Happy Birthday Emma!

So Emma's birthday started out different than most years.  Shawn and Isaac had a scout camp out at a neighbors house.  So they boys took off on Friday night and left the house to the girls. 

We watched Switched at Birth and ate ice cream before heading to bed.  (Where Emma slept in Daddy's spot.) 

On Saturday morning I went to pick the boys us and we started the morning off with Frenchies (of course). Then Emma had FAME practice for 4 whole hours. While she was gone we decorated the house, started on dinner and a cake and the boys planned a scavenger hunt for her to find her presents.  

The present hunt begins.

Clue #1

The clues lead her all over the house, the linen closet, the kitchen cupboards, the quincho, here she was directed to watch 20 seconds of The Emperor's New Groove.    

 Isaac was especially proud of this clue.  It was his idea to put it floating in the bowl in the pool.  I think he was secretly hoping she would jump in to get it.

 Finally we were lead to the TV room where.... Sweetie Pie and Papa joined us via Skype.  Emma found her presents behind (and under) the couch and sat down to open them.

 This year I was really shooting for the Mother of the Year award.  I mean my mother has had it for so long I felt like it was time she shared it with me.  So in my attempt to win the award (and to make up for our lack of paragliding last year) we bought Emma a Galaxy tablet.  Now in all fairness we were going to buy her a Kindle but decided that she is going to need something for school next year anyway and this just seemed to make a little more sense.  She is so excited!  She has already customized it, and is working on downloading a ton of apps.  We did have to warn her if we found any of the parental controls uninstalled she would lose any and all access to the tablet.  But for now my little girl is growing up. 

 I love this picture, because this is how Eli is with all technology.  "I wanna touch, I wanna touch." Who knows we might be buying one of these for him in the next few years. 

 Last but not least, Emma had 2 requests for her birthday cake.  She wanted to decorate it and she wanted it to be a money cake.  As much as I loved money cakes when I was a kid, and even for the first few years I had kids I really don't love them now.  It takes forever to wrap the money to the point that I know none of it will touch food that might be eaten.  Then when I go to throw the cake out (which I almost always do) I have to go back through and dig for the left over money and wash it off.  So this year I just wrapped 2 bills in plastic wrap and put it on the top of the cake.  When we cut the cake I gave each of the kids one of the bills and told them to enjoy the cake.  I think I took all the fun out of it.  I guess I'll go back to wrapping coins next year.