Zane, Emerson, and Smith: Emmy's Birthday / Cousins / Ears

Emerson Ruth turned 6 this year! Oh my girl. She is as spunky and sassy as EVER. She has grown up so much lately and is all of a sudden being such a huge help, being more responsible, reading, and writing, and just doing so much. She is super emotional and full of energy. She is so creative and artistic. She loves people well and is a good friend. She's working on getting along better with her brothers. She's a leader in her class and around her friends. I love my SWEET girl more than words can say.

This year, Emmy decided to have a Magic Show party. She's been loving doing magic for a while now, so Judi and Bob asked their friend Mike to come and do a show for her party. We are so lucky to have had it at the church - it was a perfect spot with a big stage for the show, a space to eat, and then a gym and arcade to play. We seriously invited all of Em's friends and our family. I think I sent out about 45 invites. 20 kids ended up coming and it was super fun. I think everyone enjoyed it. I always love birthday parties, even though they are a lot of work to plan and run. But worth it to see such joy, and to have such good memories.

Excited little thing!

She brought her magic hat just in case she needed it.

Zack ran the sound booth for the show -with lights and sound and music. Em went up to check on him.

She met Mike the Magician before the show.

Mike did a few tricks for us before the show. I love Zane's body language, pure concentration and amazement.

Kindergartners are so stinkin cute.

Emmy got to go on stage to help with a trick. It made her so happy.

He had some of the kids play "Happy Birthday" for her.

After the show, the kids all got to play in the arcade and gym.

Adorable girls.

Then, we ate lunch and had ice cream sundaes and cookies for dessert.

Grandpa Jack and Zane!

Buddies, Gray and Smith. These two are so cute together.

Buddies

We ran out of time to open gifts at the party, so we brought them home. Wow, our friends were so generous and thoughtful. She got amazing gifts. We are still working on thank you notes.

Then, later that day, Becca, Chris, Fisher and Perry all came from Ohio to stay with us for a long weekend.
On Sunday, Zack and Becca and Chris ran a 5K through downtown and the Rockies Stadium. I got to hang out with these 5 cutie pies while the adults raced. We got to explore the stadium, basically by ourselves, while everyone else raced. And then we cheered them on at the end.

We tried pitching

We had slushies

And then got to watch the racers

Good job, Dada!

We got some tattoos.

Played Corn Hole.

Walked around (cute cousins).

The kids also got to run a race on their own, all the way around the outside of the field. Fish and Em ran and finished together. Then, Perry and Smith came after... I didn't get any pictures of Zane. He ran with the older kids in the next heat. He did really really well.

Theres little Smith in the green shirt, giving the lady a high five. He looked so little down there on the big field. I'm so impressed that he ran all the way around by himself!

After the race, they got jerseys

Cake time!

Gigi sent both Emmy and Perry a birthday cake that they could decorate themselves. Oh how Em loved doing this! It made her whole day. What a special, unique gift.

We had some awesome time with family. Zane and Fisher played a bunch of Minecraft.

We got to celebrate Perry and Emmy at a dinner out one night.

Smith and Perry played with his superheroes all weekend.

We even took a day off school to hang out. Zack and Emmy were playing her new princess pop up game.

Yep, more Minecraft

We spent one morning at the Children's museum.
Catching bubbles is always fun.

The two boys building together.

My big 6 year old on her birthday!

We also all went to see "Home" at the theater. It was awesome that we all had our own recliner. Smith moved his up and down almost the whole time. And I liked how he YELLED at a character in the middle of the movie, "That's what you get!" The other kids all cracked up. Such fun time.

At Red Robin, after the movie, they came to sing Happy birthday Emmy got so embarrassed and tried to hold onto Zack the whole time.

Finally, as if we hadn't celebrated enough, Emmy and I met my mom for a girls' afternoon. We went to lunch and then to get her and her American Girl Doll Caroline's ears pierced. Emmy has been asking literally for years if she can get her ears pierced and I always said at 6, feeling like it would be so far away. Well, it crept up on me and she's 6.

After lunch, we headed over to the American Girl store and dropped Caroline off to get her ears pierced first, and we also decided to get her hair done. She has a head full of curls and they were so tangled and crazy that we decided it was worth the 10 bucks to get it all recurled and done. It took them 45 minutes to do her hair.

Here's Emmy checking out Caroline waiting for her turn in the chair.

We looked around the store for a long time. Emmy adores all the dolls and accessories.

Caroline in her seat. I'm so glad my mom got to come with us!

Then we headed over to get Emmy's ears done. This is her before picture. She didn't really seem nervous at all. She was just so excited. I was dying of anxiety inside. I tried to hide it, but I was so nervous about the whole thing.

She got a little nervous when she started marking the spots on her ears.

My sweet girl just cried a tiny bit (here's her right after) but the second she got to see her earrings in the mirror, she brightened back up. She also got to pick a Beanie Boo and new earrings afterwards so she was happy.

I'm so proud of Emmy. She was seriously so brave and tough. I'm happy that she feels so big and old and special with her new piercing.

Emmy fell asleep 5 minutes into our drive home, which she almost never does. When she woke up, she said, "I guess when your body gets hurt, it just gets tired." Sweet pea.