Happy Birthday to our Emma!

Our sweet baby girl turned FIVE today....

Neither of us can believe it.

These photos are from her five year old photo shoot, but let me tell you that that shoot didn't quite go as planned. We planned the whole thing...timing of the light, outfit, daddy to keep bro, balloons from heb, the list goes on. We got to our special spot and my battery was dead. No big deal, I tried the other battery, and it was dead too. It was not my day. Then, a balloon blew away, and not just any balloon, but the yellow one. And, we all know that yellow is her favorite color. A few minutes later, we lost another one. This time it was pink. So, we loaded everything back up and went home. Once we were home, I threw the battery on the charger, and still thought that I might be able to knock this shoot out. So, we jumped back into the car and drove around the corner to a spot in our neighborhood. We started with four balloons...yellow, pink, orange, and purple. We were down to purple and orange. Neither she nor I knows where the purple one went, so that left us with orange. And would you believe the sprinklers came on in the middle of the shoot? So this is what we got. Y'all know I'm a perfectionist, but just to let y'all know...I settled that day. I settled big time, so y'all should all be proud :)

I was super pleased with one, and that's all you need, right? I just love her to pieces.

I plan to do a yearly birthday questionnaire with all of my kiddos, but I haven't gotten that far yet. So, I'll tell you what I know for sure...

She's sweet, loves reindeers and fairies (I really think it's the magic that she likes), gives the best hugs and kisses, loves hard (really, really hard), helps me whenever she can, loves her baby brother to pieces, is a daddy's girl for sure, is always thinking... and asking... and figuring, has an amazing spirit, and has been such a blessing to our family.

Her birthday party is in a few weeks, but I still wanted her real birthday to be special, so I baked these...

And she started the morning by opening her birthday hat, which was so fun to wear. She got wished a "Happy Birthday" 100 times that day.

Daddy brought in dough-nuts for our special girl...

Bro definitely approved of his breakfast...

We sang, "Happy Birthday..." And that was the start of her day.

After the gym, I loaded up the cupcakes.

And we headed to the park.

We met some of Emma's favorite friends for a birthday picnic.

And, we sang again...

And wished again...

It was a festive morning.

She opened her gift from us...

And, had been playing with her birthday fairies from Mama and Papa C. all day.


She had quite a bit to open... So, a big thank you to all of our family and friends who sent Miss Emma cards for her special day. She enjoyed it all.

I started on dinner, looked up, and found this. Yay for the littles! Turn your head one second and bam! Okay, now I sound like Emeril. Dinner was Emma's choice...burgers on the grill and...

Strawberry Shortcake. Miss Emma decorated the top too.

She had her best friend over for dinner and dessert.

Bro is always excited when there's sugar involved.

We sang again...

And wished again...

And ended the night with just some Emma time...

Bro was already sound asleep, but we did sneak in a quick photo of just the three of us.

geez they grow up fast.