Mommy's Birthday and other Fun spring activities

I forgot to post about my birthday.  Mike was kind enough to give me a "day off".  I had one of these last year and just loved it.  I spent the day going out to lunch with friends then out to a movie.  It was just nice to go and do. Well this year the thought was great, but once I put it into action I missed my family and felt like I was forcing myself to not be with them.  :)  I forced myself to sleep in, but knew I was missing out on all those smiles and giggles.  Mike bought me a gift card on Valentines Day to go and get a massage so I took advantage of that, all my girl friends couldn't go to lunch or a movie with me, so luckily I got to go with my best friend instead which was even better.  I did go and see "Into the Woods" which was enjoyable and then was happy to come home and spend the rest of the night with my beautiful family.  The girls picked out what to make me for breakfast and Mike made us dinner and a cake.  I sure felt loved.  Here are some other pictures of just some fun times as my kids are growing up.

 Emma's "new" desk for her room.  She loves to color, cut and create.  If only it would stay at the desk and not on her bed/floor.

 A cute sister from our ward made me this apron for my birthday.  So sweet!

 A couple of our sister missionaries.  The sister on the right served half her mission in our ward and is now home.

 Vivian and a couple preschool friends on our field trip to the California Animal Living Museum

 First taste of cheerios.

 Emma won a VIP award for being the most Fun/Funny in her class.  :)

 We are so proud of how well she is doing in school.  She received another citizenship award for good behavior.

 The next few pictures were from a family night where we were playing dress up and receiving a "trophy" for the best/silliest costume.

Emma's 6th Birthday Party!

Well, here is the long awaited recap of Emma's birthday.  In my mind I envisioned it quite differently than what actually took place, but it's over and so all is well.  :)  I knew that since we were inviting 50 + kids that I wanted activities that would keep them entertained and provide me with low stress.  So the carnival theme came about.  We had 6 "booths", Craft table (Name tag craft), Paint Spinner, Duck Pond, Face Painting, Sack Races and Spider Toss.  I thought that we would have so many kids that there would be children waiting in line for the different activities and that we would be pressed for time to have all of the children participate in each of the activities....WELL we ended up with about 20 kids who were pretty much done after 45 minutes so we busted out the presents and cake and "ice cream".  It ended up working out because after we had a little break and some cake the kids just decided to go and play some more at the different activities that they liked the best.  It ended up being fun for the kids, and Emma had a good time which was the most important thing, but in the future it was a lot more prep and stress than I will want to deal with again.  Too bad I couldn't get the balloon artist/magician to come, now that would have been cool. :)  I was lucky to have some parents willing to help out which was so that was nice, and my friend Sarah was thoughtful enough to take all these great photos.