A happy purrrr-thday to 11-year-old Emma!

Emma turned 11 on the 31st and it was a great day from start to finish for this sweet girl!

The day before her birthday, we made these cake pops.  I may or may not have been pulling out my hair over these cake pops I was working on for her class. I've never had good luck with them but figured with several tutorials and videos viewed, we'd be okay.  But oh no...total fails on so many!  They kept falling off the sticks and dropping into the chocolate and crumbling.  I was about ready to scream!  Emma wanted them so bad and so I was determined though! I was telling her how ugly they looked but Em was so encouraging and said they looked great!  Once she started helping me, things got much better.  The faces we painted on with chocolate helped hide the imperfections.  When they were all done, Emma said "Oh, they look so good!" with a huge smile on her face.  I also didn't have any Styrofoam, so I used a box covered in wrapping paper, which worked okay, but they were all over the place instead of straight up.  We only had one casualty with one falling off the stick, so I'd say that was not too bad!

We woke Em up singing to her, it was easy to get her out of bed on her big day!  We got ready, and actually did something with her hair, had scriptures and the usual morning routine.  We had Toaster Pastries for breakfast, which was her request. We don't get foods like that very often, so thought that was cool.  Then she went off to school.  We went to eat lunch with Emma.  Lunch was good (yes, school lunch is really good here and the friends are so fun to chat with!) and then we went out to play for recess.  Cov thinks this is so cool and loves all of Emma's friends.  Sydney was the center of attention.  Lucy wanted to show all of her friends Sydney.  So many were surrounding her but they were good not to touch her.  A bunch of Cal's friends came up to say hi.  It is fun to watch Emma and her friends play.  The girls in their grade are so unique.  They really are all friends and get along so well and are all so good and encouraging to each other.  We took a picture of them all on the slide, though you can only see some of them.  Emma's class loved the cake pops and Emma was proud of them, so it was worth every effort!

While she was gone, I made her cake and finished getting stuff ready for her party.  The cake was a rice krispy and fondant Pusheen and a little cake made with funfetti and frosting and fondant.  The fondant was cracking apart this time around...I'm not really the cake boss but more like the cake loser, haha!  But at least she liked it!  When she got home, she had some homework to do so she did that first.  Emma got some calls from family members, so she liked hearing wishes from loved ones and talking to them.

Then it was Pusheen party time! Emma and I came up with game and activity ideas together.  Pusheen is the star of a animated web comic series.  She's popular among Emma and her friends.  They have some cute little comics.  First, we played hide the Pusheen.  Emma made this cute little Pusheen out of a sock, felt and thread.  The kids took turns hiding it and finding it.  Then the kids started making Pusheen perler bead creations, but we didn't have time to finish them.  We learned how to draw Pusheen and everyone added their own special touches to their drawings. We played Pushacorn tag next, where the kids took turns tagging each other with this unicorn horn.  Next, we had dinner because Pusheen loves to eat - grilled burgers, fries, salad, watermelon and pop were on the menu.  During dinner, we went around and all said something we love about Emma.  Lucy said she's kind, Cov said she plays with him, Cal said she's nice, Daddy said she's helpful and I said she radiates all the good things.  She was blushing, love that girl!Next, we watched some Pusheen videos online.  Lots of giggles.  Next, we were on to presents.  Emma got an owl suitcase, a bow and arrow set, a fitness watch (like a FitBit only a knock off brand), and a Pusheen shirt.  She was excited about it all, as each of these things she's wanted for a long time!  She also liked the card Cov made for her, which I dictated for him. It said "I like Pusheens and I like you.  I like Pusheens because I like you.  I just like you forever, I do.  I just want to hug you super tight!  Love, Cov"  On the front he drew a picture of Pusheen by himself, which he said didn't really look like Pusheen, but he did a great job!  She was almost in tears too when she read the card from Dave & I.  I think her love language is words of affirmation.  Next, we had a Pusheen caption contest.  We had a bunch of random Pusheen pictures.  We passed them around and each person got turns captioning each one.  Then, we voted on the cutest/funniest/most original captions and the person with the most votes got that picture.  It got pretty competitive and funny!  Emma and Dad ended up tying!  We wrote the winning captions on the front.  Finally, we turned out the lights, used the "torch" (Covey said this) to light the candles and sing to Emma.  Then we enjoyed the cake and ice cream.

It seems that many years Emma's had kitty or kitty related birthday parties! She had an orange kitty birthday when she was 3, a Hello Kitty Kiss birthday at 5, a white cat birthday at 9 and now Pusheen birthday at 11.  Emma sure loves her feline friends!

When I was thinking about Emma, the word that came to mind is radiant!  She radiates beauty, joy, goodness, kindness, talent, helpfulness, wisdom, ability, and the love of God.  We love her so much and are grateful she's our first born!  It's hard to believe it's been 11 years since we welcomed her to the world.  Each year gets brighter for this sweet young lady and we're excited to see what this year holds!  

