Beautiful hope.
I hope that she gets the chance to grow into the beautiful person I know she will be.
I hope I can leave her, and her children, with a cleaner planet filled with amazing beauty.
I hope that I can instill in her the ability to see and appreciate that beauty.
And I hope that I can see that beautiful look in her eyes for a very long time to come.
We are in a bit of mourning around here.
Missing our peeps who left us late last night.
(Don’t they all look like a bunch of sweet, angels – bathed in a heavenly glow of light? Haaaaaaaaaaaaa! Oh…that is a hoot. A good one!)
I’m just sitting here editing photos and laughing remembering all the “awwwsum” and “a-sgusting!” (awesome and disgusting as said by Ella) fun we had.
Also realizing that I owe you all a million stories and photos including the jogathon update, someone getting a new bike, and a mess of birthday goodies – not counting all of the fun stuff we did when Meesh and girls were here.
So, they’re coming…they’re coming.
But first, Uncle J. is taking Em (and also us – yeah!) to Disney tomorrow. The never-ending birthday continues. We’ll catch you on the other side of Easter.
Have a good one!
Dear Emma Grace,
It has been yet another incredible year. Just about six years ago, exactly to the minute (figuring in the central coast – west coast time change) my water broke and we really knew that you were on your way at last. We ran, well I more or less “lumbered,” downstairs at 4:30am on that April 9th and I still remember Daddy saying to the night doorman who was standing watch, “Well, looks like a good day to have a baby!”
And then that dumb doorman, instead of finding a cab for us like he was supposed to be doing, thought he would be funny and said, “Oh, but it is a Wednesday. Wednesday’s child is full of woe!” Come on! Who says that to a woman in labor? At any rate, a few minutes later we were cruising to the hospital and the doorman (and his stupidity) was forgotten.
But occasionally, that line will pop up into my mind, and at the oddest times – usually when you are wailing or having a dramatic meltdown over some inconsequential thing. But no matter how “woeful” that moment may be, I will never, ever agree with that man. You are anything but full of woe!
I see an insane physical growth in you nearly every week – usually when yet another pair of jeans gets passed down to Addie because your legs have decided to sprout at least an inch overnight. But I also see the growth you are making as a person, on the inside. I went back to read your five-year old letter and just kept nodding my head and thinking, “Yep, she is still like that, she still does all of those things, only with ten times the force and intensity.” Your heart, and your capacity to show love to all of your friends and family, seems to be growing as much as those long legs of yours.
And I marvel at how your mind is growing and how much you have accomplished in your first seven “official” months of school. You are full-on reading (Everything. You even read over my shoulder as I try to type blog posts.), you are becoming a very prolific writer (Keeping several different journals of your own, even ones not prompted as schoolwork.), and you love all things nature and outdoors. Science experiments and getting things to grow have opened your mind to a whole new and exciting world of knowledge. You just continue to soak it all up.
And your learning has only meant that I get to relive my childhood again. I get to explore all of the wonders of the world with you, and just see them as you do – all new and shiny. It has given me a chance to take a second look and really see the beauty in so many things that I may have otherwise overlooked. Whether it is an interesting new bug, a fun new park, a new sprout in the garden or a new book about the planets we haven’t read yet, they all seem much more exciting when I can learn it through you.
Emma Grace, you truly are the perfect mix of joyful, serious, sweet, excited, and curious. (Ok, maybe a hint of woe sprinkled in every once in awhile, just to keep Mama on her toes!) And I don’t think anyone who knows you can imagine life without you.
The happiest 6th birthday and year to you, Gracie Girl.
I love you,
Mommy
Em wanted to go to the American Girl Cafe for her birthday this year, and since her birthday week coincided with the cousins being here, we made the trek to the Grove and brought along two of Em’s best friends as well.
Yep, count ’em – seven girls, two Mommies…
…oh, and don’t forget all of the dolls -they all brought their American Girl dolls. Emma was so excited because the bathrooms are equipped with little hooks to hang your doll while you “do your business,” and the cafe has special high chairs.
They do pay attention to the little details (teacups above, pretty centerpieces below)…
And everyone (dolls included) seemed to enjoy the lunch!
The girls all had butterfly pasta (appropriate for our garden theme!) and Lexer had the tic-tac-toe pizza.
They have little conversation starters, and now that the girls know how to read, they we are asking each other questions and giggling. I think Emma was asking everyone, “If you could be any animal, which would you be?” here…
And of course they had cute little desserts, Em’s had a candle and we all sang to her.
I think all-in-all, the party was a big success. Em got a gift certificate and had quite the decision to make. She brought home a new cat for her doll, Elizabeth, and has some money leftover for a trip to the doll hair salon the next time we visit.
Then we all made some wishes in the fountain on the way out.
My wish definitely came true.
I only have one wee thing to show again today. And…I’m sure you are thinking, “hmmm….doesn’t it look very similar to last week’s invitation?”
And, yes, it does. I made up these little notes for Em’s party favor bags for her birthday lunch that we had today.
