Somthing Special

Well, the birthday celebrations are finally over. Emma had four days of nonstop partying.
I'm exhausted! Yesterday we had 12 girls over to the pool. They swam, had pizza and snacks (thank goodness for $5 pizza from Little Cesars!) made crafts, came to our house and had presents and cake, and then went outside for a campfire. Hubby, who is an only child, had his ears plugged half of the time. The noise was close to unbearable! I couldn't plug my ears - 11 year old conversation is just too interesting! ( I know, I have an exciting life...)

It was really interesting to sit and observe all those little girls. I could see very quickly who was bossy, who was shy, who was an attention-getter, who was helpful and who took charge. It was a good group of girls, but they each definitely had their own personality. All her friends brought gifts that I knew they put some thought into. Emma loves things with the peace symbol on it right now, and many of them bought her peace tote bags or peace earrings. There were a few girls who really stood out to me. One was super sweet, and even made sure to try and include little John. She helped him gather his toys, and found him a spot to sit during gift time. Another stayed back in the dining room, and started clearing all the cake plates that the rest of the girls left behind. Another special friend put hours and hours into knitting and felting a special little jewelry bag. That touched me the most out of anything. It's not often these days that kids are selfless enough to devote a whole day to doing something special like that for someone else. Emma said it was her favorite gift of all.

I'm so proud of Emma for choosing her closest friends so wisely. She is really something special, and so are those girls.