September 21th, 1861

Emma turns 7 today. Sadly, Samuel could not have been here to celebrate it with her. Although she would not get to spend her birthday with her father, I hoped to give her a great birthday. The day all started when I woke Emma with flowers, balloons and singing happy birthday, she looked surprised and thrilled. Emma went into the kitchen after I woke her, I made her favorite breakfast, pancakes. There were 4 stacked pancakes, forming a smiley face. Bacon was the mouth, strawberries were the eyes and the nose was blue berries. Whipped cream surrounded the outside, resembling hair.

After Emma was nearly finished, I came behind her with her presents in hand. After Emma was finished, we sat around the fire place, on the couch. I handed her the presents. One was wrapped in a pink box with a yellow bow. The other was in a purple gift bag with green wrapping paper. Emma looked happy but curious at the same time. Emma was one who never expected or asked for anything for her birthday. She started to open the pink box first, which had the silver slippers in them. As she was unwrapping them, the saw something glimmering and ripped the paper apart to see what it was. As she saw she had a glowing look on her face. Emma looked so happy she smiled and said "Thank you ma, I love them so much! They are so pretty." I smiled and told her to open the next. She set the slippers down gently and crumpled the paper to the side. She grabbed the next gift box and opened it. She pulled out the picture frame and truffles and stared at the picture frame in one hand. She smiled and her eyes started to water. She hugged me tight and told me thank you, that I don't know how much that meant to her. She loved her gifts and put the picture frame in her room, next to her bed.

The rest of the day, we went to lunch and sat around the house enjoying the day. I'm glad Emma had a good, memorable birthday she wouldn't forget.