TOGETHER on Emma's birthday!

When Jesse and his family left for El Paso WAY back in May 2007, I never dreamed it would be SO LONG before they would return back to Michigan to live. The last birthday we were able to celebrate with Emma on the day of her birthday was her fourth! You can't imagine how happy I was this past Friday to be together with Emma on her ELEVENTH birthday!

Emma loves my reading chair!

Grandma and Grandpa Hand
Diana and Jesse, Uncle David
Dylan, Kelly, Brendan

 Emma got to choose the place for her birthday party. I wasn't at all surprised when she chose Townsend Park. We enjoyed pizza and chips and a beautiful birthday cake (that I failed to photograph).

Dylan and Kelly and baby Brendan joined the party. Kelly had met Jesse's family the night before ... but until then, she had never met any of them!  

Dylan and Little Fellow
Brendan kept wandering off from the picnic
and had to be retrieved ... he was on his
own mission, quite independent of the rest of us!

 Emma received so many beautiful gifts. She was very pleased. 

One of "the brothers" drew this for Emma,
but I can't remember if it was Chris or Matthew ...

 Emma is very "into" LEGO Friends, which was designed for girls. She received many new Friends' sets for her birthday. Back in December, the last time I was in El Paso, she had asked me to buy her a Bible, "one that had ALL of the words" included instead of just parts of the stories. So I bought Emma an Adventure Bible and got her a bright pink Bible case with zipper pockets and all kinds of compartments to keep pencils in, etc. She was pretty excited when she opened it up. I also got her an outfit that had a cute little cat on the shirt. I didn't get any pictures of Emma opening the gifts I bought for her because by the time she opened them, I was holding Kaity-girl who had gotten a little fussy.

BRENDAN!
You should see this baby on a slide!
He squeals when he gets to the top,
sits himself down like a pro and laughs all the way to the bottom!
I love him intensely.

 This was our 3rd time "hunting" critters in the creek, and so far, not one of us had been able to catch a cray fish. We were getting much better, though, at catching water bugs (!) and tiny fish ...

 This is Brendan "racing" with his mama. When she says, "Ready, set, go! Or ... On your mark, get set, go!", he will bend over and place his hand on the ground and then zoom off in a race with Kelly! He is such a cutie!

Happiness! Emma was the FIRST ONE to catch a crayfish! It was quite a big guy too! And then Christopher caught one, and Matthew got another that someone had let go in the open waters of the creek. A friend of mine had told me that crayfish like hotdogs (!), so we wrapped parts of hotdogs around string and then we trolled along the tree roots by the edge of the creek ... and out they came! Emma said this was the favorite part of her birthday. She was so thrilled to catch a crayfish! 

Brendan wasn't one bit hesitant about getting into the creek. He isn't afraid of anything ... which is kind of scary if you think about it!

Later in the evening, the three older grandchildren spent some time with me at the Beach House. I showed Emma my special peanut grinder and she ground up a whole bunch of peanuts to put on top of our ice cream sundaes. Good job, Emma!

I will remember this day, August 16, 2013 for a very long time -- full of wonderful memories of my Emma Joy's birthday.