Rebekah's {Finally!!} 5th Birthday

Today is {finally} Rebekah's actual 5th birthday, and we headed to the waterpark for an awesome day!! The girls were so excited because they had seen on tv when Bert the Conqueror came to this park, and they couldn't wait to conquer the Shaka themselves!

Again, this is one more post where I had ton of photos I would have loved to include. I had a hard time deciding what to leave out...

Rebekah is getting pretty confident in the water. She can almost swim on her own, but not quite. She keeps reaching out for my hand. If only she realized how much easier it is to swim when you have use of both little flippers.



The girls had a blast all.day.long!



And on every.single.slide!



As Rebekah and I stood at the top of this slide watching Emma go down, I thought Rebekah was going to change her mind about going herself...



But she didn't, and while she preferred the slides that weren't quite so fast, she did this one at least a five or six times.



Ka'iulani splashing on the same slide.



Dave took the two bigger girls on many of the rides that Kamele was still too little to try. They had tons of fun, even the biggest kid of all enjoyed himself :-)












I love Rebekah's offer to catch Alyssa on this slide (from approximately 20 feet away from the bottom of the slide).












One of Alyssa's favorite slides.



And one of Emma's favorites. I didn't get to watch too many of their slides as they were actually happening so when I saw all the photos it made me happy to see them so happy and excited as they splashed in the water.






Me and Emma on the infamous Shaka. It was fun in a scare you silly kind of way, and yes, I felt like we were as high as that airplane you see next to us in the photo. I had told both of the girls I would go with them, since I was afraid that the two of them together would not be enough weight in the raft (plus I think Emma needed an adult with her anyway) and all I could think when I got up to the top with Alyssa was great, no matter how badly this goes, I have to do it at least one more time! It wasn't too bad, but twice was definitely enough for me.

Thank you so much to Granddaddy for bringing the girls here on Rebekah's birthday. They didn't think we were going to have a chance to visit the waterpark and it was the perfect and funnest way to spend the baby's birthday!!



When we got back from the waterpark, Aunty Ku'ulei had decorated the house so beautifully and the kids sang and ate cake together. Thank you very much, Ku'u!



And a little birthday note for Rebekah to read one day:

Dear Rebekah,
You finally made it ~ and can now officially say you are 5 years old! Hard for me to believe, but long awaited on your part, so I celebrate with you, even if it makes me sad to say that my baby is 5.

When I told you today that you are 5, you immediately asked when you will be 6, then later in the day asked if you could be 12. Hold on! You'll get there before you know it, and long before I'm ready. You make me want to grab the hands of the clock and make time stand still more than anyone in the world. Maybe because you're the baby everything seems so final with you.

There are so many things I love about you, but I'll try to list just a few:

I love your sweet-natured spirit. So carefree, always skipping along, singing a quiet song to yourself.

I love the crazy mismatched outfits you put together...you're either very fashion forward or you inherited someone's {who shall remain nameless :-)} propensity to put multiple patterns together and call it perfect.

I love how you watch your sisters when you are learning something new. And the little pout that usually comes when you try to convince them to just do it for you.

I love your jokes and I love how you tell stories. You have a very silly sense of humor, you are always saying the funniest things and you laugh really hard at yourself.

I love your tiny voice and your frequent use of the word "ginormous."

I love how you think you are so big, and have everything figured out, yet you still like to be babied. You're not too big to ask to be held until you fall asleep and you almost always make one of your sisters buckle your belt the car.

I love how when you don't know I'm watching you play at recess, you skip and run around happily in dizzy little circles until you can't walk straight anymore. And you chase kids who are much bigger than you...you're ambitious!

I love your big brown eyes that clearly show every emotion you're feeling.

I love {at least most of the time} how nothing is ever quite the same with you. Something that is super easy one day can be a huge ordeal the next ~ you definitely have a mind of your own, and it keeps me on my toes!

Thank you for being so sweet, gentle, kind and funny. We love you more than words can say!!

Happy 5th Birthday!! Finally ~ 5 is here at last, but I insist that we aren't celebrating your 12th birthday any time soon!