Celebrating Emma's Special Day

On July 6 we started celebrating Emma's birthday a bit early with the cousins coming to visit. Blake and Kaleb came over for the day along with Perla and Zeth. It started with Perla and Zeth staying the night and us waking up to go to Aunt Lulu's work for donut holes. After that we meet up with the Burnham Boys! WE all went to the splash pad at the park, then to the movies to see Monsters University. We returned how to play, watch shows, and eat pizza with snow cones! Fun was had, junk food was eaten, bedtimes were forgotten, and Emma had a great start to celebrating her 4th birthday.

Emma's 4th Birthday

We had a small gathering of family at Nana and Poppa's house to celebrate Emma's 4th birthday.  The party was a Strawberry Shortcake themed party because about a month ago Brandie took the girls to Toys R Us and Emma saw a Strawberry Shortcake dress and wanted it, and kept telling us she wanted to wear it to her birthday party.  Because of her persistence, we decided to ask if she wanted that as a theme and she said yes!

The entire month leading up to her party, she was also insistent that she have cupcakes, not a birthday cake.  We decided to make them ourselves, which Brandie decorated awesomely.  However, 4 days before the party Emma decided she needed a cake to blow out her candle on, so we got her a small cake as well; anything for the birthday girl!

Overall a great time was had by all.  We got to see family we don't get to visit too often, Emma had a blast opening all of her gifts, and we had a lot of fun celebrating with our bright, funny, and precious four year old!

Cousin Play Date

Abigail Grace Pheris 2 Years Old

July 4 2013

Princess Dress Up Day

Emma wanted to dress up today with all of her and Abby's princess stuff. As you can see from the pictures Emma really got into it and had a blast! Abby tried but she did not like the way the outfits felt against her skin : (  so she would only try on the one dress... Both girls had a great time dressing up and taking pictures. We hope you enjoy their cuteness.

Sun Catchers

One of the activities we did this month was create sun catchers for the kitchen window. The girls had a wonderful time. Emma and Abby truly enjoy painting, even more than coloring, but parents be careful: not all craft paint is kid friendly... we spent some time scrubbing the extra paint off of little hands. I love doing these creative things with my girls.

What I learned from Ray's Trip to N. C.

The shirts that Ray picked up for the girls while he was in North Carolina

Well Ray had to go to N. C. for work and was gone from 6/15 - 6/20.  To say the least I was not looking forward to the separation, nor were our girls, but we got through it. Things always seem to happen when Ray goes out of town and I have now banned him from leaving unless we go with him :)

* I learned that I can handle it all on my own with my preschooler and toddler when Ray must go out of town. But I would rather not...

* I learned to keep myself busy so the time goes by faster and the countdown to his return is not so bad...

* I learned that to keep the girls happy was to structure each day where they did something a little special like coloring, painting, creating sun catchers, playing outside, etc...

* I learned that the girls really, REALLY do not like being separated from their Dada, resulting in one of them not wanting to eat, and both not wanting to take their naps...

* I also learned that I can handle when I have to make calls and do what needs to happen when someone hits my car and does not step up and take responsibility, did I mention the car was parked outside the house!

* I learned most of all that life is so much better when you have the love of your life next to you and not multiple states away.

The girls and I did have some sweet moments just the three of us, but we prefer our moments to include Dada.

Rice Crispy Bunnies

The girls spent some quality time with Nana and Poppa while we ran errands and we came home to our girls putting the finishing touches on their Rice Crispy Bunnies. It was a project we purchased for Easter but at that time the girls were more into the eggs and we never got around to doing them. So on a day the girls could not go out and play Nana and Poppa fixed up the mix and got at it with the girls. As you can see Abby was more interested in eating the decorative accents than putting them on the bunny. Emma decided the more the merrier with her decorations! We can all say that they were super tasty : )

Emma's First Haircut

We had planned on waiting until Emma turned 4 to take her for her first haircut, but her hair had been getting tangled easily lately and the ends of her hair needed trimmed.  We had been asking her if she wanted to get a haircut, but she always got upset and said she did not want one.  Today, out of the blue, she said she wanted a haircut, so off we went!  We were downtown going to doctor's appointments, so I googled "Children's haircuts" and a place called Snip-Its showed up nearby.  As you can see, it was very child friendly and Emma was very comfortable there.  A few minutes later, and Emma had a trim and was happy!