Emily's birthday continued

Emily enjoyed the ride in the car, and Zoe did too. They had Matt put the top up on the way home though because they were cold! Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, and I left around 11:15 to go to the YMCA for Emily's friend party. Because of my procrastination, we ended up inviting all of her classmates from school, which is mostly boys. Emily didn't really want to invite the boys and neither did I, but I waited too long to have Emily collect addresses from the girls in her class since the kids can only bring invitations to school if they are going to invite the entire class. Which is annoying because I always only want to invite the girls, but I can understand their rule. So I sent the invitations with Emily to school hoping that none of the boys would come. Only one parent called me to let me know her daughter was coming and Emily said two of her girl friends said they were coming, so we expected 3 girls. Two of the girls showed up and a boy came (Megan, Jenny, and Ben). The grandma of the boy had left me a message yesterday, but I didn't get it because I'm very bad about checking my messages (but I did get your message Janet and I separated the gifts and wrapped them like you asked :-). It was a pretty quiet group and they got along well. Zoe and Eleanor also came to the Y and my parents came to help out since Matt stayed home with Zach and Kate. We ate pizza, Emily opened her gifts from her friends,


we sang "Happy Birthday" to Emily,


and we ate cake. The popular question during the party was, "When can we go swimming?". The party was from 12-1pm and then I let parents know that Emily would be staying to swim after and their kids were welcome to join her (for a price of $3). All of the kids stayed to swim and they were very anxious to get to it! Even Emily could have done without the actual party I think and would have been content just to swim with her friends. The kids had a great time swimming and I swam with Eleanor...who decided to try out the water before I got to the pool area where my parents and the other moms were already there to watch. I hear that Eleanor stepped off the bottom step and went right under with her hands waving above her head. She was rescued, but not by the useless lifeguards. Before I heard about this incident, I wasn't impressed with the lifeguard sitting in his chair reading a book. And I hear that when Eleanor went under, the lifeguards were talking with each other and never knew that Eleanor was in trouble. The Y will be hearing my opinion about their lifeguards soon. So anyway, Emily and Zoe got to wear their new bathing suits today (which are the same style and pattern only different colors) that they each got for their birthdays. Eleanor has requested the same bathing suit only in a different color than Zoe and Emily's, which Grandma and Grandpa have already taken care of. We left the Y tired and excited to continue the birthday festivities as a family, including my parents. We went home to pick up Matt, Zach, and Kate and then we went to McDonald's. None of us were starving, but we were hungry enough to fill the tiny bit of emptiness in our stomachs. Emily was very quiet at McDonald's and I wondered if she was tired or if she was bummed out that she only had a few friends at her party. She said she was tired. We made it through dinner with only a minor spill of ketchup and Zach wanting to go potty and got mad when Matt insisted on taking him. When we were done eating, Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor rode to our house with my parents, and Matt, Zach, Kate, and I headed to the grocery store so I could run in to pick up a few things and then head home. I saw Zoe's and Emily's kindergarten teacher (Mrs. Pelletier) and stopped to talk with her for a few minutes...or maybe it was 10. I rushed around to pick up the 3 things I needed and hoped that all was well in the car. Kate was crying when I got in the car, and I'll mention that she cried a lot while I was at the Y this afternoon. We went home and was told by Zoe and my Dad that Emily threw up inside the house...all over my chair. I knew something wasn't quite right with her at McDonald's. My wonderful parents cleaned up after Emily and everything was taken care of by the time we got home. Emily felt well enough to open her presents.

New headbands.

This isn't a great picture of Emily, but I wanted to show off Zach's Hawaiian shirt. Matt wore one like it today, too. Zach loves it when he matches his Daddy!

Emily got a Nintendo DS like she wanted and a few games to go with it, plus other little things. She wasn't up for more cake and we weren't up for her breathing on the cake, so we will sing Happy Birthday to her as a family tomorrow if she is feeling better. Several of us finished off the friend party cake while Zoe and Emily played with their Nintendo's and the younger ones looked on.



Matt gave the kids a bath, my parents left, I cleaned up the kitchen, and we cleaned up the house, had family scripture and prayer, and then sent all the kids to bed. Matt told Emily to go into the bathroom if she even thought that she MIGHT throw up. She's on the top bunk, so she needs to consider extra time to get down from her bed to get into the bathroom. We said goodnight. Matt headed into the bathroom and I came into the living room. And Emily threw up in her bed. My first thought was to ask her, "DIDN'T DADDY JUST TELL YOU TO THROW UP IN THE TOILET AND TO GO INTO THE BATHROOM WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU MIGHT THROW UP???" but I didn't. I didn't say anything except the fact that she would need another bath now. She is now asleep on the floor in the hall in front of the bathroom. Everything she is laying on is washable. It was sad to hear her say how much she hates throwing up, and it's a very sad way to end a birthday.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! Thanks for all your help today!

Emily just threw up again.