Happy 9th Birthday!

How is it possible that Emma is 9 years old already?!  She was so excited for her birthday.  She had a friend's birthday party in Lethbridge today, so she really got to party!  Both Lennard and I ended up with the stomach flu yesterday, so neither of us really wanted to do or eat much, but she was so happy that we still did fondue!  My parents came over too so that made for a fun dinner.

 My parents gave Emma a kit to make her own slime.  She was thrilled!

 Her Primary teacher, Sister Edgson, gave her this picture.

 Ben gave her a cute little stuffy kitten.

 Then she got a new outfit from us!

 She always requests a DQ ice cream cake for her birthday... which makes it easy for me!

 Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  We sure love you!

Festival of Nativities

We drove in to Lethbridge this afternoon after church to go to the Festival of Nativities.  It was so packed with people that it was a bit hard to see everything.  The kids only wanted to play in the Children's room.

 Emma was excited to dress up, but we couldn't convince Ben to.  Oh well...

 We wandered around for a while and looked at the nativities.  The kids took pictures of their favorites, but I'll only include one here!

Piano Recital

The kids had their Christmas Piano Recital tonight.  They played a duet "The French Carol". They did so good!  They got off timing in one section, but they didn't stop and managed to pull it together later on.  I'm so proud of their hard work!  Erin is such a wonderful teacher and has pushed them to learn so much more this year!

Christmas Dance Showcase

After Emma's birthday party was done, we had a couple hours to get cleaned up and then head out to Mountain View for her dance showcase.  It was a really informal night where they got to show us what they've been working on.  Lennard had the Town Christmas party at the same time, so he attended that while I took the kids to this.

Emma did a great job performing.  She definitely likes to take charge and 'help' everyone.

 I got videos of all her dances, but I didn't get many good pictures.

Early Birthday Party

Emma has been so excited for her birthday party and it kept growing as she planned things!  I had to work this morning, so last night was a little busy trying to get everything organized.  Emma and the girls met in the school foyer and walked home together with Ben and me.

They were all 'starving' when we got home, but I still had to make lunch!  It only took a half hour, but you'd have thought it was days!  They inhaled all the food put in front of them... except the carrot sticks. Ha! Ha!

 I had a bunch of "Minute-to-Win-it" games set up for them to play.  We even kept score so that they could win a prize at the end.

 After a bunch of games, they decided it was time to open presents.  Emma got thoroughly spoiled.

Back: Violet, Emma, Maelle, Alyssa, Fiona  Front: Peyton, Amy and Izzy

 They had a cupcake decorating contest afterwards... although most of them thought it was a contest to see how many sprinkles they could fit on one cupcake!  There were sprinkles everywhere!

It was loud and wild, but I think they all had fun. 

Gingerbread House

We'd bought a gingerbread house from Costco last week and the kids have been anxious to make it.  We finally pulled it out tonight and they were thrilled!  We let them do most of it by themselves.  Lennard helped a bit with the icing, but it was definitely their own creation!

 I didn't end up with a picture of the final product.  They just kept adding stuff!  They had fun, so that's all we could ask for.

Choir Concert

We've had a crazy busy first half of December!  We've had a Flying Club Christmas Party, Ward Temple Night, Ward Christmas Dinner, trips to Lethbridge, the Primary Presentation, etc.  It's been wild!  

Today, I managed to get to a temple session in the morning and then Emma had Activity Days.  As soon as she got home, we race and got her fed and dressed so that we could get down to the theatre for her choir concert.  I was welcoming people at the door, so I had to be there too.  

The concert was SO good.  They did such a great job.  Linda Burwell (who's been going through cancer treatments) was able to conduct two of the numbers.  It was very touching to watch.

CES Jr Choir - Emma is on the second row, 2nd in from the left

 Unfortunately, because of Linda's health, this is the last performance for the choirs this year.  They will start up again in September with a new choir director, but they miss the rest of this year.  We are all really sad.  It's been such a good experience for Emma and she's learned so much.

Senior and Junior Choir together for the finale