birthdays and black eyes

Finally getting around to posting this. It's been busy here at Popsicle Central. Three different people have caught the cold! I think we're finally on the mend now. If only the weather would decide which direction it was going to go!

So we spent a week back east celebrating Emma's first birthday with family and friends. She ended up having more than one celebration, what a lucky girl! To make things more interesting, Emma decided to start walking on the trip. And everyone knows that with walking comes bumps, and bruises, and yes, the occasional black eye. So she had a little black eye under her right eye (see below) for her birthday celebrations. She's a tough girl, though. I think she was almost proud. :)

"I'm so excited! I get to have FOUR birthday cakes this week!"

On Friday night, we had her first birthday cake and singing at cousins Morgan & Tommy's house. She loved everyone singing to her, and hanging out with her fun cousins!

We had a Virginia celebration on Saturday, the 27th. Thank you to Aunt Sarah for the beautiful party dress! We got to hang out with G.G., and Tia and Uncle Andy, our special, wonderful Emma (for whom little Emma was named), friends from New York, Florida and Portland, cousins and more! It was great, and Emma loved being the center of attention (before taking a nice long nap in the closet. hey, she slept like a champ!)

On Sunday, we had a birthday celebration for her in Maryland with family. She had a beautiful Princess Cake handmade by Aunt Kelly and cousin Morgan:

Gammie created an amazing birthday Princess party for her Precious Angel. It was a fairytale dream! Just look at this spread!

When it came time for Emma's cake, she was a little tired, but she's still a party girl through and through. She loved her birthday treat!

The wonderful legacy of her first birthday, is that she was able to share it with THREE other generations!! That's right, she had two paternal great-grandparents at her party, and we had to capture it on camera:

What a lucky girl she is. She got lots of wonderful books, clothes, baby dolls, games, puzzles, handmade sweaters, two necklaces, a handmade book by Aunt Kelly and more. The best gift of course, was just having our loved ones around us to help celebrate this little treasure. I think she enjoyed herself immensely and we look forward to many more! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make her day so special!

For the rest of our trip, there are simply too many pictures to post at once, so take a look at ALL of them here:
http://eeks101.smugmug.com/gallery/6164504_GM5h3#388568957_Mhntk

enjoy!