In the morning Emma had several friends come over. The theme had to do with fairies, so we made fairy gardens and had small, fairy-sized treats.
(For the sake of satisfying curiosity, I'll show some pictures of the fairy gardens here. But I'm planning to go into more detail about them in my next post.)
The party started with the girls painting their fairy houses.
Then, while the houses dried, Emma opened presents.
Josiah was interested to see what gifts he could claim for himself.
Then they had treats. Emma requested mini pumpkin-spice muffins, mini black bean brownies, coconut peppermint patties, and chocolate covered pretzels. What can I say--the girl has good taste!
Oh, and just for fun, I asked the girls which treat they liked best after they had tried them all. The black bean brownies won. : )
The boy liked his treats, but he had to eat in the other room.
After treats, it was time to get back to the fairy gardens. I enjoyed watching the girls creatively put together their gardens and talk about what they thought the fairies would like or do in each garden when they visited.
The gardens took a while to assemble, so there were only about 10 minutes left before parents were scheduled to come. Just enough time to do some dancing!
Once all the party guests left, we rushed to get lunch on the table. Dakota's parents arrived just as we finished eating. We left Josiah with them, and took the girls out for Emma's big birthday request. She really, really wanted to go ice skating. (Something she'd never done before.)
We accidentally drove to the wrong ice arena, so we lost out on a little open skate time. But that turned out not to be a big deal.
Emma was quick to get her balance and figure things out. She did end up with two very black and blue knees in the end, but each time she fell, she got back up and tried again. Despite her very sore knees, she says she wants to go again sometime soon.
Ashlyn, on the other hand, didn't take to the ice so quickly. After one lap around, holding tightly to the wall with one hand and me with the other, she declared she was done and wanted to go home. There were tears and a few stubborn moments, but we worked through it. She wouldn't skate without holding on to me, but by the end of our time, she was staying on her feet and smiling about it.
We went back home to open a few more presents and have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. That was about the end of the day. A very full day to end a very full week! But it was worth it for a little girl who has filled our lives with love and smiles. Happy birthday, my dear girl. Can you please stay 8 for a few years now?
1 comment:
Looks like a great birthday! As for Emma staying 8 for a few years, good luck on that.
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