Bowers Blog: Emma is 10!

I cannot believe that Emma is 10 year old. Her birthday also reminds us of how long we have been in Valdosta since we moved here when she was about 6 weeks old. I can't fathom that we've been in this sweet little city for almost 10 years now. Emma has no memory of moving here, obviously, but her life is definitely a marker in my mind for our transition from residency life in Alabama to establishing roots in Valdosta.

Over the last week we have celebrated Emma. Her birthday was Tuesday, which was right in the middle of GMAS testing at school. I couldn't send birthday treats in due to testing (and they are loaded up on after test treats already.) Also, that day, I had to to have my second round of eye injections (which pretty much puts me out of the equation for the afternoon,) the girls had golf practice, and Mack had guitar and a baseball game. Needless to say, her birthday was a busy day. We were able to squeeze in her favorite dinner from Wendys though. She wanted a sleepover for her party this year, so Friday night 3 of her closest friends showed up to party at our house for the night. I think I laughed as much as they did. They were a fun, very entertaining group. At 10, she is a joy. She is so helpful around the house and a true giver of herself. She works so hard at everything she wants to do, especially when it comes to sports. When she grows up she says she wants to be a professional golfer or a marine biologist. She has high goals, and I have no doubt she will accomplish them. She loves math, and I mean LOVES it. I find doodle papers in her book bag that are covered in math problems instead of doodles. Just this morning in church she was writing math problems on a sheet of scrap paper. I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was counting all the lights in the sanctuary. (For the record, she counted 238.) I love her so much and love how she balances the extremes of her brother and sister so well. She is extremely competitive about ANYTHING and she does have a stubborn streak. The stubbornness doesn't rear its head very much, but when it does, you better not plan on her backing down. She is a heel digger FOR SURE! We are thankful for her each and every day.

The pictures from this past week include all of the May Cray that we've been up to so far in the first week of May.

These 3 competed in their first official PGA jr. tournament last Saturday. Unfortunately, the colors for each team are blue or orange. We were on team orange for the day, but it worked in our favor!

Team Orange 5/1/2021

Ellie did not get paired with her best friend Taylor, but they did represent team orange together. And they were pretty cute too!

Emma making her putt on the last hole. Mack and his partner were finished and came to watch.

Mack was teamed up with a 4th grader named Hank Denham. Hank's dad grew up with Worth and I, and played golf for Coach Bowers in high school. I set up Hank's mom and dad on their first date in Athens many years ago.

It was a hot but beautiful day for golf.

The shot over the water is a Bowers kid favorite.

Caroline Smothers and Molly Smith were teamed up against the Bowers girls.

Ellie nailed her shot over the water.

Hank and Mack won their match and were super excited about it.

Worth was quietly giving Mack some advice for his next shot.

Mack had a nail biter of a baseball game Monday night. This is the only picture I took, because I was scream cheering for most of the game. They won, only by 1 point, but it was still a "W" and we were so proud of him and his team.

Emma looks forward to her birthday morning to come downstairs to this. She was loaded down with gifts this year.

I know it is my fault that they expect a presentation on their birthday mornings, but how excited does she look?! It makes me so happy to do it for them. For the record, Worth and I only gave her 2 gifts on the table, the rest are from grandparents and siblings.

She has been asking for a keyboard for her iPad for a while. She is trying to teach herself how to type from some app she learned about at school. She was pumped to get this.

At 10, she still loves a lego set. The more challenging, the better.

Early morning birthday crowd.

Even though they can fight like cats and dogs, Ellie was the first one up Tuesday morning and couldn't wait for Emma to get up so that she could give her the gift she picked out for her. (Lavender bath supplies and nail polish)

Mack gave her some new goggles for the pool. I promise Ellie was excited even though she looks miserable in all of these pics I chose for the blog. Haha!

Ellie even made Aspen a unicorn cape to surprise Emma. Aspen comes in and goes straight to Emma's room in the morning and sits with her in her closet while she picks out her clothes for the day.

Aspen played the part, albeit briefly.

She wanted a Frosty from Wendys as her birthday night treat. I made her blow out a candle on it after we sang happy birthday.

Mack and Ellie wrote and performed a birthday song for Emma:

Random picture, but we were proud of Ellie for being a part of the upcoming honors program at her school this year.

Emma getting ready at a volleyball game. Their season has been not that great. They've only won 2 games. Emma has done well, but only 3 of them had ever played volleyball before, so it has been a learning season for the majority of her team. Emma has had so much fun though. She has had such a good attitude for a kid that is ultra competitive.

And then it was Friday night and time for the Unicorn Sleepover!

This 10 year old couldn't be more excited.

Emma will learn to appreciate her sister's ability to jump in and lead the games like unicorn ring toss...

...and "Don't step on the Unicorn Poop"

The pool is still a little cool for my taste, but it didn't bother these girls at all.

Next up was dinner and cake. We went outside to tie dye t-shirts after they ate, and I got zero pictures, but the shirts turned out awesome.

Later that evening they were ready for ice cream cake and gift opening!

Worth was on call (of course) so Ellie was my cake assistant for the night.

Emma has really gotten into Harry Potter lately. Her friend Gwen gave her a wand.

A glow in the dark basketball was a "score" of a gift for Emma from her friend, Macy,

Emma's super sweet, kind, and creative friend, Avery gave her a journaling kit.

There is nothing funnier to these kids that being blindfolded for a game. This was pin the horn on the unicorn, and Macy was struggling. (Even though Gwen was covering the actual unicorn.)