Emeline's birthday weekend

Emeline's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which meant we could have her party on her actual birthday. But due to a series of unfortunate events (lots of rain and Wes severely slicing his thumb on a mandoline), we had to reschedule the party, not once, but two times!  So we spent most of her birthday weekend trying to do fun things to make up for the lack of a party.

The morning of her birthday, when we were supposed to be at the park celebrating in the sunshine...we went to get her a haircut.  She loves having short hair like mommy! Her hair grows so fast, it feels like she always needs a haircut.

Then we went out to lunch.  Grandpa David was in town, so we had a fun outing.  After lunch, we headed to a local bike shop to let her get fitted and pick out a new bike.  The little one we got from our neighbors was perfect for her to transition from her balance bike, but she was getting to big for it.  Here she is on the rainy day heading in to the bike shop.

After a lot of chasing Kate in the shop and a big tantrum, we left with a beautiful new bike!

That night we had a family birthday dinner with my dad.  We made homemade mac n cheese and we made her a dinosaur cake....a test run for the one I was planning to do for her party the next day.  She had a lot of fun decorating it with me.

The next day, our church had an event called Taking Church to the Streets...where instead of a traditional service, we do service projects in different neighborhoods.  We signed up to help spruce up a preschool in East Palo Alto.  it was wonderful to hear about the great work this preschool does, have some community building time, and let the kids do some work and play together.  Here we all are...

We were going to do a reschedule of the birthday in the afternoon after church, but alas, the mandoline got the best of Wes' thumb while making lunch, and we had to abort due to a trip to the ER.  Emeline was very sad when we broke the news to her after her nap, but she was sympathetic about Papa's thumb and very understanding.  The sun ended up coming out and we had some time in the late afternoon for her to take her new bike out for a spin!

Cousin Nicole came over for dinner, brought her some balloons, and we sang to her again and ate more dino cake, so Emeline felt very celebrated.  

Four years old

I know I start every kids age update post with something like, "I can't believe it has been xxx years/months/whatever".  But it is so true!  Time is rocketing by and the girls are growing up so much.

Emeline turned 4!  I don't know where to begin.  She has learned so much in this last year, really maturing and meeting some big milestones.  She took on the challenge of night time potty training like a champ.  I'm still amazed that she just gets up and goes to the bathroom by herself at night, and then goes right back to bed.  It feels like such a milestone for her to have no need for diapers whatsoever and to manage herself so well.  She's also stopped coming to wake us up in the morning...now she will get up and go play by herself in the living room...which will often give us a few more moments of much needed sleep.  Usually this works out well, but occasionally she's gotten herself into some mischief....like opening up birthday presents early, or other such stuff.  But for the most part this shows so much maturity to me.

This past year she's also learned how to ride a bike.  She went straight from her balance bike to a regular bike with no training wheels.  For her birthday we even had to get her a bigger bike because the little one we got from our neighbors was just getting to small.  Now she rides like a big kid.

She's also learning so much more about the alphabet, reading and writing.  She's known the alphabet for a while, but is good now at all the sounds the letters make.  She can't quite write her name, but she's working at writing the letters.  Her name is a bit long, so we came up with a little song to help her memorize how to spell her name.  Now that she can do that she's really proud!

Emeline also loves to play make believe these days.  She's full of spirit and adventure.  She loves Bible stories and has fun acting them out in her own interpretations.  She is so social and absolutely loves to have friends around all the time.  She shows so much empathy for her friends, or anyone really.  God has really given her a gift of compassion.

Since we have two other little ones at home, I often feel like I don't give her as much opportunities to do developmentally appropriate activities...like puzzles or games with small pieces, or other detail oriented craft projects, but when she does them, she's getting pretty good at them.  She still loves running and playing at the park most of all, but she's really growing at focused tasks.  Oh...and dancing!  Emeline LOVES dancing.  We are going to try to fit a dance class into our summer plans, because this one is begging to do ballet.  I'm excited to see if she will actually like it.

There is so much I wish I could capture about Emeline at this age, but it's hard to get it all down, so that will have to sum it up for now.  Here are some sweet pictures of my wonderful big four year old!

Quotes

Here are some family quotes of late.  Enjoy!
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Looking at Emeline In a chair, Kate in a high chair, and Adele sitting in the baby rocker, after noticing the chaos around the dinner table....
Me: What will it be like with three little ones sitting at our table?

Wes: Sitting? ( using air quotes ) This isn't sitting, this is dinnertime gymnastics.

~

Emeline: I'm a good cleaner

Me: Yes, you are a good cleaner

Emeline: The cleaners are good cleaners too. They can bend over and pick things up. They don't have babies in their tummies. I'm telling you the truth.

Apparently I complained a little too much about not being able to bend while pregnant.  Now I have no excuse.
~

Kate comes running into the nursery where I'm feeding Adele...

Kate: hair hair

Kate: cut cut

Me: (remembering the craft supplies I did not put away after making valentines) Did you cut your hair?!

Kate: (silence)

Me: Did Emeline cut your hair?!

Kate: Yea

Me: Emeline! Did you cut Kate's hair? 

Emeline: Yea.

I guess Emeline can't get away with as much now that Kate can tell me what she's doing ;)

~

Emeline: Did Wes marry you?

Me: Yes, he did.

Emeline: He's a good marrier.

Me: Yes, he sure is!

~

Wes: Kate, come inside. 

Kate: No. (Runs off laughing)

Wes: Oh are you entering in your defiant stage?

Kate: (Smiling) Yea

~

Mom and dad having dessert watching tv after the girls are in bed...Emeline wakes up to potty...I go in to check on her... 

Me: Did you go potty?

Emeline: Yea. (Starts washing hands). Are you watching a movie?

Me: No...

Emeline: Just a show?

Me: Yea, just a show.

Emeline: In the middle of the night?

Me: Just before we go to bed.

Emeline: (gets back in bed)

Me: Can I give you a hug? I love you so much

Emeline: I love you too...Mommy, what were you eating?

Me: Nothing sweetie...goodnight...

Guess we've been found out!

~

Me: What do you want for your birthday?

Emeline: You mean in the piñata?

Me: No no, we will have a piñata and cake, but what do you want as a present?

Emeline: A guitar for Kate.

Me: For Kate?

Emeline: Yea. No! Three guitars!

Me: For who?

Emeline: Me, Kate, and Ollie. 

~

While driving...

Emeline: Papa you're going really fast!....(pause)....and I like that!

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David's 40th

We recently had the awesome opportunity to celebrate our good friend David's 40th birthday with some awesome friends, including some out of town friends, Sunil and Inka.  We met this whole group about ten years ago in our first small group in our church.  Looking back, these people have become some of our closest friends and our surrogate family.  It was wonderful to get to celebrate with David and our friends, but it was even more of a blessing to see all of our kids playing together too.  What a gift this community has been.

Here are some photos!

Setting up for our afternoon at the beach...

David starting the grill.  Poor guy had to cook his own birthday lunch...but I'm sure he would have had it no other way. 

Hanging out around the food... 

Beach smiles... 

A gorgeous day....  

 Wes showing the kids how to make sand castles...

 

We couldn't get enough of watching the kids play.  It was a reunion for us, and playing with new and old friends for them. 

Someone is getting sleepy...but keeps on truckin... 

 Others just found a comfy place to sleep... 

Birthday cupcakes for David! 

Jonah helps out daddy... 

First serving the birthday boy... 

Then those who patiently waited... 

Here's the whole gang, minus myself and Adele and Heather and Anna...babies need to be fed after all...we are so grateful to celebrate with David and spend time with good friends!

Sidewalk paint