Emery turns FIVE!

Emery was SO ready to turn five.  She chose The Egg & I for a birthday breakfast and was pretty pumped when she saw how huge her chocolate chip pancake was (although the poached egg on the side was an even bigger hit).

I was just loving watching how happy she was as she walked around proudly, grinning from ear to ear, since it was HER special day.

Her request for lunch was raspberries and kale—random, yes, but she loved it!

Later that afternoon, we went to the Aurora Reservoir with friends and family for her party—which was a loose term for hanging out at the “beach”, having dinner, and opening presents.

It was sunny when we arrived the reservoir and it seemed that luck was smiling on us when we found a large pavilion complete with a grill that was empty for us to use.  However, our plans were almost derailed when I realized I had forgotten to bring the charcoal, a huge storm started moving our direction, and then the tornado sirens came on!

We chose to wait it out (after my brother checked the Doppler on his phone) and the storm decided to pass us to the south.  We got a lot of wind and just a couple raindrops and then the sun came back.

Look how happy Emery was as we were singing “Happy Birthday” to her!  I love my little brown-eyed girl!

It was hard to keep the candles from blowing out because it was still pretty gusty.

Like last year, she got MUCHO packs of gum from all the guests, because as I heard her telling her Grandma Jan on the phone, she is “obsessed with gum!”  And here she is in a cute tiara that our friends got for her.  Such a beautiful little princess!

Our niece Clara enjoyed the cupcakes—well, the frosting at least!

It’s amazing to me that Emery is FIVE.  I truly don’t long for the days when she was a baby (even though she was adorable) because she is cuter and more fun with each passing year.  She is starting kindergarten in less than a month and is SO ready to join her sisters at the elementary school. 

Emery is such a special part of our family.  She feels things very deeply and gets extremely concerned when other people are sick or have their feelings hurt.  Her prayers are so cute as she blesses all sorts of people and things that would have slipped most of our minds.  She is very social and it is a battle to get her to sit with us during church or find her at any social event (church, neighborhood, etc.) because she is so cute and fun that everyone wants to hang out with her!  Most of her friends are much older than her because she thinks she is more grown up than she actually is.  In fact, I think if you asked her who her best friends are, she would say “Kellie and Lisa” who are two of my adult friends!