Our first born has officially turned four!  We celebrated by torturing ourselves and having TWO birthday parties!  One for little friends, and one for family members.  Maybe we should just buy a bigger house rather than host two parties???

For Emma’s little friends party, we had a puppet show.  I wasn’t the best puppeteer, but we managed.  Luckily preschoolers and toddlers aren’t too tough.  Brooke did interrupt the show by taking my puppet off my hand, but other than that little fiasco, things went great.  Then the kiddos made paper bag puppets and played with the puppet theater.  By the way, this puppet theater belonged to my sister-in-law, Emily, and her siblings when they were little, so it’s pretty well loved!

After, we ate cake!  Here are some of Emma’s party pictures.  And, if you want to know some good gifts for a four-year-old girl, email me!  Our family and friends found the greatest presents!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I did not make this super cute cake or cupcakes.  I took this year off from baking and went with my mom’s advice and got this cake at Shopper’s in Annapolis.  It was a great deal, and even better cake!

Yesterday my oldest daughter turned four!  It’s hard to believe that four short years ago she was born!  And, it’s even harder to believe how much she’s changed!  She’s gone from a helpless infant, to a semi-independant four-year-old.  I hardly ever take a group of photos just dedicated to my children, so Emma & I decided to do just that yesterday for her birthday.  She donned her prettiest dress (that still fits…barely!), put in her favorite hair clip, and we went out front and snapped away.  I feel very luck to even have gotten as many photos of her as I did.  Since I’ve been taking her photo for four years now, she has a low tolerance for my camera.  Here is Emma Rose on her fourth birthday!

Thanks to Cousin Jennifer to playing with Emma during her “photo session” and helping her smile.  And thanks to our neighbors, Jack & Colleen, for unknowingly letting us use your stone garden…it makes the loveliest backdrop!  (You should visit Jack’s nursery if you want some awesome landscaping too!)

Happy Birthday, my love Emma!