Obstacle course

There's a sporting event held in Japan twice a year called Sasuke, or translated to us on a tv show called Ninja Warrior. Emma really likes watching all of the obstacles in the event. Emma and Miranda designed a bit of a Ninja Warrior course to run. First up, foam noodles!

Emma blew the whistle to start it off.

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The crowd goes wild!

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She nailed the landing!

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Tower power

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Emma was working on a tower this morning, and we tried to make it taller than she is. It wasn't easy - it tipped over a number of times!

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Jr. Crime Fighter

Today we were at a coffee shop, and in the parking lot was a police motorcycle. There was one officer inside, and pretty soon he got up to leave. He returned just a minute later, and came over to two little boys and Emma with some "Jr. Crime Fighter" badges! Wow, they were all thrilled! He asked her if she was going to be good ALL day and she nodded.

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Since then, she has been calling herself Officer Emma. She was wearing her snow boots (see: spring snow), and they are pink and black. Since her pants are black, she kept trying to pull the legs over the pink on her boots, because she thought that all black looked more police-like!

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Then she zipped up her coat, slapped on the badge, and it was official. Salute!

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The badge has McGruff on it. Oh lookie there, in June 2009 she met him and she would not stop hugging him and giving him high fives! Maybe her love of crime fighting started way back when :)

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Spring snow

Wow, here it is March 22nd and between last night/this morning we (note: I'm strictly referring to our backyard when I saw "we"!) got more snow today than we have gotten all winter long! It only totaled 2 inches too - not much - but enough to build a snowman and play this morning before it melted!!

Emma snow shoveled a bit, and then we built a snowman. She and Daddy colored him all over.


Emma had already made a snow nose, so Zoe decided she wanted to eat the carrot nose :)


Cheese!


The snow on the ground was almost all melted by lunchtime, but the snowman still has 2 out of 3 body parts left!
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Hair today

Emma got her hair cut a couple of days ago. This picture shows not only that (4 inches gone!), but also how sometimes she really does not like getting her picture taken and refuses to smile!

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Of course I love strolling down memory lane, and I pulled up this picture (also showing static hair!) of Emma in the tent back in December 2008!

Surprise! You're cute!

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Camels and bears

Today Emma took some pvc pipe and her Army helmet, and told me she was going to hunt camels and bears (oh my!). Okay, that was out of left field! She marched upstairs and took care of the wild animals for me.

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Intimidating, no? You should have seen those animals running!

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Sometimes I wonder where she comes up with these things!

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My favorite part is "That's why you always call the Army"!.

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Search and rescue

One of Emma's favorite things to play right now is search and rescue. She and Daddy each have a radio and we use it to communicate while out walking. Sometimes Daddy goes ahead of us and hides, and we have to find him (with our K-9 unit!).

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Today we went to Tryon Creek, which has many trails through the forest. It was raining off and on this morning, but we barely felt the rain thanks to the tree cover! Emma was carrying a lot of important stuff and looked pretty darn cool.

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Here I'm "hiding" behind a tree and the team comes to find me.

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There are a number of bridges to cross, Emma had fun stepping on each board!

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Fun morning and we got some exercise too! Zoe and Emma should rest very well this afternoon.
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Campin'

Tonight Emma wanted to camp in her ol' play tent. She got it out and Daddy helped set it up. Then they were wilderness first aid rangers and camped out in the living room. This picture seemed oddly famliar to me...


Oh! Here they are in November 2008!

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Bowling for birthdays

Today Emma got to go bowling at her friend Gibson's birthday party at a bowling alley! She's been so excited all week. This was actually the first time she's been bowling. The lanes were dark with running lights, and they also had a ramp that you could use to guide and roll the ball down if you couldn't lift the ball easily.

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She tried many different bowling balls - one with flames, leopard spots, lime green, smiley face, and cow spots!

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She got two strikes in a row and I was lucky enough to get one on video!

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This was strike number 2!

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She wanted to give Gibson a birthday hug :)

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Emma's final score was 109. As we left the party, she told me she wanted to have her next birthday there!

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Do you ever?

Watch tv like this?

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