Emily is 5!

It's no joke, time really does fly.  It is hard to believe that Emily turned 5 years old yesterday.  Her birthday is not easily forgotten, as long as she has anything to do with it.  She has been looking forward to her birthday for months and months, like most kids do, and is pretty excited to say that she is 5 years old now.  Even though we didn't have any big plans or reasons to leave the house, she was thrilled to be able to wear our "Birthday Girl" ribbon all day long.

As we prepped for our little family birthday party the girls helped make and decorate some cupcakes, strawberry cake with strawberry frosting, at Emily's request!

The night concluded with pizza, cupcakes, candles, and presents!  It was especially memorable because Emily's hair caught on fire as she attempted to blow out her candles.  I should have known better, it even crossed my mind as she began blowing that perhaps I should hold her hair back.  But then who would do the video taping?  Priorities, you know.

Sure enough, it caught fire.  It only singed a little before Corky was able to put out the fire out, but it sure gave us a good jump....and then a laugh!

Corky bought Emily a little set of rings, toe rings, to be exact.  To understand a bit of where this gift idea came from, I will add that Emily sees a neurologist about every 6 months.  Each time she goes, her prize is to choose a ring from the prize box.  It is a obviously a cheap ring and it turns her finger green within a couple of days, but she wears it religiously.  In fact, she keeps the ring until her next appointment.  Corky found some toe rings that we are hoping won't turn her finger as green and will give her a little variety.  She loves them already!

(maybe next time I will wait for her to swallow her mouthful of cupcake before snapping a photo)

We love Emily so much.  She challenges our parenting skills everyday with her mood swings and little-sister-syndrome, yet validates our efforts with lots of loves, words of affection, and never-ending snuggles.

She has the most tender heart and spirit when it comes to animals and babies.  I will admit, I have been drawn to tears a few times as I watched her interact with not just our dog, but other people's animals.  In fact, she is hesitant to watch movies that involve animals because she is so sensitive and gets emotional when watching them.

She can mimic nearly any dance move that she sees, and man, she can really shake it.

She can sing along to any song on the radio, hitting each note with ease and claiming with every song that she knows and hears that "this is my favorite song ever!"