Sweet six

We are here to post about our little girl turning SIX years old yesterday.  Remember when we started this blog and she wasn't even six months old yet?  How did we get here so fast?

Emma chose to go to good old Glazed and Fired again for her party, same as last year.  But she changed it up by having her guests paint pottery instead of canvas this time.

The guest of honor chose to paint Hello Kitty.

She had lots of friends from school there, and some old pals too, like Elizabeth, Audrey, and Bridget.

She and I made her cake together.  By her request, it was plain white on the outside...to disguise the surprise inside...

Rainbow cake!

After saying goodbye to her pals, we went home to open more presents with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other various relatives.

 

These two were a bit sad that the presents were 1) not for them, and 2) mostly pretty girly and not really much fun for boys to play with anyways!

 

Birthday #6 was definitely a good one.  Now onto planning the next party in 5 weeks...

Really quick recap

I have a million excuses about why we have gone over two months without a post, but the important thing is that we are here now!  I'll post a super-quick recap of the last couple of months so that I can post about Emma's birthday separately. 

Just to remind everyone -- these are the kids I'm writing about.  It's been so long, I thought some of you might have forgotten. (ha ha)

 

Sometime back in September, we drove up to Chattanooga for the day to visit the Tennessee Aquarium.  We had a great time and plan to go back next spring.  Andrew still talks about all of the animals we saw!

 

 

In early October, we made our annual visit to the Cumming Country Fair.  The kids had fun riding the rides, but we learned that it's alot more fun to visit the fair on a chilly Fall evening, when you can sip hot cider and look at all of the lights.  85 degrees and sunny just wasn't quite what we're used to!  But again, Drew had so much fun in the animal exhibit that he still talks about what he saw there.  This kid is definitely an animal lover!

 

This was Tim and Emma on the spinning tea cups:

 



On the same day, after leaving the fair, we stopped by the bookstore.  We let Drew and Emma each choose one book for themselves.  Drew is very much into Batman these days, so of course he chose a Batman sticker book.  He was so proud of his new book that he actually asked me to take this picture!

 

Back in September, Emma painted an impressive piece for a school-wide contest sponsored by the PTA, called Reflections.  The theme was "The Magic Of A Moment," and students could submit any kind of artwork -- painting, drawing, poem, story, movie, dance piece, musical composition, photograph, etc. -- that had to do with that theme.  Here she is, putting on the sparkly finishing touches to her piece, before we submitted it to the school for judging:

 

 

Fast forward to October, the school had "Gallery Night," where they put all of the submissions on display and announced the winners for each grade level (1st and 2nd place).  Here is our artist standing in front of her entry, "The Magic Wand":

 

 

I had intentionally not told Emma it was a contest because I didn't want her to worry about whether or not she would win.  When I finally told her on Gallery Night, just before they announced the winners, she was very mad at me for not cluing her in!

 

However, not two minutes later, they announced that 1st Place for Kindergarten in Visual Arts went to...you guessed it!

 

Thankfully, after that, she forgot she was mad at me and all was forgiven.  Her painting has been forwarded to the county-level competition, and we should get word sometime in November if she moves on from there.  We are so proud of our artist!

 

Last weekend, it was time for the annual trip to the pumpkin farm.  Once again, there were animals.  I'll give you one guess who is still talking about them!

 

 I put this picture in because I think she looks so old here:

 

 

 Speaking of which, our sweet girl turned SIX years old today!  I guess she looks old in the picture because she IS getting old!  Birthday recap to come soon...

 

Firsts all around

Let's cover the biggest "first" first -- we officially have an elementary schooler in the house, as of last Thursday!

 Emma had a fantastic first day -- a fantastic first five days so far, actually -- and got on the bus for the first time without even looking back!  Her teacher nicknamed her class the "Kindercolts" (the school nickname is the Colts), so she had them all wear cowgirl/cowboy bandanas on the first day.  Emma loved it.

 And now we come to our soon-to-be-famous artist's first published work.  The PTA put out a calendar that they have been selling as a fundraiser at the school.  Open it up to page one, August, and look who's there, holding her drawing of the first day of school!!!

Not one to be left out, Drew had a first of his own yesterday -- his very first hair cut.  As a comparison, here is a "before" photo from Tuesday, which will also serve as a lovely photo to drag out and embarass him when he brings his first girlfriend over to the house someday.  Little brother trying out big sister's headband.

 Here he is, mid-cut, at the salon.

 It was rather uneventful, quick, and he did just fine.  The end result doesn't look like a big difference to most people, but trust me, it was much needed!  Happy to report the curls are still there.

I must add that Drew has gotten compliments from all over lately -- teachers at school, staff at the salon, random strangers -- that he is a very advanced talker for his age.  His new teacher at school says he LOVES to point to unfamiliar things and try to repeat their names, and that he is on par with the oldest kid in his class as far as verbal skills go.  You've got to learn fast when you're trying to keep up with your five year old sister!

And this isn't really a first, although it was Tim's first time going, but I had to find an excuse to put in this photo of us at a gala we attended last week, hosted by one of the hospitals I work with.  It's not often we get to dress up, so enjoy!

