My School Birthday by Denny Lynn

Since my birthday falls on the weekend, we celebrated at school today! I got to be the special helper and sit by Ms. Patsy.

I finally got to wear my birthday crown! It is green with blue glitter (I picked the colors) and it has five dots on each side with number 5 and my name in the middle. I described it for my whole class before Ms. Patsy put it on me.

 Next we lit a candle to be the sun and then I put all 12 months of the year around it.

Starting at February (for my birthday) I carried the earth around the sun one time for each year. I got to tell them something about myself for each year (Mama helped with some). For instance, when I was one, I was already riding horses with Daddy. When I was 2, my favorite thing to play was trains and when I was 3 I loved Scooby Doo (some things don't change much!). When I was 4 I came to my new school and now I am turning 5!

Next John and all my friends sang Happy Birthday to me...

...and then I blew out the sun!

I got to dismiss my friends a few at a time to wash their hands for snack. While some were waiting we played Simon Says and I was Simon. My favorite commands are "Simon says touch your nose" and "Simon says jump up and down".

Finally, it was cupcake time. We had triple chocolate cupcakes - chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Notice my special birthday boy ribbon with Optimus Prime on it!

John was excited to be part of my party and part of my class. Mostly he was excited to get a cupcake!

They were yummy!

Then we went over to Ms. Angie's class to see my other friends. They sang Happy Birthday to me and then I dismissed them to wash their hands and they got to have cupcakes. I go to this class in the afternoons and it was really important to me to share my birthday with these friends, too!

I really appreciate everyone helping make a special day just for me!

Family Fun by John Lee

Our last night in Oklahoma we got to stay with Uncle Jeff and Emily. We all went over to Nana and Papa's to have some pizza and family time! Denny and I both got new Valentine Boxes full of candy and special cards from Nana and Papa!

Denny got a birthday card and money, too! He can pick out whatever  he wants for his birthday!

I am so glad we got to make a special trip to see them all! We love our Oklahoma family and wish we could see them more!

Fun with Jasper by Denny Lynn

After our big fun at the Aquarium, we headed to the park with Jasper. It was a pretty cool park in Jenks.

I hurt my foot sliding down the fireman pool - but Mama explained that sometimes even firemen do that.

We ran and played all over.

Then we hit the swings - having fun and happy to be together.

Jasper helped take care of me since my foot was hurt. I miss Jasper and can't wait to go back for a visit! Hopefully, he can come to New Mexico to see us sometime. Cousins are very special.

Oklahoma Aquarium by Denny Lynn

For our big Saturday adventure we got to meet Jasper at the Aquarium! We were so excited to see him and go to a new fun place!

Inside we found all kinds of wonderful things to see and do! Some things we could even touch. We liked petting the starfish.

They even had a tank you could get inside of and see all the fish. It was like swimming with them!

Feeding the turtles was awesome! We each got a stick with a clothes pin on the end and some carrots to put in the clip. When  you put the carrot over the water the turtles would come! There were lots of turtles and they really liked the carrots.

John said it was like fishing, but Mama told him real quick not to be pulling the turtles out like fish! This was John's favorite part.

Jasper and I measured up against the big fish. We are pretty much the same eight now.

We found more things to see and touch, including a purple starfish I really liked.

We watched the sting rays and the little sharks swim around...

...and then we got to pet them, too! I said they felt like lotion. I reminded John not to touch the tail!

We made it just in time to see the beaver have breakfast in Ozark exhibit. She really likes fruit, just like me!

Finally we came to the sharks - we went through the tunnel a lot of times to see the sharks swimming - some of them were ginormous! 

We also liked all the shark displays - this shark head lights up to show all the sensors a shark has for detecting fish to eat. We pretended to be fish for him!

They even had shark video games to play on the screens!

They had a life size shark cage - I learned that it is for keeping the sharks OUT, not IN. It is a good thing we fit through the bars or Mama might have left us there.

John found a cool yellow and white fish - it matched his shirt!

There was so much to see and do! We kept ourselves entertained all morning.

I always look for the jelly fish. I like these that glowed blue.

We were sad when it was time to go, but we stopped for a quick ride on the alligator. The Aquarium was so much fun and it was extra special to share it with Jasper and Melissa!

Packin' It Up by Denny Lynn

Daddy was still in meetings, so that left us to get all the luggage out and loaded up to go to Uncle Jeff's. We had Daddy's hats and kept trying to be careful with them. I finally said - "I don't know what to do with these hats, guess I'll wear them." This begs the question - why didn't Mama think of that?

Oklahoma Meal Fun by John Lee

I am always all about the food! While we were in Oklahoma, we got to try some new things and some old favorites! We ate at Joe's Crab Shack and even got dessert!

It was one of our favorites - ICE CREAM SANDWICHES! And they even came with toppings to put on them. I liked the chocolate and the sprinkles - Denny liked his plain.

While Daddy was working, we had fun outings! We picked up McDonald's for lunch and had a picnic. We found a cool duck pond with lots of ducks and geese.

Then we had a very special dinner Friday night with Aunt Judy, Uncle Jeff and Emily, and Nana and Papa.

Uncle Jeff and I made monster faces.

We had good food with good people and it made for a pretty great week!