Emmrie Turned 3!

We celebrated Emmrie's third birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and had lots of fun. Aunt Alanna had a cake all ready for her, we sledded in the snow, drank hot chocolate, ate homemade doughnuts, played the wii, got out all Grandma's toys, and opened presents. And I forgot my camera. But, at least we got her portraits taken! Happy birthday, smiley girl! We love you!

The funniest part of the day (for me, at least) was "the challenge" that Neil's dad created for Neil and his brother, Marc, and then for Kortney. He's famous for making up challenges involving food and money. He usually waits till everyone is full from a meal, then he'll offer some unsuspecting person some crazy amount of money, or something he knows they really want (and he's good at knowing what each of us likes), to do something like eat the rest of the food on the table, eat something covered in habanero sauce, eat saurkraut, or to eat any other edible, disgusting thing he can find. It's so funny to watch when it's someone else taking on the challenge, and we all keep encouraging the one who's trying to earn the prize. If they can't complete his challenge, sometimes he'll offer it to someone else. But we can't ASK for him to offer us something. He does it on his own.

Okay, so back to this birthday-day "challenge". He offered Neil and Marc money, in increments like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", only starting at $2, then $4, then $8, then $16, etc. They had to eat whatever he put in front of them at each increment. Simple enough, right? The boys didn't even make it to $8. Wusses. So he got Kortney. Thankfully (Well, maybe sadly) she doesn't fully understand the concept of money, because she could've earned a lot! He offered her $2 to eat a green olive. That was tough, but she braved it. Oh, and just like the game show, she had to get to $8 before she could walk away and keep anything. She told me she only wanted to go to $8, and then she would be done. So I kept encouraging her to go on and on. And all this time she thought she was going to get the same kind of gross stuff that he had given Marc and Neil. Next, she ate a chip with pesto sauce on it. You have to understand - Kortney is a looks person. If it doesn't look right, she automatically thinks it's nasty. So this is why this challenge was such a challenge for her. 15,000 mouse-bites later, she earned $4. Then he gave her a spoonful of cider vinegar. She dipped her finger in again and again, but wouldn't do more than that. So she stopped, but he gave her another chance. He gave her a chip with steak sauce on it. He didn't show her the bottle, so she thought it was habanero sauce, but after dipping her finger lots of times, she realized it was just a little spicy, and nibbled it gone. That earned her the $8 she needed to stop. She was so proud - and said she was done. But Grandpa and I told her that she could earn $16 with the next one! It took some convincing, but she continued. She drank a spoonful of pure lemon juice for $16, and we again convinced her to keep going. He brought her a spoonful of molasses, and she slowly ate it to earn a total of $32. We couldn't convince her to go on to $64. Grandpa wrote out a check right there, and when we got home, we put it into her account. Of course, we'll have another lesson on tithing, which she looks forward to paying. Thanks, Grandpa, and way to go, Kortney! It was fun.