Amazingly, our "baby" girl, Emily, is now 13. We have four teenagers in the house, until July when Jeffrey turns 20. We celebrated Emily's birthday by opening presents while video chatting with Tim and Brenda the evening before her birthday. Then we had guests for the evening the day after her birthday. Emily hates secrets, even birthday secrets. She had figured out that I had bought Blokus for her birthday, even though I would not admit to it. So when she opened her gift, it was a different box than Blokus could possibly come in. She appreciated and loved all the little things in that box--a new hairbrush, a shaver of her own, a game of Phase 10, but I knew she was thinking "Is this all?" In this picture, I am whispering to Beth to go get the other gift out of my closet.
Emily was very happy when she unwrapped Blokus. Here she is showing it to Tim and Brenda on the computer that was in front of the game.
On Friday night, the Metien family and Ivanna Strubhar came for the evening to celebrate with Emily. Amy Metien and Ivanna are very good friends to Emily and they had a wonderful time together.
Emily requested blueberry cheesecake for dessert.
The kids played Capture the Flag and after it got dark, they played Hide and Seek.
Before our guests left, we had some music time. It was a fun birthday for Emily.
