Emma's Birthday Party

It's a known fact that kid parties never go as "planned", so I went into this party today trying to be level minded and ready to accept my fate. However, you must know something about me, I am a control freak. It is very hard for me when there are things out of my control, and today was such an occurrence.

I reserved our clubhouse located in the middle of our condos about a month ago. I gave the lady on the phone our dates and times needed, and she told me where to send the check for the deposit. I assumed it would all be ready for us at 11:00 a.m. this morning when we needed to have the building unlocked, so that we could get Emma's party going.

No one was there at 11:00 a.m., or 11:30, or even 12:00 p.m. when the party was supposed to start. Matt was on the phone with the HOA, but they were closed and only had an emergency contact number available. This was an emergency, we had 20 people with hungry kids waiting outside for the doors to be unlocked! 

Matt proved to be my hero again, and somehow got a hold of the right person to unlock the door. While all that was going on, I was home trying to keep my cool and get everything loaded up to go down to the clubhouse. A special thanks goes out to my sister-in-law Crissy, who always seems to be available in a crisis, and my big brother Owen who helped make the sandwiches so that I could get Emma ready for her party. I would have been a mess without you both! 

Of course, I can't forget sweet Anne McRae for baking a massive amount of mini-cupcakes for us all to enjoy. I am so excited for the days to come, where I can munch on these delicious baked goodies!

After the building chaos, the party went smooth and everyone seemed to have fun (I couldn't really tell, because I was running around most of the time, but from what I heard people had fun). Emma had so much fun chasing after the big kids, and wasn't interested at all in her presents. She definitely loved her chocolate cupcake, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

After everyone left, we cleaned up the clubhouse (with help from our friends Jen, the mega cleaner, and Matt Vanduren) and headed home to get Emma down for a nap. 

It was such a blast, and the stress and worry were all worth it in the end. I am glad I survived my first kid birthday party, and that we were able to see all our friends and family too. Thank you to all that came and gave Emma a present, we'll be opening them all tomorrow so that she can have the whole day to play with them! Our little girl is one!! 

Kami and Tristan making sure Emma saw all her presents!

Kami helping Emma with her presents

Great Grandma, Me, Mom, Emma (with her cupcake goatee)

Eating her birthday cupcakes at Grandma Esau's house...

The Fotofly Experience

Friday I had major anxiety about taking Emma to the Fotofly Studio for pictures. Eric, the Fotofly owner, posted this comment on his Facebook page awhile back, and it describes my emotions for that day perfectly :

"Mothers generally have the same expression when they walk into the studio. It's a combination of excitement, stress, hope, and anxiety. They have always prepared and worked hard before walking through our door. Their expression shows that they really, really want good pictures of their children and there's not many things more beautiful."

 It wasn't that I didn't have faith in our photographer (his name was Daniel, and he was awesome) to get good pictures, but it was the unknown. I didn't know if Emma would smile like she does at home, and I wasn't sure if she would get bored and become uncooperative. Would she cry? Would she look at the camera?

Not only was she engaged in the photo shoot, I think she actually had fun! She started to warm up to Daniel after a few minutes, and the pictures captured her better than I thought possible. I don't know why you would choose any other picture option for your kids. The price was amazing, $79 for 45 minutes of picture taking, plus you can wait while they edit your pictures (there is a movie room, and play room for the kids, awesome!). After that, you return to their lovely studio, and go home with your CD of all your pictures. Another bonus: you can choose to print your pictures there if you'd like!

Since I am familiar with the customer service area (I've worked in it since I was 16), I really appreciate great customer service. I love when people are friendly, and happy, and engaged in your life. It means so much more when it's not forced. Everyone at Fotofly, whether they were directly helping me or not, said "hello" to me, and said Hi to Emma. One girl was even on her way out the door to go home, and spent a few minutes chatting with me before leaving. I was more than impressed with the whole experience, and will be a customer for life! 

Here are the pictures of our sweet Emma: 

 I can't imagine a world without Fotofly! 

 

xoxo

Rachel

 

 

 

 

Emma Update

So besides the Birthday stress, Emma has been having lots of fun these last few weeks. Her new favorite thing is to "talk" to you on the phone. She somehow figured out the process of a phone call: "hello" pause "baby jabber" pause "more baby jabber" pause "baby screams". I will call Matt at work, and have Emma talk to him and she will wait for him to say something, and then she'll respond. She loves to talk on the phone! 

Emma also is quite obsessed with making you walk with her. She hasn't decided to walk on her own yet, so she will grab our fingers and hold on to them, and just start walking whether we like it or not. She wants to walk all over the house, as long as she's holding on to our fingers. She just walks around, and jabbers to herself as she walks. The only time she stops, is when there is something on the ground especially enticing. No regular toys will do, she stops for the lint, the mini cat toys that are a choking hazard, and Mom's purse. Gotta love her!

She still likes her fortress, although she likes being out with us better now. She doesn't like being left out, and wants to be wherever Matt and I are. She still loves chasing after the cats, and tries to "meow" at them, but it sounds more like a high pitched scream, which they hate. 

Emma is so much fun, and the new things she does every day makes me so happy to be a Momma. I know I say this a lot, but, ... I can't believe she's one!! Wow, what a great year it's been. 

Time to start all over again???

Hmmmm....

As I ponder that thought, here are some pictures of our sweet Emma baby:

Uh, Mom? Trying to watch Little Einstein's here..

Wearing the dress Grandma Entwistle bought her

Walking! (with help)

That's her, "up to no good" look

Excited to get Grandma Entwistle's Valentine's present!

Chocolate and a new outfit inside!!

Emma lounges in the carts when we go to the store, most of the time, both feet are up

like so...

Emma's pre-birthday cupcake at Grandma Esau's house

She didn't mess around....

Can you say, sugar high??

right down to the last crumb...

I don't doubt that she'll devour her birthday cupcakes after seeing what she did to this one! She is a sugar-holic just like her Mother! :)

xoxo

The Twistles