A whole hand!

Emma is officially a whole hand! I can't believe my little snuggle buddy is 5 years old! She turned 5 on May 4th and we have had a week full of birthday activities.

At five, Emma is the most thoughtful, warm, caring child that I know. She is quiet most of the time but definitely has a voice when it's necessary. She is the peacekeeper of the family. She loves to hug, snuggle, get kisses, and care for all of us. She continues to have a true servant heart. She is very smart, and very serious. She sleeps with every stuffed animal, doll and blanket in her bedroom. She makes sure all her dolls are dressed appropriately for bed or for the day. She LOVES Barbie and her Barbies are probably the best cared for Barbies in the city of Valdosta. She is still quite stubborn, but I see it developing into a strong character. I hope she always stands up to others for what she believes in the way she can stand up to her sister over silly things (that drive me crazy!!!) Yes, they fight fairly regularly. They have completely opposite personalities, but when it comes down to it they love each other very much. (Even though it is definitely a parenting challenge making them understand how to respect the differences in personalities they have.) Emma looks up to her big sister so much and honestly would do anything in the world for her. Emma is another mama to Mack. She is always making sure he is hugged, he has his blanket, he has a drink, he has ANY toy he needs. He truly will not know how to survive when Emma leaves to go off to college.

The actual day of her birthday (Wednesday,) Emma requested doughnuts for snack at her preschool that morning. So I took doughnuts and her precious class sang "Happy Birthday" to her. It was so cutes. Once Ellie was home from school and Worth got home from work, we all went as a family to Claire's in the mall for Emma to get her ears pierced. A right of passage for a girl that comes at age 5 in the Bowers house. Emma was so brave. She wanted to hold my hand, but didn't even jump and certainly didn't shed a tear. The girl doing it was so surprised. I think she had been nervous about how Emma would respond, and I think Emma was expecting the worst after Ellie's experience at 5.  She was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was.

After the uneventful ear piercing, we headed to dinner at the girls' favorite restaurant, The Mill. We had a fabulous pizza buffet and played fun games. We then headed to our traditional birthday frozen yogurt shop, and Emma ended the night with orange frozen yogurt covered in gummy worms, sprinkles, reece's pieces, and skittles.

Friday was the day of the birthday party. Emma had been planning her birthday party since last year. Although the venue changed a couple of times, by February she had decided it would be at the Valdosta Country Club swimming pool. She wanted it to be in the same place her sister had her 5th birthday party. Make no mistake, they don't forget what you did for the other one!!! She planned every detail of her Barbie Spy Squad swim party. She had tons of friends there and she had a great time.

It has been a whirlwind week, and it honestly hasn't hit me as hard with this fifth birthday as it did with Ellie. I think I emotionally prepared myself better this time around, and/or  I didn't have a newborn baby controlling my emotional state this time. We love our sweet Emma so much. I'm honored that God gave me the opportunity to be her mom, and I look forward to being a witness to her journey through life.

Emma's big birthday gift. A new playground that had monkey bars (her new obsession.) The old swing set had dry rotted, so we convinced Emma this was what she really wanted for her birthday. 

It took Worth (with my dad's help) over a week to get this thing together. Obviously, its a sturdy one!

They love the tree house in it. 

I love to try to get the kids' pictures when they are waking up on their birthday. They love it now, but will hate it on their 15th + birthday.  I'm savoring every moment! 

The birthday girl before school. 

Ellie was about to bust for Emma to open the card and gift from her. 

A sister birthday hug. 

The card from Ellie. I'm DEFINITELY saving this!

Emma got to lead the prayer before snack at school. 

Emma wasn't a big fan of all of the attention, but she handled it very gracefully. 

The girl loves a chocolate doughnut with sprinkles

Her sweet preschool class. Only 2 of them will be going to the same school with her for Kindergarten next year.  Most of these kids she has been with since 2 year old preschool. She is going to miss them so much! 

Opening a small gift from Mommy and Daddy after Daddy got home from work. She wanted to wait for him to be home to open it. 

Jumping into the pool at the country club. It has been about 90 everyday for the past 2 weeks, until her birthday party on Friday and the temp was in the low 70s. Didn't seem to bother the kids though. 

The slide was a popular attraction

E.W. and Mack

Taking the polar plunge. The kids were all shivering, but we couldn't get them out of the pool. 

The Barbie birthday cake with colored flame candles. 

She needed her sister for support during the happy birthday song. 

Still hanging on to Ellie to blow out her candles. 

The girls. 

The Boys

The Waltons - Laird, Holden, Rory, and Tierney. A family that are close friends of ours. 

Another table of the big boys (the siblings of the kids Emma's age.) Most of these boys are 1st graders like Ellie. 