About 11-Year-Old Emma

In her spare time: Play with Jazzy, read, draw pictures and write stories
Best friends: Leah, Ivy, Joy & Anna, and pretty much all the girls in class (except the boys)
Favorite color: Mint green
Favorite books: Harry Potter
Favorite food: Mac and cheese
Favorite treat: Brownies 
Favorite vegetable: Tomatoes
Favorite fruit: Peaches or plums
Favorite drink: Hi-C
Favorite thing to play with: Legos, Jazzy
Favorite subject at school: Art
Favorite TV shows: Casey Undercover, Stuck in the Middle 
Favorite movie: Mama Mia!
Favorite song: A lot of songs
Favorite game: Clue
Favorite season: Winter
Favorite holiday: HalloweenFavorite animal: Cats
Favorite sport: Football
Thing she's best at: Trumpet & piano
Wants to be when she grows up: A reporter for the news.  Or a veterinarian.  She also recently told us she wants to be a truck driver...Haha!  Daddy said no to that one and told her it would be cool for a week or two, but it is a rough life and her talents and abilities go beyond that.  So true!  This girl is going places!

Back in the school time groove

We're back...back in the school time groove!  We've had some mixed reactions about going back to school.  Summer always goes by way too fast and I always miss the kids, but at the same time, it's nice to have a little more quiet with a new baby.  And by the last few weeks of summer, it seems all structure goes out the window and it's hard to get them to do anything!  The kids have mixed reactions, too.  They keep asking why summer can't be longer, and I'm with them.  But it's also good to get back to the routine again (especially it seems the last few weeks before school starts again, all schedules and structure go out the window).  Emma was excited to get back to be a queen of the elementary school as a mighty 6th grader, but sad to see the sleepovers and sleeping in go.  She has Mrs. Green this year (who she went to for math last year).  It's hard to believe it's her last year of elementary school.  This picture of her in kindergarten just popped up on Facebook and I swear we just dropped her off for the first time.  Now she's heading out like a pro to school each day, so grown up and independent and responsible. Cal was excited to go back, he loves school and the learning and social aspect.  But he loves playing outside so much and said he wishes it were warm like summer all year.  He has Mrs. Manternach for 3rd grade, who also happens to be his gymnastics teacher.  Lucy wasn't really looking forward to school and told us that often.  We reminded her that Heavenly Father didn't send us to earth to sit around and be lazy and he wants us to learn and use our brain and talents.  We overheard her telling Cov the same thing - "I've got to go to school because God wants me to use my brain!'  She has Mrs. Olson for 1st grade.  Covey asked a couple of weeks before school started "When can we do Mommy preschool again?"  I told him it was coming up soon and asked if he'd miss the kids while they were at school most of the day though.  "Naw," he said.  He really eats up the one-on-one time (plus our 3rd wheel this year).  The first day of school, we did a "back to school  themed preschool.  We also spent lots of time outside riding bikes and playing.  And also snuggled the baby.  Sydnie, it seemed she thought it too quiet at home the day the kids went back.  She kept looking around it seemed and didn't sleep as much as normal during the day.

When the kids got home, we had a special snack waiting for them (one of the only days of the year I actually put a lot of thought into after school snacks...haha!) which was cinnamon bear popcorn.  We chatted about their day and it seemed everyone was happy to be back and really enjoy their new teachers, class rooms, and seeing friends a lot again.  We had some roast, potatoes, salad, green beans, and bear bread for dinner.  We talked about goals for that year at the table.  Emma is going to do her best quality work every time to get good grades.  Cal said he wants to be an example to others.  And Lucy wants to color in the lines on everything.  Sweet kids!  It's going to be a great school year!

A couple of weeks after school started, we started joy preschool with Cov.  We are doing it with 5 other families, and the moms are taking turns teaching twice a week for two hours.  Cov was so excited, every day he asked "Do I start school today?"  And when it finally came, he grabbed his backpack and was ready to go with the kids to school, hehe!  He knew the moms were going to teach but he thought it was going to be at the school.  I was the one to organize it and we were first at our house and did an ABC overview theme for the first day, and focused on the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  We read the book, sang and shook it to the ABC song, made playdough and played with letter cutters, did coconut counting/sorting/throwing fight with pom poms, made our own palm trees with letters and our names on them, made coconut tree snacks, and letter volcano. Thursday of our week, it was an all about me day.  The kids decorated a brown paper sack and got to bring stuff about them in it, and they were all excited to share. We worked on making a book all about them, read some books about them and their body, did some science, played outside, did a craft with hand and foot prints, played a name game.  It's going to be fun, Cov is loving it!