We found some little plant-your-own-tree pots, some butterfly attracting flower seeds, the mandatory bottle of bubbles, and some little butterflies, ladybugs, and dragonflies. So we carried on the little “garden theme” in our favor bags. They were fun.
But that is really the only thing I’ve been able to do this week. I’ve got sundresses cut out and ready to be sewn for the girls, but my sister is here (in case you’ve forgotten!) so perhaps we’ll get to them next week.
I’ll have more pics from the lunchdate tomorrow – in the meantime, show me your crafts!
…can you fit in a hammock?
Do you think the cousins are having a good time? Yes. I think possibly so.
We are soaking up as much of Aunt Meesh and the cousins as we can, while we can. And although I have well over 700 photos to go through, this one is my favorite and my Best Shot Monday for today. I think it speaks well to the complete joy we are feeling that they are here with us.
Make sure to hang around over at Tracey’s for a bit, to catch some other fun shots.
Excuse us while we turn off the computer for a few days. But tonight I will be picking up my sister and my three beautiful nieces from the airport for an entire week of fun!
I intend on taking lots of photos and just hanging with “my girls” (there will seven girls in the house…God help poor J.!) and will more than likely not be around too much.
But we’ll be back. No worries.
And I’ll leave you with these two sweet photos (instead of the rowdy stuffed animals!) –
Have a great weekend!
Okay, I just can’t let this one go Wordless.
I mean look at Puppy Dog Alarm Clock’s sad and forlorn eyes. He wants to just smack that smug smile off of Care Bear’s face. Dumb bear, all uppity and gloating because it is winning.
Like this photo, from a few months ago, this pic just makes me laugh out loud. It also reminds me that the girls are at such an amazing stage. They spend hours together and come up with the most involved and creative play, it is really something special to watch.
This game – Zingo – is their favorite board game to play right now. Addie got it from my friend Kimmer and she just adores it! It is a great game for 3-4 year olds. And truth be told, it is one of my favorites to play with them, too. It is a refreshing change from Candyland, and I like that Addie has just as good a chance to win as anyone. So it is fair and fun!
My favorite thing they play though is “Mommy/Honey.” (Yes, that is what they call it.) Usually Addie is the “mommy” and Em is the “honey (little girl)” and they just play “house” for hours. I really need to video/tape some of the conversations they have, because they are wet-your-pants funny. And the funniest part is that Ad sounds EXACTLY like me in some of the things she says.
Well, most of the time it is funny.
Only one thing to show today.
We are busy preparing for Aunt Meesh and the girls’ visit (on Thursday), Em’s little birthday deal (next week), her actual birthday and Easter (also both next week!). So we are busy, busy little bees around here.
These are the invitations that I made for Em’s birthday lunch for next week.
I got the idea for the “garden” and then wanted it to be a little 3-d like. And since I only had a few invites to do, I printed them out, cut out each piece separately and used the little block adhesives to make them pop off the page. I think they turned out pretty cute. Em really likes them, so that is all that really matters, I guess.
Anybody else have some crafty goodness to share today?
Props to Daddy this weekend. He endured a LOT of girly-ness and a lot of girl-centered activities. Yes, he was trying to make up for forcing football on all of us for the past two years, but at any rate, he pulled through on some pretty great activities this weekend. And I’m pretty certain is anxious to get back to work this morning where the estrogen level is surely at a more acceptable level.
First up, he got us tickets to the World Figure Skating Championships on Friday night at the Staples Center. Not just any tickets, but tickets in one of the luxury suites…which was, well…pretty sweet. The tickets were for the Free Dance session, which is always a fun one to watch, although it started at 6:30pm. Which means we saw the “B team.” The “A team” skates later in the evening. The girls made it until about 9pm, and then we beat a hasty retreat before full meltdown mode could ensue.
We had an extra ticket so Emma brought her friend Avery and then the girls had their first official, non-visiting friend sleepover. Since it was so late when we got home I thought surely they would sleep until at least until 8:30am, maybe 9? Right?
Right. Not exactly. All three of the girls were back up and at ’em by 7am.
So Saturday started early. Very early. In the afternoon we took the girls to see Monsters vs. Aliens. They had been counting down the days til it opened, and I knew we would probably take them, but since it also coincided with the report cards going home on Friday, (and Emma’s was outstanding, again!) we told Em we’d take her because of her good report. It is a cute movie. AND has a girl superhero, which I can really get behind. Emma has been spouting off lines from the movie all weekend. She really is her Daddy’s daughter!
And then Sunday, Daddy scored more tickets. This time to the inaugural game for the Women’s Professional Soccer league. We cheered our LA Sol team onto a 2-0 victory. It was the first real soccer match I had ever been to, and I think it renewed Em’s desire to play soccer again. So it was a successful game on many levels.
I did tote my camera around a little more this weekend than I have the past few weeks, and I’ll get some photos edited and up soon. But this one is my favorite from the weekend, and my BSM for today.
First of all, we have a much larger tub in our room, and why we didn’t use that one – I’m not sure. But I just love the bedheads on all three of them, as they cram into the tub, shoulder to shoulder, and try to wake up from their little sleep-deprived fog on Saturday morning.
