Emma's Birthday Celebrations

Emma had a wonderful birthday week!  I delivered cupcakes to her class the afternoon of her birthday!  

She chose to enjoy dinner at Romo's, our favorite local Mexican food place.  They even surprised her with a funny sombrero and sopapillas :)

That weekend we celebrated our seven year old with a pink/zebra party at the bowling alley in Huntsville.  

Sweet birthday girl

The pretty cake made by Red Barn Bakery

Some of our favorite first graders {Kayley, Savannah, Sarah, Emma & Merik} :)

Blowing out seven candles!!

A special thanks to these folks for traveling to celebrate with us:

Granny & Grandpa James

Lita & Big Daddy

All of Emma's friends in attendance

American Girl Doll Store

Lita treated us to a morning at the American Girl Doll Boutique & Bistro last month.  It was an early birthday celebration for Emma and she was in her happy place :)  She had been begging to go for awhile.

It was decorated beautifully for the holiday season!

We took a shopping break and enjoyed frosty milkshakes!

Saige ~ doll of the year!

Striking a pose! :)

There were two stories of so much to see.  Emma chose a matching red Christmas dress for Kelli and herself as well as a chapter book and several new accessories.   

What a fun day!  Thanks, Lita!  XOXO

Emma is seven!

This week marks seven years on our parenthood journey.  Happy 7th birthday to our joyful, straight A, detail oriented, mostly extroverted, highly competitive and creative first born.   She stands 48 1/4" tall (50-75th percentile) and weighs 65 lbs (90-95th perc).  She has now surpassed the weight limit on her five-point harness car seat and is proud to ride in style in her very first booster seat.  She wears size 1-2 shoe and size 6X-7 in clothing.  Her well child check up went well.  It was her first visit with Dr Knight and he said she looks great!  Her vision and hearing were checked.  She is 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in the other.  Her hearing is perfect, so now she has no excuse when I ask her to clean her room ;)

All of a sudden she seems so grown up!  She loves to read, do cartwheels, be artsy and play Barbies.  She holds her American Girl doll, Kelli, very dear.  She enjoys performing "plays" for us at home.  She allows Owen to participate but tells him what to say.  She is a natural born leader and likes things done a certain way.  She gets rather frustrated when she doesn't quickly master a new task.  She has lots of "best" friends and is the world's BEST big sister.  

  

She loves pedicures, Starbucks and hiding from daddy when he returns home from work each day.  She loves Jesus and has recently initiated a prayer with her homeroom class each day at lunch.  

She had lots of firsts this past year including losing her first (two!) teeth, getting hair bangs, staying overnight at camp, snow skiing/tubing, riding a mechanical bull, feeding a giraffe and riding a boogie board in the ocean. 

On her last day to be six I jokingly  asked Emma if she would consider staying six another year.  She immediately rolled her eyes and reassured me that God's plan is for her to grow up and that there isn't anything I can do about it!

Favorites (her responses in orange!)

Color: aqua

Best friend: I have lots of them: Savannah, Alyssa & Sarah....
TV show: Good Luck Charlie and Jessie

Day of the week: Saturday

Month:  December

Holiday:  Christmas

Outfit:  All of them!

Restaurant: Taco Cabana

Food: grilled cheese

Drink: sweet tea

Store: I don't like to shop!

Thing about school: I don't like school!

What are you good at?: cartwheels

Where do you want to attend college?: A&M and Baylor (smart girl!)

What do you want to be when you grow up?:  veterinarian

"Promise me you'll always remember...you're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than think and LOVED more than you know." 
~Christopher Robin 

Our Fall in a nutshell

Happy Fall Y'all....my absolute FAVORITE time of year :)  We are enjoying the cooler temperatures and are eager to put out our Christmas decor already.   ----> {Obviously we are keeping very busy here in the Smith household and it has taken me quite a while to finalize this post.  The Christmas decor is UP and we were even blessed with SNOW (yes, I said snow) here in east Texas as we decorated.  It was glorious!}  Here is some of what we have been up to this Fall:

On Monday afternoons the kiddos enjoy gymnastics at Maximum Athletics in Conroe.  It is about an hour from our house but it is so worth it!  The kids love everything about it; especially the bars, beams and trampolines!  It's terrific exercise and builds their balance, explosive power and body control.  This gym is very competitive and has a very seasoned staff of coaches.  Emma's coach has taught gymnastics for over 53+ years and Owen's coaches just adore him!

Both kids are loving their schools this year!  Owen looks forward to school days a lot more than he did last year and would probably go everyday if allowed!  He recently enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast there with some of his favorite friends :)

First grade is light years more rigorous than Kinder but Emma seems to be adjusting pretty well.  She is reading at a high grade level and has a total of four tests each Friday (spelling, sight word, vocabulary and weekly story comprehension).  She enjoys earning/wearing "brag tags" for her successes.  We are treading through math together :)  We are super proud to announce that she got ALL A's on her first TWO report cards!!!  We even have the yard sign to prove it :)

Our oldest finally lost her first tooth first two teeth!  It They had been wiggly for weeks and daddy finally managed to yank it them!!  She was thrilled to join the snaggle tooth club and the tooth fairy was very generous to her :)

On Wednesday evenings we attend the children's program at church.  I teach about 12 Pre K and Kinder kiddos each week and we have lots of fun together :)  Here they are so proud of their stars of Bethlehem!

On Thursday evenings we decorated the varsity football locker room.  Several of the players' mamas meet me and we do something fun each week in anticipation of game day!  We also provided a locker treat and note of encouragement.

We spent each Friday night cheering on the Tigers!  We attended every home and away game and decked ourselves out in orange, black and white.  We are so happy to announce that the mighty Tigers earned a spot in the playoffs for the second year in a row :)

We spent most Saturdays attending either a Baylor or Aggie football game.  Sic 'em Bears and gig 'em Aggies!  We sure wish they still played each other :)

A day at the zoo

One beautiful crisp mid November day we met the Shenkir girls at the Houston zoo.  It's a good mid way point for both of us.  They are moving overseas in the next few weeks so we wanted to squeeze in a visit before their departure.  It seems like just yesterday Lauren and I were college freshmen sleeping through our alarms.  Now between the two of us we have 15 years of marriage, four kids and two large SUVs!  She and I don't get together as often as I'd like but we always pick up right where we left off :)  Elise is 3 and Claire is 9 months old.

Our first stop - the elephants!  

Cheese :)

One of the highlights of our visit was feeding the giraffes.  These gentle giants are amazing!  Owen was nervous and initially didn't want to participate.  It didn't take him long to change his mind and he was a pro!

What a neat experience!  The kids already look forward to doing it again soon :)

Fun in the meerkat exhibit

Checking out the ducks

Before we left the kids enjoyed a ride on the carousel.

What a fun day!  Can't wait to return :)