Family beach trip

First, a photo from July 4th.  (Only a month late!)  We had too early/exhausting of a day to make the trip all the way to Aunt Martha and Uncle Don's house for the family cookout, but we did muster up the energy to go a couple of miles down the road and hang out with Audrey's family for a little bit.  Emma and Audrey had a great time together.  It wasn't so long ago we were posting their baby pictures together on this very blog, and look how much they've grown up!

Next, a quick minute to brag about our artiste.  Emma was bored one day, to Tim suggested she draw something.  Here's what she came up with, off the top of her head.  She didn't look in any books or anything.  Smarty pants!

Now for the pics from last week's trip to the beach.  We went and stayed at Grandma and Grandpa H's condo for a few days and enjoyed some sun and sand.

Aunt Laura, who is living down there now, took a few days off to hang out with us, and the kids LOVED getting to spend time with her!

We even threw a little birthday bash for Aunt Laura and Grandma.  Megan came with Nathan and Kathryn to help us celebrate.

All in all, it was a nice little family getaway before the new school year starts -- this week!  Last Tuesday, we got to do a practice run on the school bus.  They pick up the Kindergarten parents and kids and take them to orientation, so that they get a chance to ride the bus before the first day.

Em enjoyed riding the bus wtih us...we'll see how she does when she has to get on by herself and leave Mom and Dad standing at the curb this Thursday!

Denver trip

As promised, here are a few photos from our trip to Denver.  Most of these were taken with my phone camera, but the really good pics will come as soon as Tim finishes up his newest photo book and posts the Flickr album.  He says he "only" got 1,000 photos this time, which is a mere third of what he took in San Francisco.  Ha!

We had a wonderful time in Denver and the Rockies, and frankly I'm surprised it's not more of a tourist destination.  There is so much to do, lots of delicious food, local breweries and wineries, and beautiful scenery!

We spent a whole day driving through Rocky Mountain National Park and taking in the unbelievable views.

We explored the Red Rocks amphitheater.  Even though there was no act performing that day, it was still a sight to see.  I can't even imagine how cool it must be to see a show here!

 The Denver Art Museum 

 We even toured a winery and bought some wine as a souvenir of our trip.

Emma made us promise next time we go that she gets to come too.

And while I'm posting, let me share a photo from the end of the Peachtree Road Race -- Grandpa H's 20th and final one.

That's what he says, anyways...

Daddy-Daughter Day

Back around Father's Day, Tim took a day off (since he gets WAY more vacation days than some of us around here) and spent the day hanging out with his girl.  They don't get to spend alot of one-on-one time together, so it was a very special day.  Emma got to choose what they did all day.  Her very first request was to go out and practice riding her bike.

Tim said she did a great job.  Our goal is to take off the training wheels by the end of summer, although these 100+ degree days aren't helping us get her some practice!

After that, they went to one of Emma's favorite places...the book store! 

Then, it was on to lunch at Chick-fil-a, a favorite of both Emma and Daddy.

After lunch, they caught Madagascar 3 at the movie theater.  Two thumbs up from our girl.  They had a cutout in the lobby where you could pose with the movie characters.

From what I hear, it sounds like they had a great day.  I have a feeling this was the first of many Daddy-Daughter days.

A few days later, Emma had to come with me to work before her doctor appointment.  She brought some markers and coloring books and went to town making pictures for my coworkers, while I took care of a few work items.  When we got back in the car, she said, "Mom, I had fun at your work today, but what you do for work is NOT fun!"  Didn't take her long to figure that one out!

While at Target recently, we came upon some kids' sized Braves hats.  Since they both appear to have an interest in baseball -- much to Daddy's delight -- we decided they both should have their own baseball caps.  Both of them work the caps for pretty much the rest of the day, too.  That never happens!

 

And just for fun, we came across a "Stache Cam" app recently, which allows you to superimpose one of several choice mustaches onto a photo you take with your phone.  Thought our readers might enjoy seeing Emma with a 'stache!

Next time, we'll share a few photos from our trip to Denver last week.  As you might expect, the full photo album will be put up on Flickr, but first Tim has to weed through the 1,000 photos he took.  We'll keep you posted...

Father's Day and Time to play

Today is Father's Day.  These kids are truly blessed and lucky to have such a great dad.  (Tim and I each are too!)

After leaving Daddy in peace this morning while the rest of us went to church, we came home and showered him with presents to show him how much we appreciate all he does.  Emma made one of her trademark wonderful cards.

Among other gifts, we gave him a frame with photos of the kids with their dad, and this picture in the center:

It's a nice perk to have a professional photographer living down the street with lots of fun props!

We spent a nice day out shopping and playing in the backyard, topped off with tacos for dinner -- an entire family favorite!

Now, back to catching up on old photos...

Speaking of playing in the backyard, a few weeks ago we spent some great time outside with the kids.  They started by drawing in the driveway.

Later, we brought some water toys, the chalk, and some bubbles out back and let the kids do whatever they wanted.  Emma had a blast with the water squirter.

She wanted to see how high she could get the water on the back side of the house.

After awhile, she decided it was getting hot and asked Daddy to help her cool off.  He sure did!

Meanwhile, Drew did his own thing...mostly chasing bubbles, playing with the chalk, and practicing going up and down on the stepping stones. 

The fun ended soon after this, when both kids decided to play on the neighbors' swing set.  Let's just say that Drew learned the hard way not to get in Emma's way when she is swinging!