Twelve Candles

Emma's birthday began with a trip to Cafe 641 for breakfast (a banana Nutella crepe for her) where she received her first birthday gift. 

(And it was right about now that I realized that Emma was wearing the wrong jacket! )

Sleeping Queens (from Grace). The girls played a round while waiting for breakfast to arrive). 

Emma poses with the newest addition to the birthday ring! 

A perfect way to commemorate all the letters that she and her great-grandpa have written this year (plus he turns 100 in April)! 

Next gift. Something she really needed....

new goggles! \

They are pretty fabulous!

Emma loves Dolly Parton. It's her dream to go to Dollywood one day! 

And her final birthday gift: 

Hedwig! 

Traditional pre-birthday ring picture. 

Lighting the final candle. 

Officially twelve. 

After her story was read and the candles were lit the three of us took turns bestowing wishes upon her for the coming year. 

Twelve cupcakes on her twelfth birthday! 

A sweet message from one of her most favorite people in the whole wide world! 

Last night, as Emma was heading up to bed she gave me a kiss and said "thank you for making my birthday so special! I had a wonderful day!"  It was a quiet day full of all that Emma loves best (her family, yummy food, some much wished for gifts, cards/messages/texts and phone calls from friends and family). Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make Emma's birthday so very special! David and I truly cannot believe that our baby girl is twelve! One more year and we'll have TWO teenagers in the house! EEK! 

An excerpt from Emma's birthday ring story:

Twelve candles for our sweet girl. Twelve candles for twelve years of joy that she has brought our family. Twelve candles for her sweetness, her helpfulness, her kindness, her generosity, her humor, her intelligence, and her happiness! Happy birthday, Emma Faith! May this next trip around the sun be as full of magic and wonder and joy and laughter as you are! We love you to the moon and stars and back and we can't wait to see what this next year holds! xo 

A Sweet And Lovely Birthday Celebration

 Emma knew how much Grace loved the Little House family set we gave Emma for her birthday so she asked if she could give her some peg dolls for hers. We contacted Erin at My Pretty Peggy to see if she could either paint a Little Women set for Emma to give her, or if she could do Anne and Diana. The Little Women set will appear at another time for sure. This sweet Anne and Diana pair really was very fitting coming from Emma to Grace! 

Like Anne and Diana they are indeed kindred spirits and bosom friends! 

 She was thrilled to receive this card again! Her friend (and pen pal) Alice had sent it to her too!  

 Dave calls this gift "a box of joy!" Our needle felting girl agrees! 

 Twenty-four bunches of wool roving courtesy of Happy Hedgehog Post!  

 We're hoping that lasts more than a minute! 

 And it wouldn't be a celebration or holiday without a book. 

 This gift was so fun to give her! Ever since the girls first saw these beautiful creations in my Instagram feed they have been dreaming of having elf dolls of their own. 

 I love this sweet smile on her face! 

 Adelaide in her "traveling dress". 

 Enchanted by the extra dress! "I love that she made a birthday dress for her, mama!" 

 This one, with it's additional darling pink freckles, was just the one Grace had been dreaming of. Brenda, over at Marmmie and Me, was an absolute delight to work with! And she even included an extra "birthday dress". When I saw this sweet dress on Brenda's Instagram I knew that Grace would love it. What I didn't realize was just how perfectly it would match this pink dress of hers! 

After gifts, and a breakfast of scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam, it was off for some birthday blueberry picking (as is our tradition)! 

When David arrived home that afternoon it was time for the birthday ring. Only four spaces for ornaments this year so we went with the two most favorite (the blueberries and the nest) along with the watermelon (for a pop of color) and the swan from last year. Love that the twelve only required one spot rather than two! 

 This is twelve. 

And no celebration would be complete without cake. Or, in this case, twelve cupcakes for her twelfth birthday (and yes we picked up up at twelve noon)! Twelve cupcakes on her twelfth birthday picked up at twelve noon felt very Gilmore Girls to us. It was a truly perfect way to celebrate this sweet girl of ours. David and I are finding it very hard to believe that next year we'll have a teenager. Each year seems to go by faster than the last! Happy birthday, sweet girl! We hope that you had a lovely day and that all your birthday wishes come true! xo