Happy 20th Birthday, Bristol Palin!

Tonight is Week 5 of Dancing With The Stars, and today is Bristol Palin's birthday! On behalf of all of our authors at the Sarah's Web Brigade, I want to wish Bristol a very happy birthday and an outstanding night at DWTS tonight! May you have a blessed birthday, and may the Lord's blessings follow you for many birthdays to come!

Bristol and Mark had an interesting week, of which we can get glimpses from Mark's DWTS Journal at USA Today (h/tp DanceBristolDance):

Oct. 13

[...]

Tuesday night was terrible on my nerves. Terrible! Being in jeopardy is not fun at all. I get anxious, but I don't stress because I'm 100% confident that Bristol and I are prepared when we hit the dance floor. It's a cliché but we live to not regret, which is what drives us to work as hard as we do. But those commercial breaks in between the results seem like they're thirty minutes each!

[...]

Now, about those judges. I was really disappointed and angry with the 4 that we received. I thought the scoring was a little inconsistent this week. I've been doing this a long time and I genuinely think our performance was worthy of a score higher than that 4! The great news is that will continue to motivate us and drive us to work tirelessly to prove those judges wrong!

Oct. 15

[...]

This week we have the Jive and since Bristol didn't have any speaking engagements, we were able to have long days of rehearsal on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. She's picking up the steps quickly and we've really progressed over the past few days. We'll also be at it all weekend, as repetition is key to really get the routine down.I think you'll love our costumes and the song we're dancing to on Monday! Bristol is working really hard this week and the Jive is definitely her most challenging dance yet.

[...]

I'm really excited about my plans for Bristol's birthday. Her actual birthday is Monday, but I've got a few things planned for her. I'm taking her to the L.A. Kings hockey game. Since she's a huge hockey fan she should really love it!

(Sunday update: We had so much fun at the LA Kings game Friday night! Bristol was very surprised and couldn't stop smiling! We were given custom jerseys, Bristol had a birthday greeting on the big screen, we sat next to Vince Vaughn in the second row, AND we got to meet a couple of the players after their big win. If you ever have the chance to go to an NHL game, make sure you sit as close to the ice as possible. The players are huge guys and the game moves so fast. And thanks so much to Kings marketing manager Heather Bardocz and her team for making Bristol's surprise so memorable!

In addition to attending the L. A. Kings hockey game on Friday night as an early birthday present from Bristol to Mark, the dancing duo also attended a Habitat for Humanity Walk on Saturday(h/tp DanceBristolDance), as reported here :

Bristol and Mark will be dancing the jive with a Halloween theme tonight on Week 5 of DWTS. Be sure to tune in at 8 PM EST on ABC to watch their performance and VOTE!

As a reminder, you can vote by phone by calling 1-800-868-3407 or by texting 3407. Voting online can be done at the Dancing With the Stars Voting Page.

Voting by phone is open from the start of the show until 30 minutes after the show ends. Online voting is open from 8 PM EST on Monday night until 11 AM EST Tuesday morning. You can use your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and personal e-mail accounts to vote. There is more information about voting at VOTING — HOW IT WORKS.

As you know, our votes are factored in with the judge’s scores. We know Bristol and Mark’s performance will be outstanding, so let’s do our part to help them win!