Birthday Festivities.... Emily turns 5!

Emily to Momma: "Are you ready for me to be 5?"

Momma: "No."

Emily: "When will you be ready? Never?"

Emily's birthday...(the 2nd party of 3) was spent at Busia's house. Zachary had a fever and spent the day (and that previous) w/ Dziadzia while Busia got ready for her next-day's trip to Florida/Texas. Busia and Dziadzia were going to bring Zachary home after school/work, and we were going to have a birthday dinner (spaghetti and jello was Emily's choice) at home. Unending snowfall through the day changed those plans. Momma left work to pick up Daddy and Emily's presents, then to pick up Emily from daycare, then to Busia's for dinner. (Where, Busia so graciously ended up making Momma's favorite version of spaghetti... the tomato-soup kind w/ onions and salmon patties. Emily didn't think so highly of it, and Daddy wondered whose birthday it was anyway... Momma just thought it was GREAT!)

Emily after dinner and w/ Daddy...













And celebrating w/ Aunt Tamara on the phone...Another pile of presents... of course. This time it was more strawberry shortcake dolls, and a Tinkerbell backpack...

Oh, and a digital camera! I think the looks here say it all... (Emily's pretty smug and excited to Zachary's "Oh man. She gets all the good stuff.")And some video of Emily opening a birthstone jewelry set and straberry shortcake doll...

Momma loves the first video because Daddy is trying to guess Emily's present and she keeps saying "Nooo."


And here she first sees the necklace, bracelet and ring...


And strawberry shortcake has some new friends... I have no idea what they're names are. I miss the good ole' fashioned ones like "Blueberry Pie"... this is Frosty Puff with blueberry and marshmellow scent...



The way home through the birthday blizzard was also quite adventurous. Daddy had fun taking the family snowmobiling in the truck through the 2'-3' drifts. The route home changed a couple times too, after getting stopped behind stuck vehicles. And then there was the zero visibility (not 6" in front of the windshield let alone in front of the truck) once we got to Hospital Road. We're very glad that we had changed our plans earlier in the day so Busia and Dziadzia weren't out there in their car! The next day, of course everything was closed and delayed...except work. Momma waited until the plow went by (at 7:05 am. We may have the bumpiest road in the county, but living on the county line has the small benefit of being the plow's turn-around!) Momma thought it safe to follow the plow's path to work...until the plow got stuck 2 miles up the road.... luckily, the 4WD got me through the mess... but how eery to pass abandoned/stuck vehicles along the way...about 5 I counted in a 5 mile stretch. I guess the warning the night before that said "Most county roads are impassible. Vehicles are being abandoned with emergeny workers taking people to shelter." was true... who'd have really imagined??

What a storm on Emily's 5th birthday. So in 30 years when people are remembering the last big storm in 2008 (which previously was 1978 when Momma was 4 and actually vaguely remembers being bundled up in layers of blankets and going to the old McDonald's on Center... for whatever reason. But I couldn't have imagined that right?), Emily will remember her 5th birthday!