Happy 4th Birthday My Sweet Emmaline

Today is my baby girls birthday! My little Emmaline Grace is four years old today. How can that be? It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. She'll always be my baby though. She's been full of cuddles over the last week and I've just been loving it! Em was up bright and early this morning, and oh yes she knew it was her birthday! She was so excited it was her special day. I just loved seeing the excitement on her face all day long. It turned out to be a spectacular day.

The kids played all morning while Greg was at work. He had the afternoon off so that was nice. We had birthday lunch at Smokey Bones, Em's choice. We told her she could go wherever she wanted and that's what she picked. Then we let her choose what to do in the afternoon. She wanted to go to the MSU 4-H Children's Gardens. It was hot, but we haven't been there yet this summer (I know, right! Summer is going by too fast!) so off to the gardens it was. I asked her in the morning if she would like to invite her friend Chloe along, and then after wards Chloe could come back to the house and have some birthday cake with us. She loved that idea! Chloe isn't able to come to her party this weekend so I thought this would be fun for Em. I had made a practice run on her birthday cake last night so we had cake that needed to be eaten! The girls had a blast at the gardens and of course loved having some birthday cake! Here's a couple pics from our afternoon!

I just love this pic of the girls! Best friends walking through the gardens!

The birthday girl and Chloe at the MSU Gardens!

Our celebration continued after Chloe went home with present time! Emmaline of course loved opening presents! Then it was time to head to dinner. Greg's mom told Em she'd take her to dinner wherever she wanted. All last week she had said Culver's, and while I like Culver's I was hoping for something a little better for birthday dinner. A couple of days ago we figured out that it was just ice cream that Emme wanted there, she didn't want to eat there. So we told her we could always just go for ice cream after dinner if she wanted to go somewhere else. She ended up deciding on Olive Garden for dinner, and Culver's for dessert. Yay! I love Olive Garden salad! We had a nice dinner and Emme got more presents. She was loving every minute of it! Especially the yummy frozen custard at Culver's after.

We ended the night with her opening one present she saved for after dinner and the kids playing with her new dollhouse pieces. Followed by my little girl snuggling in the chair with me for a story before bed! A perfect day with the birthday girl at the Shearwater Nest! My dear Emmaline we all love you bunches and wish you a very happy birthday. Mommy loves you as high as the sky, as deep as the ocean, and to the moon and back! You make me smile everyday, and I'm proud to be your Mom!

Here's my 4 year old! (I love how she rocks the side ponytail!)