Celebrations

Emma's birthday was the celebration that went on and on! The girls' Kansas cousins surprised them last Friday night and spent most of the long weekend with us. Emma had been begging to go bowling for her birthday, so Saturday after the Cyclones victory, we hit up Plano Super Bowl. Bumper lane for the kids, regular lane for the adults.

 Cousin bowlers!

 It was a great afternoon of genuine fun at the lanes!

 Had to take a picture of Sara's high score - 120. Wow!

 After bowling, we headed to the FC Dallas game. 

 I love watching Emma play soccer, and I also love watching her love to watch it. It was a great game and a W for FC Dallas. Lots of fun with fireworks afterward!

 On Sunday, we had a pool day complete with ice cream cake from Henry's. Lexey and Emma have birthdays just a few days (and a couple of years) apart.

 The cousins swam literally all day long!

 When night came and the adults were still hanging out on the porch, we spied the 10-year-olds having serious girl talk over by the pool. Love that these girls love each other so much, even though they live far away from one another.

 Monday was a quiet day cleaning and resting at home, and Tuesday was Emma's actual birthday. She brought cookies for her friends at school and her teacher was kind enough to send me pictures.  That evening we opened presents, then went to soccer (more cookies for the team), and then ate Panda Express (Emma's request).

Emma put all of her personality on display while opening presents ...

 We had so much fun celebrating her over the course of many days, and as you would imagine, she didn't mind at all that the fun just kept coming!

In other celebration news, Sara decided this year that she was going to run for a Student Council officer position. Last year in 4th grade she was a class rep, but 5th graders are able to run for one of four officer positions. A couple of weeks ago, she decided to run for Secretary, so she wrote a speech and made a poster to display at the school. On Friday, she had to give her speech in front of the entire 5th grade. She went to bed very nervous Thursday evening. I was glad to get this picture from one of her teachers mid-morning on Friday.

Sara texted me after she got home from school to let me know that she won the election! I am so proud of her. Prior to Friday, she kept asking, "what if I don't win?" and I kept reinforcing that we'd be proud regardless - it takes a lot of guts just to run and speak in front of your peers. I know she'll be a great leader this year, in her last year of elementary school.

This weekend we are enjoying some football and pool time, as well as soccer and softball games ... and just waiting for it to feel like fall!