A seven year old in the house

5 Months3 years old
5 years old

Emma is officially a seven year old girl. Wow, how did that happen? It seems like just yesterday when she arrived in less than 4 hours. I was superwoman that day...put in a full day at work, made dinner, and then had a baby girl at 10:43 p.m.

Emma is a wonderful girl who brightens our lives. She cares for her brothers, sings at the drop of a hat and loves to read books with Daddy. On her birthday, she announced that she must still be six since being seven didn't feel any different.

All day, Alex kept informing her that she wasn't officially seven because it wasn't past 10:43 p.m. yet. It was funny once or twice, but got a little irritating after he continued it throughout the day. He stopped once I reminded him that he wouldn't be officially 10 until after he went to bed on his birthday next year either since he was born at 9:56 p.m. He didn't like the idea that we would still call him 9 all day on his birthday, so he gave up.

Emma enjoyed a relatively quiet birthday with us. We didn't have any big plans, so we just took it easy around home. Emma and Alex decorated her birthday cake with lots of frosting art. At first, Emma didn't want Alex to help because she said she had "the whole picture in her head". I convinced her that it would be OK to let Alex help, so they made a beautiful design. We had a fun birthday dinner with Grandma Mindy and Emma opened lots of presents. She got crafts, a Webkinz, lots of new pajamas, new shoes, and money to the book store.

We thought you would like to witness the silly boys...Alex enjoyed the DVD wrappings. Benjamin enjoyed the wings, wand and slippers that came with some of Emma's PJs.
Saturday was the big party day. Emma requested a party similar to last year where one of the kids announced that it was "the best party ever!" We made approximately 350 water balloons, filled a baby pool, and got out the slip 'n slide. We almost had a minor catastrophe when we discovered there was a hole in the slip 'n slide. Mindy jumped in the car to look for a new one, but had no luck since it's getting late in the summer. Sean tried duct tape, but water is very sneaky and found new places to come out every time he retaped. Ultimately, Grandma Mindy and the kids just held the hose and sprayed the slide. It worked and they all had a ball. Emma loved having her friends here and was a very gracious host. She tried to spend time with each of her friends. Now, our big seven year old is off to overnight Girl Scout camp. We dropped her off this afternoon. She was doing great and looked excited about staying at camp until she managed to lock herself in the bathroom. At this point, I heard banging and screeching and thought to myself, "Uh oh, I think that might be Emma." Sure enough, it was. She is always very worried about getting locked in the bathroom since she got locked in at the library once a year ago. Another mom came back to talk to me and said her daughter would have done the same thing since her daughter got locked in at a Sonic once. Apparently, her daughter was up in the front of the cabin when Emma started yelling and then her daughter didn't want to use the restroom because she was worried. Sounds like there might be some delicate issues for the counselor to work through. I'm sure it will all work out. Emma will have a ball! They are going to swim, do archery, ride horses, make crafts, have a camp fire, etc. She'll probably be exhausted by Tuesday afternoon.