Emma was very excited about helping me wrap Mike’s birthday present. She also came up with the idea of giving it to him early, so that she could watch him open it. I looked through the paper we had and found several small pieces of birthday paper that might have been around when I was a kid. We took brown craft paper and wrapped the box. Then we cut pictures out of the small pieces of wrapping paper and attached them with double-sided tape. Emma cut a few of them out because she told me she had to practice her cutting. She decided on the positioning of each picture. She signed her name on his card and wrote his name on the envelope. She also had me add some pictures to envelope to go along with the drawing she did on the back. We even had a crazy multicolored bow to go on top. I meant to get some close-ups of our finished product, but I forgot to in the excitement of going to deliver it to Mike. I did get a few pictures of him opening the present. He decorated himself with the pictures from the package.
I gave Mike a game called Rush Hour Jr. It is a logic game where you set up cars on a grid according to a card and then have to figure out how to maneuver the cars to get the ice cream truck out of the traffic jam. I had taken the original version of the game when I was babysitting one time, and Mike was really good at it. I think Mike liked the gift, but I know that Andy did. He jumped up and down and ran over to give me a hug when he saw what was inside. He told me thank you more than once while we were there. Emma had a great time with all three of the boys and thoroughly enjoyed her visit.
