Emma's Birthday Celebrations!

Emma turned 3 this year & her birthday just happened to fall on Thanksgiving! I was due on Thanksgiving with her, but she ended up being 3 days late and this year was her year! I am bound and determined to NOT combine Thanksgiving with her birthday, because I feel like that is her special day and I want her to feel special. SO this year we had her party a week early and invited lots of family over to celebrate! Emma started out wanting a Princess party, then changed her mind for a couple of days to a Barbie party, and then finally decided on strictly an Ariel party! (I checked SEVERAL times before I started buying things!) She also insisted on having sandwiches, but "not peanut butter and jelly" sandwiches. So, we had a deli spread. I normally try to work the party around my work schedule and have that day off so that I can have time to prepare, but it just didn't work out. I had bought everything beforehand and left the setting up to Ron! He actually suprised me! He cut up all the meats/cheeses/breads and even hung up streamers that looked REALLY cute!! He did GREAT! When I got home, I helped with last minute set up, getting the drinks going, plates/napkins/utensils, etc. Amanda was in charge of the cake (again!) and she did an AMAZING job!! I gave her a little bit of direction and this is what she came up with! It was SO cute!!

My little 3 year old!


Brushing daddy's 'hair'.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome! Last year my family started the tradition of going to the beach for Thanksgiving. This year, since it was Emma's birthday, we decided to venture to San Diego and take her to Sea World as her present. I found a decent hotel (Best Western) and made the arrangements. After making the arrangements, my cousin got engaged and had decided to get married that weekend! I held on to the reservations for awhile (mainly because the date was officially unofficial and because I had hoped we could change to another weekend since the hotel was already paid for). It was getting closer and closer and I finally just cancelled the hotel. THE NEXT DAY we found out that the wedding was to be postponed!!!! That evening, I searched and found the same hotel for the same price and re-booked! I was so relieved! So the plans were set for our family & my parents to stay in the same room and my brother and his family in another. However, the day before we were to leave, my oldest 2 nephews came down with strep pretty bad, so they had to stay home! I was able to cancel their room without a fee, but we sure did miss them! We found out later that my youngest nephew got strep, too! We drove down Thursday morning, checked into the hotel and then found a nice park to bbq at. We had taken down some meats, rice, beans, tortillas, and other fixings to have a nice bbq in the park!

And what would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie?! My mom makes THE BEST pumpkin pies, so she made a couple and we took them down with us! After our feast, we headed over to this little boardwalk area nearby that had rides and games, etc so the kids could play around a little. We then headed over to watch a movie, but the movies wasn't for awhile so we bought tickets and found a Boomers and played a quick round of mini golf, then headed back to the theater to watch Tangled. CUTE MOVIE!! After the movie, we headed back to the hotel, got the kids bathed and ready for bed and the search was on for Black Friday deals. We noticed that Toys R Us was to open at 10pm, so I told my mom that I would go with her to that, but I didn't want to go in the morning. So we were off. We got there around 10:30pm and the line was wrapped around the store and back to the front! It was insanely cold!! After waiting outside for 2 hours, we were FINALLY inside only to find that the line to the registers weaved in and out of the aisles to the back of the store!! BUT we were able to find some good deals and got most everything that the kids wanted. I'm just about done with my kids for Christmas and what I wanted, wasn't on sale there. We finally pulled into the hotel parking lot around 2:30am when Ron called to see where we were. Apparently Emma was having a rough night and had been crying for the last hour and a half for me!! When I got up to the room, I noticed that she was running a fever. Luckily I had packed some medicine 'just in case'. So, I gave her some of that while my parents went out and did more shopping. Ron was going to go, but he had gotten sick, too, and didn't want to go shopping.

The next morning we got up, got ready and headed to Sea World! They didn't open until 10 am and it was really close, so we didn't have to get up super early (although my mom didn't get any sleep!). We saw lots of different shows and exhibits and had a great time!

Emma was a little trooper, but she started getting really warm! I had forgotten the meds at the hotel, so we headed to the first aid center. It was like a mini hospital! They took her temp and it was 101, so they gave her some Tylenol. She started feeling better after that, but she was still SO tired from the day/night before!

This was one of the baby whales and he/she was spinning around on it's belly.

The trainers had them 'kiss'! So cute!

Shamu!

Look at the power of that tail!

Emma watching the baluga whales. They had a 5 mth old baby baluga there! It was cute and followed it's momma around everywhere she went!

This was the last show of the evening and the best picture I got!

The park closed at 7:30pm, so we went over to Chilis for dinner. Emma was so tired, she crashed before we made it out of the parking lot and didn't wake up until the next morning! We even took her into the restaraunt and laid her down in the booth and she slept the whole time! The next morning we got up, got ready, checked out and went out to breakfast at Ihop. After that, we headed home! We had a great trip and the kids are still talking about Sea World!!

On a side note, Michael was complaining of a sore throat while we were gone, also, so this morning when I took Emma for her yearly check up and to get Michael his 2nd flu mist, I had the dr check them both out and Emma ended up with an ear infection and Michael has strep! Which means, I have to take Emma back in for her vaccines when she's better and I have to call to have them both have their 2nd flu mist because they ran out! I'm STILL trying to get Ron to go to the doctor because I'm pretty sure he has strep also, but he's being stubborn. He swears he'll go tomorrow morning, but he'll have both kids, so we'll see what happens!