Emma's pool party

So when planning Emma's party, we thought, August...too hot for the park, don't want it to be at home (not enough room), so the pool sounded great! And it was, just cooler than we expected.

We started off the morning early, so we made our cupcakes. Emma got to help with everything...even icing the cupcakes. She was a good helper. 

We had a blast at the pool with her friends and their families, even if some of us were a little chilly. (Our high was like 89...cool for August.) Emma is doing great at the pool. She just hangs on to her noodle and swims around by herself, a big improvement. She is definitely getting more independent. After an hour of swimming we did cake and presents. Emma didn't know what to do with herself when we sang to her. :) but it was a fun party, and we loved being surrounded by friends to help celebrate.

Eating her cupcake...icing first.

Had to get a picture of Josiah enjoying his cupcake!

Opening presents

I almost forgot about the birthday hats!

Landon, Emma, Ashlynn, Hannah, Owen. 

(Carter and Josiah had to leave early.)

And Raelynn, of course. (With her mom, Michelle.)

Carrying presents to the car.

She was too busy playing with presents to eat her dinner. 

More birthday fun!

Check out her eaWe partied ALL weekend. Sunday we got up and made more cupcakes for church. For her birthday breakfast I also made her black bean brownies and strawberry ice cream in the Vitamix. In all, we made 5 dozen cupcakes, 30ish truffles, and a pan of black bean brownies. It was a sugar-filled weekend, that's for sure!

After church we did lots of skyping, and of course more presents, and then even more on Monday! She had a fabulous weekend. Although on Sarurday, the day of her party, her favorite thing of the day was still 'talking to daddy.' And Monday, her favorite thing was 'cleaning toilets.' I guess that's the only thing that can beat out daddy. ;) 

Birthday breakfast.

Pink cupcakes.

Cupcakes at church...I may have also let her eat a donut...it WAS her birthday.

It was my pretend birthday. This was all a present.

Check out her earrings 

Exhausted birthday girl. She fell asleep on the way to the fire station. We dropped off our extra cupcakes for them. But it sure did make us miss daddy!

She put her new cleaning supplies to good use!

Daddy and I sang to her...and this was all the sugar we could handle after the rest of the day.

Happy girl.

More presents! 

Her name!

Clothes!

New dress, now, shoes...and cleaning stuff! 

Painting her own nails with her princess nail polish.

She was SO excited for her cleaning stuff. Woke up and said, "Mom, it's cleaning day!" She loved being broom andop buddies. Girl loves to clean!

Pinterest Fail

So, I like to try things I find on Pinterest. Try being the key word, as I am that classic Pinterest Fail person. But I keep trying...sometimes it works out. Anyway, Emma has asked for pink cake balls for her birthday for a while. I thought the Oreo truffles were pretty much the same thing, and I like them better and they are easier. Anyway, we have made them before, just never with sticks. And we will probably never do them with sticks again. Even though they were in the freezer the whole time we were skyping with daddy, they were really too soft. We put them in the colanders to dry, but they started to melt/sag/fall off the sticks. Oh and the sprinkles...yikes. I have done the little pink sprinkles before, they work well, but the multicolored ball ones...not so much. It was just a mess. And trying to do this with an almost 4 year old....who really just wanted to eat it all and lick everything...it was just an interesting experience. Not what I had imagined at all. I have done these before, they went fine before. I felt so bad as we were planning on giving these away to her friends at her party, but they definitely don't look like what she wanted. But thankfully she is 4 and not 14. After doing it all with me, she looked at them and said, "They are so much beautiful. I love them!" Sigh. Those are the little moments that make the giant sugary mess worth it.  And well,  we made some memories, too. :) 

Her favorite part I think is tasting everything.

Put stick in ball.

Dip in chocolate.

Smile for mom.

Lick fingers.

We had to take them off the colanders since they were so soft. Some got little cupcake papers...but they were really to big for them. The sprinkles worked better in my mind than in reality. The chocolate was too warm and they drripped.

I'm not one to waste chocolate! So we dipped our strawberries, too. :) She was a happy, chocolatey girl. 

Keeping busy

Emma and I have been trying to keep busy while Daddy is gone. We Skype with him most evenings, but we still miss him. She is starting her list of things to do when he gets back. But for now, here is what she has been up to:

Playing with Ada.

Napping on Mom

Helping Pepper get comfortable.

"I'm a big girl!" Growing up...she got her cup and the milk and the cereal all by herself. There wasn't much left so she actually did it herself.

Playing this game/puzzle with Mom and ALL if her animals/dolls.

Waking me up before the sun with crazy hair.

She was making green dolly apologize for something.

Bowling.

Playing with Raelynn.

Driving. ;)

She found this Disnry Princess book at the library and has been almost inseparable from it from the moment she saw it.

Bedtime snack.

Showing me 'pictures of Cinderella and the Orince at the ball.' She even scrolled down to find more. ;)

And oh the cleaning! She has been a good helper.  She is able to help with more jobs, and is usually willing. And while Grandma Joy would be proud of her for seeing work that needs to be done, sometimes when she just goes ahead and does it...it's not quite as helpful...usually when she is combining cleaning with something she is not supposed to be doing, or something she really still needs help with. This week has seen baby powder (again), toothpaste on her legs, lots of doing her own hair/makeup/toothbrushing, and she would have picked up Pepper's #2 if  she could have gotten the bags by herself. Becoming more independent is a messy thing...she keeps telling me, "I'm a big girl now!" 

Early birthday

Emma's birthday is coming up, and I am throwing her pool party. But one of her friends, Luke, will be out of town, so we met them at the park this morning and celebrated early. They even brought cupcakes. :)

My first attempt at French braiding.

Best helped with the ribbon.

Cupcakes!

Candace, Ben, and Luke.

Luke got her a jewelry making kit. And we repurposed the cupcake container for the beads.

She misses her 'headstand' buddy.