Emma Turns 4

All Emma wanted for her birthday this year was a pink flower cake and a trip to the zoo. It was raining today so we opted to take Emma to the Seattle Aquarium after cake and presents instead. She was alright with that. I was really happy with the way the cake turned out but more importantly Emma was happy when she saw it. The yellow center was the fought over piece between the boys. All Emma wanted was one of the pink petals with the strawberry cake. I am not a fan of strawberry cake so I did both white and strawberry cake to accomodate everyone's tastes.

For over a month I have been hanging on to a dress I bought Emma for her birthday. She kept asking me if she could wear it and every time I reminded her that she needed to wait until her birthday. Needless to say she was excited to finally wear her new dress, pink shoes, and pink headband. We painted her toes and fingernails pink, did her hair straight (at her request) and topped it with the pink headband to match her dress. She was the cutest little four year old I had ever seen. We ate on pink plates, drank from pink cups, used pink forks, and cleaned our frosting faces with pink and white polka dotted napkins. I think Emma was in heaven. It is a good thing the boys didn't mind eating off of pink plates. I think they were just happy to see how happy it all made Emma. With only one blow all four candles were extinguished and each of the kids picked a candle to lick and put on their plates. Emma went back and forth between licking the frosting off her cake with her fingers, licking it with her tongue, and using her fork. Go figure...some things never change! Although Emma tells me that she is a big girl, I will always think of her as my little girl!

After we all indulged in cake we went into the living room so Emma could have her present. Mom, Dad, Grandma Ann & Grandpa Franz all pitched in to get her a pink pram stroller for her dolls. I remember when Grandma Candace would push Andrew in the real baby blue pram when he was just a baby. It was the cutest baby buggy ever. I knew that Emma would also love having a pram for her babies and part of me knew that Grandma Candace would be proud. We made Emma close her eyes as Mike and the boys brought it down the stairs covered with a big blanket. She was so surprised! Emma pushed that stroller around the house which such delight. Emma also got a cute little baby doll that crawls from Grandpa Al and that kept Abby occupied while Emma pushed her new stroller. After pushing the stroller for quite some time we all got ready and headed up to the Seattle Aquarium for some more family birthday fun. We ended the day with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a successful 4th birthday for Emma!!