Happy Birthday Emerson!

Dear Emerson,

The day you have been asking me about for the last couple of months has finally arrived!  You had your big 5th birthday one week ago.  Every. Day.  You have been asking me "Is it my birthday today?"  and "When is my birthday?"  You were so excited when the day finally came.  Everyone we saw got a rousing "Hi!  Today is my birthday.  I am five.  I am going to kindergarten next year!"  You shared the exciting news with your daddy and me, and Dane, Aidan, Harper, your swim coach, and your teacher.  Mommy surprised your school class with cupcakes for lunch, and then we celebrated by going to a Hibachi grill that night for dinner.  

You tried a few bites of your beloved fried rice with the chopsticks before switching back to the fork.  You opened a few gifts at dinner:  a keyboard from your grandparents, a new Leapster game, new pajamas, sunglasses, socks, and a pony toy from your family.

The sweet waiter that you charmed brought you an ice cream treat after dinner...

...before we went home for birthday cake!  You blew the candles wearing your new sunglasses.

Some Five-year old Emerson Factoids:

You love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and everything Disney princess.
You love to play with Harper, and you play pretend (teacher/teacher, mommy/baby, sister/puppy, etc.) all day long.  You could play dress-up and boss your sister around forever if I let you.
You're still a great (but SLOW) eater.  You're not too picky, but it takes you twice as long to eat as the rest of the kids take.
You're in speech therapy for the time being, and you've speech has been improving quickly!  We're still working on details like possessives, past tense verbs, and putting all of the "little words" in sentences.  Overall, you're making great progress, and I'm confident that you will do great in kindergarten this year.
You love being on swim team with Dane and Aidan.  You are still in the "non-swimmers" group, and your favorite part about swim practice is talking to your friends and your coaches.  :)  Bit of a social butterfly.
You are still as bossy as ever.  This year for your birthday party, you requested to go to a movie with two of your friends.  Since NO KID MOVIES were playing early last week during your actual birthday, we are taking you and your friends to see Madagascar 3 later this week.

Happy birthday, my sweet Emerson!  We love you so much and are so honored to get to celebrate this birthday with you!