Emily's Birthday

Emily is awesome! I feel like before I write all about the celebrating I should say something about how blessed we are to have Emily in our family. She is a sweet, loving girl who strives to choose the right. Emily is creative and loves to write stories and draw pictures. She is always looking for something creative or crafty to do - I can count on Emily to make great decorations for any holiday! Emily is a lot of fun to be around, in our family I sometimes think of her as the cruise director, planning fun activities and trying to get everyone involved. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice (she's especially loud in the shower). Emily also is really good about setting goals and then following through and accomplishing what she set out to do. Right now she is working of reading the Book of Mormon; it was nice to see her at play rehearsal last night reading her scriptures when it wasn't her turn on stage. She was also a great missionary and talked with a group of people back stage about religion. What a lucky family we are to have such a great kid around!

For Emily's birthday this year she was just dying to have a party with friends. We usually do a smaller family celebration because there are enough of us to make it a party, right? But it had been about four years since Emily had invited friends to her birthday so Jared and I caved, her hinting and pleading worked. She invited her three favorite friends - Aubrey, Syndey, and Lauryn. There was no school on her birthday so we spent the day getting ready for the party. We went shopping and bought some last minute things for the craft project and the food for dinner. That afternoon we blew up tons of blue, green, and white balloons and then got the house all decked out in streamers and balloons.

The pre-party set up completed

When her friends arrived the fun began! They worked on two craft projects while I cooked dinner, aka put frozen pizzas in the oven. They made juggling balls from balloons and lentils and made lap desks out of small pillows and clipboards. Everyone munched on pizza and then we went outside for a bonfire. It had rained for about three weeks without a break, but on Emily's birthday the rain took a little break. But, the wood was still very wet. Lucky for us, Jared is the best Boy Scout ever and he was able to make a decent fire. While he got that going the girls all played Sardines and Flashlight Tag.

Emily wanted the best, easiest cake ever this year, a doughnut cake. So all I had to do was buy a bunch of doughnuts at the commissary and stack them attractively on a platter. Easy, delicious, and did I mention EASY! To go along with the cake we had hot chocolate and warm apple cider, again easy and delicious (thank you Emily). Of course after cake, we moved on to presents. I was really impressed with Emily's friends and the thoughtful gifts they got for her. Either they know her well and thought of what she would like or she told them exactly what to get!

Happy birthday Emily, our little big girl, we love you!