Tonight, our children are zonked out in their beds and we are feeling sore muscles from bouncing so much!  This afternoon we had Emma’s 5th birthday celebration at Pump It Up! in Glen Burnie.  Ever since Emma’s cousin, Mackinzie, had her birthday at a similar place, she’s been begging for one.   She’s especially been wanting to sit in the blow-up throne you see her on the photo above.  It was all she wanted.

Now normally I wouldn’t splurge for such an extravagant birthday, but a few things came to factor in this decision:

1.  It’s her 5th birthday!  That’s a BIG deal!

2.  Our house is getting too small to accommodate both our families, her little friends, and their parents & siblings.

3.  I am going to be in Ethiopia in her actual birthday, so I felt guilty!

4.  I didn’t have to set up or clean up!

So, there you have it.  We had 15 of her little friends, all of our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, friends, etc. down for her party & I didn’t have to pick up a thing afterward!  Ahhhh!

And to my big birthday girl:  I love you!  You were such a great girl today.  You played so well with all your friends & your sister.  You shared your throne so well with everyone, and we are so proud to have you as our daughter!

Hello Noelle!  This sweet darling is Noelle.  She attends the girls bible study I co-lead and today she is going to a wedding.  She mentioned not knowing what to do with her hair last week and I told her I’d be happy to straighten it for her.  Today, that is what I did!  I took my sister’s Chi straightener, all the products I own, and spent over an hour chatting with Noelle & straightening her gorgeous red curly hair!  And this dress…can you believe that she MADE it with her grandmother!?!?!?  There is none other like it!  It’s amazingly fabulous.  My photo doesn’t do it justice.  There are so many details you can’t see at this distance, but I think she did a wonderful job!  Have a great time at the wedding Noelle!  Dance a little for me!

This photo is of my big girl Emma on her way to a sleep over birthday party.  She recently got this Princess luggage for Christmas and uses it any chance she can get!  She had a wonderful time, we were told, and slept in the longest of all the kids!  Way to sleep, Emma!

I’m running a little behind on 365 posts these days.  I leave for Ethiopia in 6 days!  So, my brain is a little fried trying to do my regular wife/mommy/photographer chores, as well as prepare physically & mentally for this 14-day trip.  Therefore, I have THREE posts today!

This photo is of Brooke enjoying…no…devouring pancakes at Bob Evans!  She liked the little ones with whipped cream…yum!

I took my camera to the high school girls bible study that I help lead last night, hoping to get my photo of the day.  I see these girls every Wednesday night and hadn’t blogged about them yet, so I thought I’d give it a try.  While we were waiting to start, I had Kelsey help me with trying to capture motion.  Kelsey takes photography in high school, so between the two of us we thought we could make it work.  We tried with this little jet plane.  First we tried having Kelsey roll the jet across the counter.  I couldn’t get the settings just right, so next we tried having the jet stay still & me moving the camera from left to right.  The above photo is what we came up with.  Pretty fun I think, even if it is out of focus.

And this next photo is a bonus!  Last night was also Trish’s birthday (she helps lead the study too) so the girls made her a birthday cake.  As you can see I didn’t expose for the cake, just the sweet faces that made it….

Photo:  John Waire Photo.  John is another local photographer…Baltimore I think…that I found through Twitter.  I really enjoyed his post today about his daughter Mady’s puddle jumping adventures.  Not too many words, but the photos spoke volumes.  I can totally relate.  And one of my girls has the same Hello Kitty rain boots!  Great work, John!