Mack, Ellie and Anna Beth

Anna Beth's 2 sisters, Maggie and Claire. 

The men

These pictures are all out of order - this is at Claire's before the ear piercing. 

After the ear piercing. A lot of red ear, but no tears. 

Playing air hockey at The Mill

Mack riding in a plane- imagine that

Ellie and the duck game

Emma dominating the popcorn game

Traditional birthday froyo. 

The birthday cake with Flip Flop the class pet looking on. 

G-Day, Girlfriends, and Gymnastics

These last few weeks of April have been very busy. Last weekend I got to go on a girls trip with two of my very best friends from college, Lauren and Kathryn. I got a 6 and 1/2 hour drive (round trip) in the car, by myself! There was no one screaming, throwing things or fighting in the backseat. It was heaven, and the reunion with my girlfriends was pretty fun too.

Our girls weekend to Athens included a dinner at Last Resort (one of my favorites,) and of course the Georgia practice game (G-day game.) I have never been to the spring practice game before. Since Kirby Smart was hired as head coach, Kathryn, Lauren, and I felt that we really needed to go support him. Along with the 93,000 other people that had the same idea. Kirby was a great friend of ours in college (he dated another one of our roommates from college, who was not on this girls trip. Clearly, that relationship never panned out, but we all continued to love Kirby and hang out with him in Athens before he left for his coaching gig. He was always such a great guy. We already know he's a great coach, and we have no doubts of his abilities to lead our Bulldogs. I do admit, I am so nervous for him. I can't imagine the pressure of returning to your alma mater and being the head coach!

This weekend has been gymnastics weekend. Last night was Ellie's exhibition, and this morning was Emma's carnival. The girls are doing so well with their skills. Ellie has 1 bar skill to master before moving up to level 3, and Emma will officially move out of the preschool class and be Level 1 after her birthday on May 4th. They love it, and I have to admit that I am one proud mama!

Kathryn, Lauren, and I before our Friday night out. No, we did not plan all the blue, but it was pretty funny!

At Trapeze Pub in downtown Athens eating lunch before the game Saturday. I highly recommend this place if you've never been and you are in the mood for slightly eclectic pub food. It was awesome!

The stadium was packed!! This was just a spring practice game! I can't fathom what it will look like for that  first home game. 

My view of Ludacris - who was the opening act to the game. We were so pumped about seeing him! The sound quality for his performance was terrible. Somewhat disappointing. 

I had a better visual on the jumbotron.

Ellie walking out on the floor at her exhibition.

So serious. 

Floor work. 

Front walk overs

I couldn't get great pictures because we were so far away, but she did really good! 

At gymnastics events, there is a lot going on. Worth and I were so distracted, this is the only picture I got of Ellie on the beam. She's doing her round off to dismount. There are only 10 blondes in her group and her father and I have terrible eyes, so we missed most of the beam routine because we didn't even realize she was up there. 

Emma pushed through the crowd to the front wall to get a better view. 

Ellie saluting. 

The gymnastics carnival is for the preschoolers and is just a fun obstacle course for them to go through and have their skills checked off. 

Another very serious child

Always a favorite - the pitt. 

floor work

Here is a little video of Ellie's intro to her floor work:

Jacksonville Zoo

Last week was spring break for us. We didn't do much, but we did decide to visit the Jacksonville, FL zoo last Wednesday. I knew Kate and the boys were in Tifton, so I invited them to join us. We had such a good time!

We normally see them on holidays or during family gatherings, but the kids are so crazy and sugar loaded during those times, I just don't get much quality time with those sweet boys.  I'm so glad Kate (who is pregnant with her 3rd boy by the way,) was such a trooper to bring herself and the boys to spend the night with us, and then head to the zoo Wednesday morning.

It was a beautiful day and the I think the kids had a really good time. I didn't think Mack got much out of it until I heard him talking to a sweet lady that goes to our church. He was telling her he went to the "jax zoo" and saw "ewephants," "awigators," and "dinasars wif Bo and Banks."

We only had one incident where we almost lost a child. Mack decided to jump a fence and chase after some sort of duck/bird animal.  We did have one bloody nose as well, at about the 20 minutes to home point in the car, Kate looked back in the car and Emma had blood ALL over her. Poor pregnant Kate crawled in the back of the moving vehicle and cleaned her up. I felt so bad! Kate was blaming it on Bo, but Emma is a frequent nose bleeder., so I doubt Bo was responsible for it. Also, Emma never said a word. We have no idea how long she sat in it. There was blood all over her, her booster, the seatbelt, her clothes. Good times! All the kids were really great though, and I know they enjoyed being together. I attempted some group shots of them, but I was not very successful.