Happy Birthday Emily!

Emily turned 6 years old yesterday. It was a crazy busy day, but we had lots of fun. We went in the morning to get her birthday treat. We had to go to two different stores and both times the girls wanted to ride in the little car shopping carts. They managed to squeeze three little bums into the “made-for-two” seat so no one would be left out. They sure looked cute.

While Emily was at school, Elise helped me decorate her cake and I wrapped her presents (nothing like the last minute). Emily wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday. We were great with that since we have a Tracy Aviary pass that lets us get into the zoo free on the first Thursday of the month. So, Nate got home and we drove down to pick up the kids at school. We drove all the way to Salt Lake to discover that the zoo was closed. I guess they close for half a day once a year . . . just our luck that it happened to be on Emily’s birthday. She was disappointed, but dealt with it well. The guy from the zoo gave us free pass to use another day and Emily decided we could go to the aviary and Liberty Park instead. We had fun seeing all of the birds and then I walked over to the park with the kids while Nate ran to Arby’s to get some food. Dinner turned out to be a little more eventful than we had anticipated when a swarm of hornets started dive-bombing our roast beef sandwiches. Ben FREAKED out and chucked his sandwich. We gathered everything up and moved our picnic to the van. Once we cut off all the places where “the hornets were eating my sandwich” for Emily, everyone was happy.

Emily finally got to open her presents when we got home at 8:00. She has always been a fairly emotionless gift receiver, but not this year. Either we did lots better at getting her what she wanted, or she has gotten lots better at showing her excitement. After a little spin on her new bike, we had some cake and ice-cream, and then it was off to bed. It was a great day.

Bummer!

These baby birds were a highlight of our trip to the aviary. Their nest was right next to the bathrooms. We got to see their mom fly up and feed them and then watched one of them hang his little bum over the edge of the nest and poop on the ground. The kids were thrilled about that.

The kids loved feeding the ducks and watching the pelicans. It was amazing to watch the pelicans' bills stretch out when they dipped them in the water.

Emily taking her new bike for a test drive.

Emily was quite pleased with her Littlest Pet Shop cake.

Everyone wanted to play with the Pet Playhouse from Grandma Reatha.