Happy 5th Birthday Brianna!!

My little "tiny," as she's always been called, turned 5 today!

We started the day in a not-so-fun way because she's off of school and it was a great opportunity to get her annual physical out of the way...  So off she and I and Micah went (he was waiting on his annual since I was out of the country) to the doctor.

Unfortunately, the runny nose and cough that she's been experiencing came to a crescendo today... and as she was sitting on the exam table I said to the doctor "she looks really mottled.  Actually, I wonder if that's a rash on her leg and not just mottling..."  So we decided to take a Strep culture for good measure.  For her 5th Birthday Brianna got a prescription for antibiotics!  :(  Poor baby.  It's impossible to know whether she has "just a runny nose" or something more going on.  Hopefully she'll enjoy her extra day of winter vacation when I keep her home tomorrow and will start feeling better soon!

Because of Brianna's diagnosis, I decided I'd best bring Emma in to be tested as well.  She, too, has had the snotty nose and cough.  Thankfully, Emma tested negative!

We decided that though we'd take extra precautions to be sure she doesn't spread the fun stuff she's carrying, we were still going to do what we had planned for the evening with her.  We went to (an EMPTY) Friendly's for dinner with Aleksa, Kristopher, Wesley, and Brianna and the kids were so excited to get ice cream after their meals!  I ordered three kids' meals between the 4 kids and then the 6 of us split the 3 sundaes that came with them.  We were the only customers in the restaurant!

After that, we drove out to Apopka and looked at 15 passenger vans.  Unfortunately our 12 is serving us in maintenance mode only and we're going to have to take 2 vehicles to go most places even though we have enough seats.  We don't have a way to bring a 3-seater and a 2-seater stroller along with all 10 of us in the 12 passenger.  Thankfully, we found something that will work, is in our price range, and has 2 features that we desired but didn't have in our current van-- a tow package and a running board on the passenger side.  We didn't buy it yet, but we'll talk to the loaning bank and see whether we can make that happen this next week.  It's a good deal on the van and a nice trade-in value compared to our original purchase price of our 12 passenger (2 years ago).  The only down-side is that it's WHITE. LOL.  Oh well...

We then came back home and got home late.  Kristopher is the only one that was out with us that has school tomorrow, and he does ok if it's just one night of a disrupted schedule.  Brianna is usually the one we worry about but she won't be going to school anyway.

Later this week we'll have a small birthday party with family and a few close friends for Brianna and by then she should be germ free and ready to celebrate :).  I can't believe she's already 5 years old!!  Or, that it' JANUARY already!  Time certainly flies, and our little "tiny" is getting big right before our eyes:)

Happy Birthday Brianna!!  I hope you feel better soon and have a great week of celebrating with your friends at school then family at home.  You are a joy and a treasure, and we love you very much!!