Braeden's Birthday!

Braeden's Birthday was yesterday! At his job he gets his birthday off! YAY! : ) We took full advantage of his birthday and day off! 

We started the day off right with a super yummy breakfast made by yours truly! : ) Waffles, eggs, and fruit! 

The two things Emeri ate at breakfast were the strawberries and the syrup from her waffles! This is a picture of her licking the syrup off the bottom of her cup!  

We then headed to the duck park with Annie and Riot! We call it the duck park but there are tons of other birds there as well like geese, seagulls, and I think there might have been some swans there yesterday too, but I'm not sure??  We feed the birds and played on the playground for hours! 

The birds are definitely not shy they came right up to us!

The geese even ate the bread right out of our hands!

Baby ducks!

(Braeden actually wasn't there for the bird feeding part because he had a doctors appointment that we remembered at the very last minute, so he just met us at the playground!) 

Emeri on a big kid swing! She was a pro at it and she didn't want to get down! We had to force her to get down and play on the other parts of the playground 

When Braeden got there they ran into each others arms! Emeri was so excited to see her dad! It was way too cute! : ) 

Playing with Dad on the scoop thingy! 

Emeri was pooped after playing so we headed home for a much needed nap! Once she woke up we headed to the mall so we could find some new shirts and ties for Braeden! I was so proud of him for actually spending money on himself! Most the time I have to drag him to the store and twist his arm to buy something he needs! He hates spending money especially on things for himself, but he did a great job yesterday! He is going to look extra good at church on Sunday in his new shirt and tie! : ) The only thing he could have done better was to buy something he wanted instead of needed, especially on his birthday, but we will work on that! : ) 

After the mall we headed to Red Robin for dinner and then went swimming! Swimming was definitely the best part of the day, for me anyway, because WE HAVE A CRAZY CHILD! She is a bundle of independence, stubbornness, and fearlessness when it comes to water (well.. and anything else in her life as well)! My family would say she takes after me and I would have to agree! She is tuning into a little me when it comes to her independence, stubbornness, and fearlessness! She has to do everything her own way these days and frankly... it's killing me! : ) 

This is what I mean by independent, stubborn, and fearless! The pool we went to was a wave pool so it starts at zero feet and gradually goes to 6 (the waves aren't on the whole time)! We thought it was going to be a lot of fun for Emeri to play around in the shallow water, you know run around, try to get mom and dad, and splash like you would think a "normal" 17 month old would do? Little did we know all Emeri wanted to do was walk until the water was up to her nose and if she could have kept walking after that she would have! She tried! Of course we were close by the whole time, but every time we tried to help her or get her turned around to go back to the shallower water she would yell NOOOO... at us in between taking breaths! She did go under a couple times, but it didn't faze her one bit! As soon as she caught her breath she didn't want us to hold her anymore she just wanted to do her own thing! : ) 

We had a great day with Braeden and Braeden said he had a great day with us too! : ) I'm so glad we were able to spend the whole day together as a family and celebrate! I love you Braeden! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Emeri saying "cheese" : )
I have a cute family! Do you think so???