My Pre-Teen Queen

When Emma turned 11 last year, I wrote a post that included a cute video of her 3rd birthday.

I love that video.  I could watch it 500 times a day and never get sick of it.

Now here we are, a year later and she's another year older.  She has officially entered the pre-teen stage and every time I look at her, I just can't believe she is so grown up.

Wow.  I look tired, and I was.

We came home from our Vegas adventure and jumped right into Emma's birthday adventure.

Unfortunately because it was a Sunday night and we got home really late, I was not able to purchase balloons for her to wake up to.  But she was cool about it and was excited to pick out her own balloons when we went on our traditional "check you out of school birthday lunch date"

Grandma Great came with us to Red Robin for our lunch date.  

Dad was able to join us too.

Like my shirt? :)

Emma wanted a bike for her birthday and we were able to go bike shopping a couple of weeks ago.  She picked out a real beauty.

I am jealous.

After school, we had kind of a chill afternoon.  We even took naps which is totally unheard of around these parts.  It was glorious.  We had to prepare ourselves for a late night because we had tickets to see "Arsenic and Old Lace" at Hale Center Theater.

We watch it every Halloween and were very excited to see the stage version.

We were not disappointed.

It was awesome.

It was a great day to celebrate a birthday.

Emma is such a beautiful girl- inside and out.

She is a smartie pants and is a very serious student- always going the extra mile to make sure that she has all her bases covered.

She is a great friend and is very concerned when one of her friends is sad.  She has always been a peacemaker and I love that she uses this not only in our family relationships, but with her friends as well.

She has a beautiful smile and a very fun personality.

She is funny and I love to hear her laugh.

I have hair envy.  She has amazing hair. 

I would like to borrow it for a day or two.

She is a very talented girl and excels in whatever she tries.

She loves to make "cake in a mug" or cookie dough.

She also loves meatball stroganoff and twice baked potatoes.

She is in love with the Hunger Games series, Phantom of the Opera (specifically Gerrard Butler) and loves to listen to audiobooks.  You can usually find her walking around the house with an ear bud in and her Samsung Galaxy player in her hand.

Happy 12th birthday dear Emma Lemma Ding Dong!

I love you!

Love-

Mom