Can’t believe my beautiful baby girl is now five years old! Excuse me while I go get a tissue! I just don’t know how this has happened. Emma is very imaginative, creative, and artistic. I joke that she is just like her Auntie Leah, but it’s not really a joke. She is just like my sister when it comes to fashion, and her artistic abilities! I’m a little jealous because somehow I missed out on the artistic/fashion gene.:) Emma is very independent and has no problem being her own little person. Emma loves my little pony lately, and so she wanted a my little pony birthday party. It also happens that the costume she picked out for Halloween was a Rainbow dash dress with the wings, ears, and rainbow hair piece. She loved it! She felt so beautiful in it! 🙂 She wore it all day on her birthday too! I don’t know if it will continue, but it has been a trend the last few years that whatever theme Emma is into for her birthday also ends up being the costume she picks for Halloween, and so she wears it for both. I think it’s super cute, and at least she gets double use out of her costumes.

Andrew and I try to take turns spending one on one time with the kids. David and I went out for a “lunch date” not too long ago. Andrew wanted to take Emma out on a daddy/daughter date for her birthday. Emma loves Japanese food, and so Andrew took her to one of our new favorite Japanese restaurants. I think she felt pretty special having one on one time with daddy. Especially when the restaurant brought her her own special dessert.

While they were gone to lunch, I put up a few party decorations, and got things ready for her party later that evening. The weather was cold and rainy that evening so we couldn’t have the fire pit, but Andrew was still able to light up the grill. We had roasted hot dogs and chili for dinner. Followed by cake and ice cream of course! We all had a fun time celebrating Emma! She wanted to have games at her party, and so I did my best to come up with some things to do indoors. Grand-mama brought beads, and they made my little pony necklaces and bracelets. I then had some tattoos that they put on as “cutie” marks. (If you happen to know anything about my little pony…the ponies have to learn what their cutie mark is.) Then we played the old favorite of pin the tail on the “pony”.

Emma’s birthday and Halloween are only a couple days apart. In fact, the day we came home from the hospital when she was born, I was handing out Halloween candy to trick or treaters while Andrew had taken David trick or treating! Looking back on that I should have left the bucket of candy outside the door! I love handing out candy to trick or treaters, and so I probably didn’t want to miss out on the fun. 🙂

On Saturday we carved pumpkins! After the tops were safely removed from the pumpkins, the kids each had to clean out their own pumpkin. This is a big deal for several members of our family, because they can’t stand the feel of messy hands! 🙂 Andrew being number one on that list, probably followed by David. Samuel got his pumpkin cleaned out first, with a little help from Grand-mama. 😉 Emma insisted on cleaning hers out by herself, and with a little prodding David cleaned his out too. Andrew is currently the carver of the family. The kids pick out the designs they want on their pumpkin, and then Andrew does the carving. I did mine however. 😉

The finished pumpkin carving results! We would have had one more pumpkin, but one was rotten when we cut it open, so I claimed the little bit pumpkin. 🙂 From left to right: Samuel wanted a sad face pumpkin, Emma wanted a squinty eyed pumpkin, David wanted a scary pumpkin, Andrew’s pumpkin is from the original Halloween movie, and mine is the question mark pumpkin with Emma and Samuel’s pink and blue hand prints on each side. 💗

The kids had a blast trick or treating! David was the grim reaper, Samuel was baby shark, and Emma was Rainbow Dash. I have never seen so many trick or treaters! It’s a good thing I had extra candy! David had a giant bag of candy he collected at a trunk or treat the few days before. He was very generous and offered to give it up for other trick or treaters. (He already had a whole bucket of candy from trick or treating anyway.) There’s no way we are going to eat all the candy around here! How long do you let it hang around? What do you do with excess candy? I would love to hear some thoughts. I usually end up putting up in a ziploc bag for Easter or next Halloween.

Love,

PK