Emma's Third Birthday

So, I have only had this post typed out and in the draft form for over a month now but life has just been crazy lately! I know, I say that everytime I post now and have been for the past six months. We have been having a blast lately though with vacation and two amazing babies who are getting bigger by the day. Some days, I just sit back and watch Emma and Jackson run after each other, give each other kisses, and then push each other over, and I am truly amazed at how blessed we really are.

Even though Emma was still a few days shy of actually turning 3, we decided to celebrate her Birthday the weekend before (her actual Birthday was back on June 27th) because our schedule has just been crazy lately (good crazy though). We tried something a little different this year because the party was on a Sunday and we did a morning party and I think it went great! We kicked off the party at 10:00 and it was a beautiful day outside so we had Emma open up her presents first, before all the kids got changed into their bathing suits and headed outside for some sprinkler fun.

Emma had been asking if it was her Birthday pretty much every day for about two months before her actual Birthday. So by the time it was finally here, she was pretty excited. No matter how many times I asked her what kind of party she wanted this year, she never wavered and always told me that she wanted a Pooh-Bear party because red is her favorite color.

This year, we kept it pretty minimal with the decorations (and partly because I never realized how hard it would be to get things like balloons where you live in a place where nothing opens before noon on Sundays which doesn't go so well with 10:00AM parties). We picked up a couple of hanging lanterns (which will eventually be part of of The Squishy's room), some plastic table cloths and decorated with Emma's Pooh-Bear stuffed animals.

It helps when your child is a stuffed-animal-hoarder and you have pretty much every character from the show. Although as we were setting out her stuffed animals, Emma yelled out "Mommy! I don't have Christopher Robin!!" Luckily, I was able to convince her that the party could still go on even without Christopher Robin since we already had Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Owl, Roo and Rabbit. Reluctantly, she agreed. :)

Emma (and The Squishy for that matter) were pretty much bouncing off the walls that morning until the party started. I kept trying to get a good picture of her in her Birthday outfit but it was near impossible. I snapped a few on my phone and tried to get a couple when I broke out my camera but the only time I could get a semi-decent one was after we turned on The Fresh Beat Band.

Although I really wanted to keep my camera attached to my hip during the party so I could snap away, I put it down for a while because I just wanted to enjoy my big girl's special day. Of course I had to snap a few shots here and there though. She was like a whirlwind opening her presents so I don't have too many pictures of that, but she did stop for half of a second and posed with her new puppy "Ruff Ruff", which was an extra special present that her big cousin Dana gave to her. Ruff Ruff hasn't left Emma's side since then.

And of course, The Squishy was loving every minute of the chaos, as well as all of his big sister's presents.

For the past two years on Emma's Birthday, we have had A.W.F.U.L weather. It's always been sunny, but it has been over a hundred degrees randomly. Finally, we had a gorgeous, sunny, warm but not HOT day. Although I only took a few pictures while we were outside, I had to catch a few of The Squishy because he cracks me up whenever we break out the sprinkler. He does this every.single.time.

We just finished lunch and Squishy saw the sprinkler turn on. He sprinted (and yes, the kid can actually run already) over to it with a giant fist full of bread from his sandwich, got about three feet away from the sprinkler and just stood there. It was like he was frozen. His feet didn't move for probably ten minutes. He just stood there....

...and stood there...

...then he looked around a bit....

...and then went back to just standing there. All the while getting sprinkled on, coveting and snacking on his extra soggy piece of bread.

Meanwhile, my Emma Kathryn was still glued to Dana's side. I think Emma might have been this close to Dana all day. :)

Not the Squishy though. He was a little social butterfly.

Then it was time for cake. Emma went with me to the store a while back to order her cake. We picked out the most obnoxious cake we could find. She loved it. If you are ever around Emma at any birthday party, you know that the cake is pretty much all she cares about. Whether its her Birthday party or not, she usually spends about an hour begging for cake, and constantly asking "Is it cake time yet?" We couldn't hold her off much longer, so out came the Pooh-Bear cake. Emma made her wish and blew out the candles and dug in. Later in the day, she told me that she wished for Mommy. ::: dies :::

All in all it was an amazing day and both the babies were fast asleep as soon as everyone headed out. I had to wake both of them up later in the day so they must have played their little hearts out. Emma insisted on napping in her new sleeping bag from her Mimi and Pop.

I love you my Emma Kathryn.

Mommy and Daddy still had a few surprises for her on her actual Birthday, but this was an amazing start. We can't thank everyone that was there to help us celebrate, and those that were just wishing Emma an amazing Birthday but couldn't be there. I wish everyone could have seen the look on her face when she opened her presents, and dug into her cake, and go to put on her red Birthday tu-tu.