Mimi's Big Day

On Emme's actual birthday I decided to make the day all about her. I stayed up late the night before and got all of my decorating & tidying & to-do's off my list so I could spend the whole next day with her. I woke up early and got all dressed & ready for the day so I'd be ready to do whatever she wanted when she woke up.

As soon as I heard her start talking in her crib, I went in to get her...

I thought it was so cute that she remembered that it was her birthday! (And she still wakes up some days and asks me if it's her birthday, ha ha. It's going to take a while to get a grasp on the concept.)

Then I walked her out to the family room to see the house. The only thing Emme asked for for her birthday was balloons. So I hung some from the ceiling and she got to play with them all morning. (We also picked up some helium-filled ones from Zurchers later in the day....more on that drama below.)

She gets so excited about princess things! Thanks to Melissa for letting us borrow her streamers & banners from Miyo's birthday. They were a big hit. Emme had to show them to everyone who came to our door that day.

I also set her little table with princess plates & kazoos for her and Tiger. (Tiger eats breakfast with us every day, with his own plate & sippy.)

{Seeing her table for the first time}

The other thing Emme loves right now is chocolate coins. (This stems from them being left on our pillows in Disneyland each night.) So I bought her a little pouch of them and left it wrapped on her plate. When she saw the present she was so excited and she asked me, "mama, is it a surprise?" I told her "yes," and she proceeded to close her eyes tight instead of opening it up, ha ha. Because we close our eyes for surprises I guess? Very cute.

When we finally got it open she was so excited. In hindsight, I probably should have waited until after breakfast to let her open it. I was planning on grating some of the chocolate over toast like my mom used to make for us when we were little. (And her mom used to make for her.) But once she saw the coins, she didn't want anything else for breakfast. So chocolate coins it was! Breakfast of champions.

{Nom, nom, nom...chocolate.}

We also had breakfast with Cinderella baby, and we brushed her hair while we ate our coins.

Then we fed her a "baba."

Then we played with our balloons some more.

Later in the morning we headed to Jungle Jim's to play with Miyo & Jameson & Melissa & Grandma. On our way we stopped at Zurchers to pick up a bundle of princess balloons I had ordered. They handed them to me with the cords tied in a loop, like they have every time I've ordered balloons there.

When we got out of the car at Jungle Jim's, I put the balloon loop over my arm and proceeded to unbuckle Emme's carseat. All of a sudden I felt the weight of the balloons disappear from my arm and I looked up to see the knot had come undone and all of her princess balloons were floating away! I hurried and got Emme out of the car so she could watch and wave to them. It was so sad! I think she cried hard enough for the both of us. (Needless to say, on our way home from Jungle Jim's we stopped and bought another set of princess balloons, and all was well with the world again.)

At Jungle Jim's we went on all the rides. The picture of Emme on the swings was taken just before it started going and she started screaming, ha ha! This girl was so brave at Disneyland but it took her a while to warm up at Jungle Jim's.

I even went on the Jeep ride by myself to show Emme how fun it was. (And let me tell you, it's super fun to squeeze into those cars with a pregnant belly.)

Mostly Emme and Jamers wanted to drive these video game cars, but we finally peeled them away and got them to try some other rides.

Emme said she'd go on the rockets but only with Grandma. They did it twice and she loved it!

Since we were the only ones there, we all rode the bumper cars, with the agreement not to "bump" the car with Annalisa & Emme in it. It was one of the most fun rides we did.

All of the grandkids requested to ride the teacups with Grandma, ha ha! I think we gave Grandma a run for her money that day.

After Jungle Jim's we hit up McDonalds for lunch. Emme had been requesting "fries and chocolate milk," so we obliged. Only once we got there, she wanted soda instead of chocolate milk, and since it was her birthday I let her have soda.

After we'd had our fill of nuggets & fries, we came home for some naps.

We watched Toy Story for a few minutes while we laid by our helium-filled princess balloons.

After naps, Emme woke up to me finishing the frosting on her cupcakes. (I asked her if she wanted a cake or cupcakes, and she said cupcakes.) We went with the funfetti variety and pink frosting. They were a hit! She couldn't keep her mouth off of them - she kept licking the frosting off the tops. So we had one cupcake before dinner, and then we ate pizza (Emme's other favorite food).

We had to eat on princess plates, of course. And Emme wanted to watch Toy Story on the ipad while we ate, so we propped it up on the table and did just that.

After dinner we had the real birthday cupcake. Chris lit a princess candle in two of them, one for each year. She loved it when we sang to her.

She had some trouble blowing out the candles, so dad assisted. (Could it be because she makes the "f" sound with her mouth when she blows instead of the "o" sound? It's pretty funny.)

After cupcakes we opened presents. Mimi got some gloves...

A jewelry holder for all her many necklaces... (There are two birds on her jewelry holder. If you ask her what their names are, she'll tell you "Emme" and one of the names we've been considering naming Baby Brother. Don't know where she came up with that!)

Some butterfly dress-up wings...

And also a new pair of tennis shoes. (Boring, I know...but that's what happens when your birthday comes 4 days before black friday. You have to wait for Christmas for the good stuff!)

Happy birthday to my special girl! I love you so much!