Giggles

This girl is a goof. A giant goof with a capital G. She'll be 2 this week (how did that happen??!) and she's become so much more of a person in the past few months. Here's a few things we've discovered:

She loves to giggle. Which means she loves to be tickled. Loves to be tickled. She'll ask for them and when you stop, for fear she can't catch her breath, she'll just chant "more, more" until you start tickling her again.

She loves to clap and say a enthusiastically high pitched "yay" whenever she gets excited, which is easily and often. This happens whenever she's around water (bathes, pools, sprinklers, oceans, lakes, sinks) and parks. The climbing and sliding. The running and chasing. She loves parks.

She also loves to note when things are big. BIG jump. BIG tree. BIG hole. Her favorite colors seem to be blue, purple, and red. In that order. Favorite animal is definitely a kitty.

And Emily. She loves her Emily.

Fortunately the feeling's mutual.

4th o' July!

Emily turned 4!!

Emily had another birthday, 2 months ago. Yikes! She celebrated with friends at a nearby art studio, which was chaotic but super fun! They each got to sculpt a clay pirate or fairy to bake and take home that day.

Even though we didn't need to decorate, we hung some ruffly streamers around the splatter studio - in the hopes of creating a photo booth. The kids thought it was more of a romper room, but that was ok. At least they enjoyed using the props :)

Aunt Beca made a fancy princess castle cake AND cupcakes which everyone loved. Appetizers were fruit kabobs and cheese crackers, at Em's request. We brought along juice boxes too. And pretty much all the photos are courtesy of Uncle Glenn.

Of course this special day wouldn't have been complete without a handmade item, a crown I sewed the night before her party. To my surprise she wore it the entire time! These might become a new birthday tradition, along with a fancy-pants dress of course ;)

 

^^ These don't do justice to the total chaos in there! ^^

And on Em's actual birthday we had a fun family day at the pool, followed by dinner and ice cream with Becky and Glenn!

^^ The coveted Anna and Elsa dolls!! ^^

And I just have to say, this little girl is so fun and ... surprising. As anyone who's spent time with us knows, she's a sensitive soul who gets hurt and sad more often than we'd like. But she's a rockstar too, and surprises us with how brave and independent she can be.

From her first day at preschool, when she shocked the pants off me by jumping in with such excitement, to her first day at summer camp last week when according to Matt she was one of the few kids with a dry eye that morning, we're so so proud when she shines as our big girl.

So "Happy Birthday, Em"- we can't wait to see what's in store for you this year!

^^ Just because the "before" pics are fun too!^^

Easter, 2014

Yep, Easter was a few months ago.... Better late than never, I guess ;)

So to jump back a few months - we met Becky and Glenn that morning at church and had brunch back home afterwards. At church the girls completely missed the Easter egg hunt, we think the bigger kids grabbed them all too quickly, so we recreated the search in our backyard, which they loved. We didn't get a lot of indoor shots of baskets & eggs or bunny tracks this year. But rest assured, they were there.

This first photo on the left is a reminder that posed pics usually start out with one (if not both) girls running in the other direction, and one of us (usually me) chasing them down. I almost like this pic better than the posed one though - it's more... us :)

Yep, those are matching red sandals. And yep, they make me very-very happy. (No, we couldn't get Matt to wear a pair too. I tried.) Even now when friends point it out, I'll admit that it's dorky but I still love it.

Happy Easter!!