Nana's Tea Party

To celebrate Nana's birthday, Emma hosted a tea party for Nana, Aunt Sarah, and Sarhea (Jonah also joined us). We had a wonderful time with some yummy treats, good conversation, and fun play time.

Hola

Hola is Emma's imaginary friend. It has been an experience! She "created" Hola about two months ago and she makes frequent visits. Evidently Hola lives at Grammy and Poppa's and has red eyes and blonde hair. She is sometimes a little baby and sometimes a "big girl" like Emma. I have so many funny stories about Hola and I wish I had taken the time to write more of them down. Somehow Emma gets her friends to play with and interact with Hola as well. I just love Emma's creativity and imagination. And, I cannot wait to see where our relationship with Hola will lead.

Big Girl

Emma had a big girl kind of day. Emma wore braids in her hair for the first time, got to have her first solo ice cream cone, and she got her first big girl bike (thank you, Mariela!). She was so very excited to take the bike up to Ault Park to ride. (Our house is not exactly on a flat street, so riding there is very defeating and unsafe.) She has gotten the hang of peddling and got a hippo helmet to go with her bike. What a fun day!

Colorado 2011

We spent last week in Colorado with Uncle Rich, Uncle Randy, and Tante Janet. It was so much fun. Here are some of the highlights of the week:

Emma and Noah enjoyed having all of their meals together at the "little table".

Mother's Day - it was fun to spend time outside with amazing weather and my little ones!

Emma loved Tante Janet and Uncle Randy's "park" in the back yard. Emma spent hours out there playing and Jonah enjoyed the car swing.

Both kids thoroughly enjoyed eating meals outside on the patio.

Uncle Rich picked us up from the airport and took us to a fun restaurant
in Denver called Mona's.

Emma was so excited to get to Denver and meet Tante Janet's baby. Emma named her Maggie Elizabeth and played with her all week long.

Love this picture of our little cowgirl!

On Tuesday we drove up to Lost Valley Ranch so Emma and Noah could ride the horses. We all rode in a huge Yukon and enjoyed the beautiful drive. Closer to the ranch we encountered the effects of the forest fire several years ago. It was sad and eerie to see the charred remnants of the trees all around us. God spared the property owned by Lost Valley, but all around the ranch is completely burned.

Emma was assistant wrangler as she led Noah's horse around - and she LOVED it

Lots of good time with Tante Janet!

Best of friends! They were so cute together!

Emma learned how to play Foosball with Noah and Daddy.

Uncle Rich had an app on his iPad about Will and Kate's wedding and Emma had so much fun playing with that all week long.

Loving on Uncle Rich

All ready for tea. She was so excited she would not stand still for a picture.

Tante teaching Emma the correct way to stir her tea.

Such fun! Emma did a great job but was so distracted and took four trips to the bathroom.

Jonah loved riding around in this car waving to everyone.

Playing at the park with Noah

Noah has a house made out of a box. Emma so enjoyed playing in it.

Jonah really liked Uncle Randy and enjoyed playing with him!

We had such a wonderful time staying with Tante Janet and Uncle Randy!

And so much fun with Uncle Rich!

Thank you for an amazing visit!

Playing Together

Emma adores her brother and has done remarkably well sharing with him. She does get very frustrated when he tries to take her babies, but after she gets frustrated she comes back and gives whatever toy he wanted to him. (I am enjoying this as long as it lasts!) They play together so well and enjoy doing so!

Sue-Sue

This past weekend Sue-Sue came to visit on her way to St. Louis. We had such a wonderful time playing, going for walks, and of course, EATING! The weekend went WAY too fast but we enjoyed our cupcakes and walks. Here are just a few pictures of our time together.

Well, we are short on space in our apartment and with Jonah crying all night, we were not sure what to do with Emma. While we were discussing our options, Emma asked if she could sleep in the coat closet. So, we let her. She was so excited about it and asks every night if she can do it again. It was pretty funny, but a great solution!

Sue-Sue sniffing and kissing Jonah!

Babies

Words just cannot express how much Emma loves to play with babies. Emma really does play with them all day long and she does not do much of anything that does not involve a baby right next to her or on her lap. It brings us many laughs and is quite eye-opening to see how she deals with them as she mimics us.

A few weeks ago I had to purchase some new toys for the church nursery. We have almost all girls in the nursery and there has been some friendly arguing over the babies. So, I took Emma to go pick out some new babies. We brought them home and of course Emma wanted to play with them. We let her have them until the next morning when she had to take them to church. Before bed that night she went and found a spot for each one to sleep and feed each one, kissed each one, and tucked each one in. When I saw the babies after she went to bed, I was touched by her tenderness and nurturing spirit. Enjoy - I hope this makes you smile as it did me.