My 5 year old tomboy

It truly is unbelievable that Darby turned 5 this past weekend! It seems like she has had a 2 week long birthday because we had her combined friend birthday party 2 weeks ago! She shared a party with two of her friends Connor and Colter who all turned 5 within the month and pretty much have the same friends. Fewer times we have to get them hyped up on sugar and excitement :) Then this weekend we had a great family day for her birthday, donuts for breakfast, going to church (Darby's request), swimming at the Hot Springs, and burgers for dinner with her friend Connor.

What can I say about Darby? I will have to say she is my most surprising child! I never in a million years would have thought I would have such a strong willed and stubborn child. Truly, I am not that strong willed . . .I guess I'll have to ask my parents about that one . . .and I really need to please people. Darby? Not so much. As you can hopefully tell by all her pictures I give her lots of independence in the clothes area, I mean, I pretty much let her wear whatever she wants. . .why fight about it all the time? which is what it would be. Well, you'd think she would wear something I wanted her to wear just once, like say preschool graduation, but nope, not her. I tried to get her to wear a plain white T-shirt and it turned into a supreme battle of her crying and screaming *sigh* What can I do? The girl knows who she is, what she likes, what she doesn't, and she certainly doesn't care what other people think :)

I love her so much for her independent spirit, her uniqueness, and everything about her! She is a joy with Brendan and is such a nurturer, "I just can't stop touching Brendan, he's so cute!" She loves to sing, dance, write, draw, and pretty anything that involves sports that don't make you dress up in anything too girly :) So Happy Birthday to my girl, Darby!

Darby 1 week

Darby 1 year

Darby 2 years

Darby 3 years

Darby 4 years

Darby 5 years