*This was written around Emma’s birthday, but I didn’t get around to adding the pictures until now….better late than never!

This blog is quite neglected by me but I tell myself if I only write 1 post a year, let it be these birthday posts for my kids! I love going back and reading them and it makes me so happy to remember how they change every year. I still remember bringing Emma home from the hospital and wondering WHAT did I just do?! Now I love being a mom and I can’t imagine not ever being one. Every day these little humans teach me so much about myself and the world around me. They have definitely made me a better person and I only hope that I am doing the same for them!

So let’s take a walk down memory lane of Emma’s year 5 here on Earth. She began the year with her graduation from preschool at Lee CDC. It was bittersweet wrapping up her years here because we loved it so much and were very nervous about what her new school would be like. Luckily, it turns out we LOVE her new school!!! but more on Kindergarten later.

Summer was filled with more swim classes. This past year Emma got to the point where she can swim small distances with her head in the water. We need to work on her diving though which she has MAJOR issues
with. I think in general, since she is a very cautious person, jumping into a pool of water freaks her out. Even if she knew how to swim I think she would be nervous about this. Not sure how to get her over this fear but I know one day she’ll be able to do it just like how she has gotten over so many of her other fears!

She is also still in ballet at the same dance academy and had her annual recital in June where she was the cutest bunny you ever did see! She is still enjoying it so much and I’m glad she’s found a hobby that she enjoys so much.

(she’s the 2nd on the left)

We are also continuing piano and she is temporarily trying out chess again (she seems on the fence about this so we may not push her to do this again if she doesn’t want to).

(this is her playing a song for her preschool class!)

Family vacations this year included Big Bear, Vegas, 2 trips to Palm Springs (the same hotel too because we loved it so much!), a trip to Austin for my brother’s wedding, and our first family international trip!!! (to Italy).

Our good friends have a cabin in Big Bear which we have visited often throughout the years. Luckily, they invited us up there for the 4th of July. The best part is seeing Emma spend time with her bestie Katie. They have been friends since they were born and their friendship grows closer every year!

For Palm Springs, we have been loving the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa. My daughter’s biggest wish is to have a dog (sorry, but not going to happen any time soon :(). When I discovered that this hotel has a dog in the lobby that you can even walk, I knew we had to try it out. Our whole family fell in love with this dog, Picasso….so much that we almost considered adopting it LOL. But alas we didn’t, but my kids had a blast walking him and playing with him while we were at the hotel. This hotel also has a pool area with slide, movie nights, and other kid friendly events. The hotel is just super animal friendly too with these huge turtles and rabbits you can feed and reptile tanks! We also came back here for Easter which I highly recommend. They had a huge easter egg hunt, egg decorating, and other fun stuff for the kids.

We visit Vegas pretty much every year. Even though it’s so hot in the summertime these kids love it because that means pool time and they can never get enough pool time. This time we went off the strip and visited the Museum of Natural History which the kids loved! It was a simple museum but had some really fun exhibits for the kids. Another fun trip with friends….we love traveling with friends!

My younger brother got married this past year and Emma got to be a flower girl! She loved the experience and it was so great to see all of my family in one place. Her favorite was just getting to spend time with her cousins though who she is always asking to visit. Wished we all lived closer!

Lastly, our crazy trip to NYC and Italy. I probably need to write a more extensive post on this one day since there is so much to say but I don’t want to take over this post with this one trip. I’ll just share the highlights. Emma discovered ice skating on this trip and literally went in every city we visited (I think she went 3 times!). She also rode a horse, rode bikes along the walls surrounding Lucca, ate a lot of gelato, and even made some Italian friends!

Trips were more limited this year since Emma started kindergarten which is why most of our trips were local! I still can’t believe I have a kid old enough to be in public school. She is LOVING it though and has an amazing teacher. We couldn’t be happier with her experience so far and everything she is learning. It’s so amazing watching her learn how to read and mastering her sight words. For one of her research projects for school they had to choose which community helper she wanted to be and she chose scientist. This tech mama was super happy to hear this!! :)

Some other notables this year was she ran her first marathon (the kids train throughout the school year and then run the final lap at the race), had her first sleepover, and got new glasses (they are pink now!).

For her birthday this year, we’re throwing her and Max a joint bday party next month so I will probably blog about that more in Max’s post. I love birthdays though and decided to throw her a mini party the weekend before her actual birthday. She has been begging me to throw her a surprise party (she just thinks the idea is so hilarious lol) so I knew I wanted to make that happen for her but on a smaller, more manageable scale. It turns out I also owe my friend that took Emma over for her first sleepover, one for her daughters and from there a surprise slumber birthday party was born. I decorated her room while Minh had her away from the house and had the girls come over and hide in her room. The girls were just as excited to surprise her as I was and it was literally the cutest thing to witness! They made her signs and everything. Emma was super surprised and sooooo excited. She had a BLAST with her friends and even woke up at 5:30am the next day because she couldn’t wait to play with them some more. The girls were very well behaved and all played well together. It definitely made me more confident about hosting more sleepovers in the future! :)

For Emma’s actual birthday, I knew she would LOVE to go ice skating again. She had no idea you could even do that near our house hehe. She had such a great time that she declared it the “best day ever” and wishes she could go every week. Why does ice skating have to be so expensive? hehe. We also took her to Benihana’s for her birthday. YUM THE FRIED RICE! So that wraps up Emma at age 5. She’s my super big 6 year old girl now! I’m crying nostalgic tears over here but I’m excited too for what the future holds for her. If I could sum up her personality at this age it would be super sweet, persistent, a little anxious, and most of all adventurous.

And here are her birthday questions for this year (with my comments in parentheses):

1. What is your favorite color? gold
2. What is your favorite toy? balloons (lol…i need to stop spending so much on other toys apparently)
3. What is your favorite fruit? watermelon
4. What is your favorite tv show? Camp Rock (a Disney movie since she doesn’t really watch tv)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? pad thai
6. What is your favorite outfit? pink dress
7. What is your favorite game? Spot It
8. What is your favorite snack? pocky sticks
9. What is your favorite animal? a bunny rabbit
10. What is your favorite song? God Bless The USA (lol..she has some weird obsession with this song)
11. What is your favorite book? Press Here
12. Who is your best friend? Katie B.
13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky charms
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? ride my bike
15. What is your favorite drink? passion orange guava juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my Dad
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? chocolate chip pancakes
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? BBQ
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? scientist

Happy birthday Emma. You bring so much joy to all of us and continue to be the best sister to your little brother. We’re so lucky to have you in our lives and I hope you always feel that and know that we love you to the moon and back! I hope you keep growing up to be kind and thoughtful to others and never stop trying new things that scare you. I hope you will always know your worth and not worry so much about what other kids think as you navigate the social aspect of school. Most of all, I hope you stay your happy, funny self!!!!

It says “watch tv and rock in a rocking chair”

She was bored one day and decided to write down everything she loves at the moment. (Elf is the movie :))

A rare photo with me since all of these photos are from my camera and I’m usually taking the photos!

Biking is one of her favorite things to do!

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