5th with her theme being a "Babushka Bash".  The party was great fun as we celebrated Anya's birth, which because of her being in an orphanage since birth had never even been talked about.  Her birthday, which is actually May 26, had gone by without notice for the first 4 years of her life.  Nothing was said, no toys were given, no candles blown out, and no birthday song sang.  BUT this year, we changed all of that.  No longer will her birthday go unnoticed.  She is loved and I think she knows it.

The party table and decorations (I even made some of them myself)

Instead of bringing gifts, we asked the children to donate money to one of Anya's friends who was waiting for her forever family.  The little girl we chose was Annalisa and we raised $400.00 to be put into her grant fund.  Now that's what we call the best gift you could ask for.

Party Favor Bags!

(yep, I made those tags with my cricut machine...quite an accomplishment for me)

A banner with Anya's name on it.  This can be reused!!!

(can you believe I made this too!)

Avery running through my pictures!!!!!

A potting station where the kids could plant a flower and then take it home.

Ellis Anne's favorite attraction was the balloons!!!!

The party goers arrive and the fun begins...

Anya goes to a preschool at our church and so we invited all of her classmates, as well as, the families who are involved in our One Less Ministry team.

This has to be one of Anya's greatest fans, my dad.  He loves my little girls so much!!!!!

We were so excited to have 2 of our very special friends come to our party.  This is Sunny Jackson, she lives in our town and is the same age as Ellis Anne.  We are so thankful to have some special friends for our girls to grow up with.   Our other friend is Blake Missildine....who I do not even have a picture of.  It was great to have both of them and their families at the party.

Lot's of pictures of the Birthday Girl....

Avery and Anya

I am not sure when someone gave Anya an apple to eat, but from this point on it seems to be in every picture.  She carried it with her all day long.

Even I got to have my picture made with the special little birthday girl.

I love you so much Anya!!!

Her Babushka Cake!!!

(no, I DIDNOT make this)

Still hanging on to the apple.

And she decides to poke out her eyes...

My two little ones, with Ellis Anne trying to get away...I take what I can get.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Anya takes over the face painting booth...

Painting her cousin Bennett's face

It was a very Happy Birthday for Anya.

And we are praying that this little girl gets to have some Happy Birthday's in her future.

Thanks for sharing it with us!

Reed, Stephanie, Mary Claire, Avery, Ellis Anne and Anya