Emma Turns 5 and We Visit Santa!

I know these are quite late, but here are some great shots from Emma's 5th birthday! We decided to just have one party for her friends at Safari Playground in Holly. What a great place for a party!! It's an indoor play scape with two huge "obstacle-course" type playgrounds that are connected "by a great big bridge!" We had 12 kids come to help Emma celebrate her 5th birthday. She "hand-picked" everyone she wanted to come and they are really a great group of kids! She even remembered the ones that we don't see everyday and even siblings of her friends!!!

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Someone LOVES frosting! We got Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Cupcakes!

They were quite the hit with both kids and adults!!

Opening presents! The funniest part was for every gift Emma opened, she would turn it around to show everyone and all the kids would give this HUGE "OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

The hard part was keeping the kids from basically sitting on Emma's lap to see! (In this picture she got the movie "Santa Buddies" from her Uncle Paul...something she's REALLY wanted!!

Emma and her buddy, Uncle Paul!

The Friday before her party, Santa was at the bank where I work, so I took Emma and Bradlee to see him. Not only was it promoting an event at my workplace (something I always try to do), but I could take all the pictures I wanted for FREE!! Unfortunately, I didn't get too many, because Bradlee was T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D!!!!! He was shaking he was so scared. Wouldn't give Santa a high-five or anything. Maybe next year! This was the best picture I could get of him with Santa....and I had to be in it! Emma, on the other hand, jumped up in his lap, talked up a storm...then Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said, "Rapunzel Barbie". "Oh, Rapunzel Barbie? That's great! Anything else?" "Ummmmm......yes. Lego Pirates." "Oh, okay, Lego Pirates. Sounds great. Anything else?" "Ummmm....no. That's it. Can I have a candy cane now??" LOL That's my daughter, get straight to the point and get that candy! LOL She also had a little picnic on the floor of the bank with her cookie, punch, candy cane and popcorn! Bradlee at least enjoyed his cookie!

Hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday!

Silly Kids...

I could write another novel about all the things that have happened in the last two weeks, but I think I'll just write a little today and then post some great birthday pictures from Emma's BIG #5 later this week!


The first weekend of December, my parents treated Emma and me (along with my sisters and Garrett) to see "The Nutcracker" ballet at The Whiting. It's performed by a cooperative between the Flint School of Performing Arts and a group in New York. Emma has heard the story, and we even watched the ballet on TV last Christmas, and she just loves the story, so it was her turn to see it "live on the stage"! She absolutely LOVED it! She sat between Kathi and me, and God bless Kathi, talked the whole show! :) It was so much fun to see her excitement, though. As soon as the orchestra played the downbeat of the opening piece, Emma looks at us and says, "I KNOW THIS SONG!!" So cute! I think we've created a new tradition!! Here's Emma, Gramma and Boppa with the "big ornament" in the background!


Bradlee's been doing great. I have this feeling that if he didn't have the tubes in his ears, he'd be on an antibiotic right now, since he has quite a bit of drainage coming from his ear. It's so comforting to know he's not in any pain and not missing so much school! He's quite the goof-ball, though. He loves to pose for pictures, no unlike his sister, and just loves to be in the middle of everything. This picture was taken in the car while we were waiting for Emma to be finished at school...what a ham! I KNOW he gets it from his Daddy, but that's why I love them BOTH! :)





Emma turned 5 on December 8th, which I just find amazing! I took her to the doctor for her 5-year check up....she grew almost 5 inches in the past year!! Amazing! This past Friday, I picked the kids up from school and Bradlee went to Tony's parents' for the night while Emma and I had another "Mommy-Emma night". We got dinner (McDonald's) and went to eat with Tony at school (he has a basketball game that night) then we went to see "The Princess and the Frog". What a great movie! Emma loved it, too, of course! She's added another new favorite princess to her list and points "Princess Tiana" out everywhere we go! Afterwards, I treated her to hot chocolate at Starbucks! We had a nice time together. I just love my little (I mean, BIG) girl!!!

Busy Busy!

I just have to say that I have the cutest little boy in the world...but there's definitely a reason why we call him the "shikval" ("tornado" in Russian!)...we thought Emma was hard to keep up with, whew! Bradlee's got nothing on her!! I took him to get his haircut the Monday before Thanksgiving and he cried the whole time! What a turkey! I think it was because Emma wasn't there to distract him! So when we got home, this is the look he gave me when I went to take his picture...it's the "I love you Mommy and I know you love me too...I'm too cute not to love" face! LOL It's also the look he gives me when he climbs up onto the dining room table before I can catch him and just sits there....I'm tellin' ya, Shikval! :)



Thanksgiving Eve we all spent the night at Tony's parents house, since we were headed back there for dinner anyway! We got up in time to watch the Macy's Parade! Bradlee LOVED the balloons and Emma LOVED the floats and the marching bands! Here's Bradlee and Beepee watching the parade!!





Emma got to help Nana stuff the turkey...she used apples, onions, garlic and spices...and it was DELICIOUS! Emma got a kick out of touching the raw turkey...and we saved the wish bone so she could take it in to school when it's her turn to have the mystery box. The mystery box is an old metal lunch box that each kid gets to bring home and put something in that the other kids get to guess by asking questions and such. Emma looks forward to taking it, and since she's in both morning and afternoon Pre-K classes, she'll get it twice as much!! She's already planning on having one of her friends help her demonstrate how to break it!

Bradlee's favorite part of dinner was by far the cranberry sauce! I swear, my kids will choose fruits over candy ANY day! He started by just putting his hand in the bowl, which was mistakenly left right by his seat...he was so nonchalant about it, so I had to take some pictures! He would just look around and then put his hand in the bowl and take a handful and go straight to his mouth! LOL Then he spotted the spoon...and a whole spoonful of cranberry sauce ended up on his lap! Although, some did manage to get on his face! :)

Yesterday, I took Emma to the eye doctor for a check up. Her eyes have not gotten any better since we last saw Dr. Chris in August...and I made sure he knew it. In fact, he even agreed with me that the crossing had gotten worse. So he is putting her in bifocals to try to train the eyes to focus. If that doesn't work by the end of February, then we talk surgery...

She had told her teacher, Mrs. Walters, that she was going to the eye doctor. Mrs. Walters told her that on Science day (Wednesdays), she could tell her class about her visit to the eye doctor...so a "nurse" helped us posed Emma for a few pictures to show her class! She didn't actually get to use these instruments this trip, but she's used them before, so she should be able to share with her class about her trip to the eye doctor! Should make a good story from Mrs. Walters to hear what she told them!! :)

We're all starting to feel better, but the time change has allowed for exhaustion to set in! Bradlee's had the flu this week, but nothing near as bad as Tony or Emma...we actually just thought it was a teething fit, since he just had a runny nose and a cough (we assumed, from the runny nose!)...he went to the doctor today and nope, flu. Three down, one (me!) to go!!! I WILL fight this one! :) Hope you have a great rest-of-the week! :)