Emily's Birthday Part II

We decided to have a little birthday party for Emily so that her family could celebrate with us, so Saturday morning our house looked a little like Sesame Street and six little cousins played together for several hours.

The weather was very cold and it was supposed to rain so before anyone arrived, Mo and I set up the bounce house, hoping to burn some energy in advance of the party...

Mo and I painted the characters while we chatted the night before...I'm pretty impressed with our skills!

We also made rainbow cupcakes with character rings on top.

Oh, and cookie monster bean bag toss...I even made the rice bags with my sewing machine and old scraps of material.  :-)  We did well, spending only a few dollars and still making it look good!

Check out the storm behind that guy!  I can't believe how crazy boys are!  It was cold and windy but all the boys were outside, when allowed.  K was inside, I believe, nearly the entire time.  :-)

Oh yeah, inside dressing up Sammy.

We did pull them inside for a while to do some crafts.

Emily has to get so close to see...

...that she often gets paint on her face too.  :-)

B arrived a little late since Mom had an accident on the stairs and had to go to the ER...we are thankful she is doing well but will have a pretty long recovery and I am sure all your prayers for her would be welcomed.

The kids had fun putting balloons on Poppy's head and watching them stick.

The rainbow...pretty cool!

We even had a chance to facetime with their uncle and other cousin, C, who live in NC.

Ok, it did get warm enough at one point for everyone to be outside for a while.

Em was pretty excited about her presents...

Now she sleeps with all of them...and Shamu and puppy and...

Uncle M got to take most of the day off.  Y is so big, he is almost as tall as I am and he is in first grade!

The fun of small parties, you can play with all the toys right away.

Well, she is three...who knew this would happen?  I am grateful!  Everyone keeps asking how I did this year on her actual birthday.  And the short answer is that it's hard to tell.  This was the first year I tried the strategy of not thinking about it.  I wanted to see if 'ignoring' it 'worked'.  I know everyone out there who believes in 'processing' everything is panicking, but don't worry, I have processed.  Now I have reached the point where I just want to look forward instead of back.

So, to retrain my brain, if negative memories came to mind, I shut them out and traded them for a literal look at her now.  I would literally walk to where she was and then give her a hug or find her in the rear view mirror and ask for a smile.  I told her I loved her and watched her long enough to get absorbed into her world right then or I distracted myself with something I needed to do.  Then in the afternoon it was her IEP meeting so I didn't have time to reflect.  Healthy or not, I wanted to see.  Overall, I think it worked pretty well, even if I had some pretty crazy dreams, - since I can't shut down my subconscious.  :-)

God is still healing her and in His faithfulness I still believe.  God Bless!!  Hope you let this little miracle put a smile on your face today!!