Emma's Birthday

My little Emma Rose is Ten! Emma is a sweetheart. She cares about others' feelings and does her best to make others happy. She never wants to hurt or offend. She is bright & talented. She is naturally good with all babies (which is a huge help to me). She loves being a girl & loves her hair. She has so much love in her & still plans to home all the homeless when she grows up. I love you Emma!

Just one week after Tessa's birthday comes Emma's. Emma was pleasantly surprised that I allowed her one present to open before school. It was a new outfit and she looked darling in it. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and Emma was delighted. She expressed a concern that no one would come to her party...but 16 out of the 20 showed up right after school ready for fun.

We had a Halloween themed birthday party which was fun & simple. We already had decorations up so we just needed some food & games. One of the favorite decorations were floor stickers that were glow-in-the-dark green gooey footprints leading down our front hallway. As the kids came in they were concerned about the footprints & wondered who had made them:)

Spooky treats were fun to eat! We had homemade root beer with dry ice. [I made the mistake of adding the dry ice to the pot that still was hot. I was mopping up root beer in a panic ten minutes before the party started.] We ate Mummy Dogs, Ghostly Cheesy Fingers, Mud Cups, & Monster Jaws.
My main concern about this party was trying to find enough entertainment for a wild mix of boys & girls. I hoped that Everyone would have fun. We played some fun games including the "Skittle" game. Watching a few of the kids try not to chew the skittles was hilarious! Foam pumpkin shapes & straws turned out to be a huge success! We played boys against girls. One from each team would take a straw and try to get as many pumpkins as they could into a bowl in 30 seconds. Emma didn't want me to play one of the same games that we'd played at Tessa's party, but it ended up being the favorite. The kids kept playing it even after we'd stopped.
The best thing about this party for me was that we'd already eaten dinner and when the guests left we could clean up and go to bed :) Those boys and girls were quite a fun and loud bunch! Emma loved all of the attention: from us and her friends. She always has commanded the attention of a princess and received it well this day.

Tessa's Birthday

Tessa is such a fun girl. She is eager to tell you a joke or something funny she saw at school. She is the one in our family who quietly observes situations and has great commentary on them. She makes me laugh when she tries to use big words. The surprising thing is she usually says them in correct context but has no idea what the meaning of the word is. Tessa is a cuddle bug. She tends to shy away from big groups and sometimes goes unnoticed. However, she loves one on one time and will chat till your eyes droop. I love my Tessa! Happy Seven Years!

We started Tessa's special day off right with her favorite breakfast of waffles and raspberry buttermilk syrup. YUM! She had a new pumpkin shirt that she was excited to wear to school. I ended up going to the school at lunch time and decided to say hi to her. I asked her teacher if she'd passed out the birthday treats. The teacher was horrified that she'd not even realized it was Tessa's birthday and Tessa hadn't passed out the treats. I felt horrible. Tessa had been telling me that her name wasn't on the Birthday calendar at school. I had suggested that perhaps the teacher only wrote the names of the "Birthday Kids" as their birthdays happen. Tessa seemed like that was a reasonable possibility...The teacher kindly informed me that she would hurry and do some birthday celebrating after lunch....She must have done a good job because Tessa came home with a new book that all of her classmates had signed for her. She was happy and even thought it was funny that her teacher had forgotten at first. I am so glad I followed my feeling to check with the teacher & say hello to my sweet girl :)

Two days later at church I asked Tessa if they sang happy birthday to her. When she replied, "No," my heart sank. Tessa is so sweet and good and quiet that she does get forgotten. I called the Primary President the following week to see if they would sing to her since they'd missed her birthday. Tessa thought it was wonderful that they'd forgotten because they gave her two treats to apologize for forgetting :)

After school we had 20 of her friends come over for a super Pumpkin Birthday Party. We had lots of pumpkin games and pumpkin decorations. I think my favorite game was our mini pumpkin relay. I recounted the Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin (by Joe Troiano), to the kids as they ate their pumpkin cupcakes. We then painted square pumpkins for them to take home. I think the highlight for the kids was the pumpkin pinata. I was surprised and pleased that each child had a turn hitting it before it burst open. :)



My favorite part of the day was seeing Tessa loved by friends and family. Elizabeth had written her a special birthday note and left it on the fridge before school. Emma & Elizabeth were super helpers at the party. Noah was kind and helpful with her homework. He also offered up his homemade beeswax candle to light for this special occasion. We had a yummy dinner with all of Tessa's favorites: jello, coconut, cherries, & pineapple. (I made Hawaiian Haystacks)
She went to bed feeling like a princess and indeed she is.
The next day was Saturday. Tessa & I went out to lunch together. All she wanted was Shrimp. She ate Shrimp on her salad and large shrimp for her entree. She expressed her disappointment with the waiter that her idea of large shrimp was different than theirs :) (especially when she had ordered from the "adult" menu to insure that she'd get the most shrimp possible). I was surprised that she ate her entire lunch and savored every bite. So, apparently, while the shrimp weren't giant, they were tasty. We had a lovely time just the two of us.