The holidays are in full swing and all of the usual traditions are keeping us busy. Emily is thrilled that her elf, Frisbee, is back this year. The new thing that she and her friends are doing is writing notes to their elves to see if the elves write back. She asked Frisbee a number of questions - Is it true that you are actually able to fly to the North Pole and back within a couple of minutes? What is your favorite color? Do you like candy canes? Is it fun to be an elf? Is there a North Star only on Christmas?
Frisbee has been kind enough to answer a few of her questions, but she can only answer one a night because it is so tiring for her to use a human-size pencil. So far, we have learned that it is true that it only takes a couple of minutes to fly to the North Pole and back, her favorite color is candy-cane red, she loves candy canes, and it is great to be an elf.
Of course, we have our tree up and the house decorated. Emily has already bought a present for Abbie and put it under the tree; Abbie has done the same for Emily. Both girls have a Christmas list and Emily is again asking for a cotton candy maker. I still haven't given Frisbee the green light on that, though.
Once again this year, the girls continued the tradition of playing Christmas carols at a local retirement home. Emily contributed to Jingle Bells, Jolly Old St. Nick, O' Come Little Children, and two non-Christmas songs that the old folks seem to like - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Go Tell Aunt Rhody. My camera angle is exceptionally poor, but here is the whole group playing Jingle Bells - four violins, a cello, and a bass. You can just barely see Emily between the music stands.
As for upcoming events, this is Emily's last week of school before the break. Their holiday program will be on Tuesday and their fancy holiday party will be on Friday. The holiday party is a big deal. All the kids get dressed up and have a formal holiday lunch together. To prepare, they had a half-hour lesson last week on proper manners, etc. As part of the lesson, the boys practiced escorting the girls to their seats and the girls practiced thanking them for helping them in and out of their chairs. Of course, it is all very old-fashioned and sexist, and Emily told me, "I can pull out my own chair, you know." Yes, honey, I know. LOL.
We will also be celebrating the holidays with a trip to New Orleans again this year. We are looking forward to three days and nights of great food, ghost tours, cemetery tours, and just general adventure. Hopefully it will be as much fun as it was last year and hopefully the weather will cooperate with us.
Big news - Emily has finally learned how to ride a bike! She rarely practiced and often claimed that she didn't want to learn how to ride. However, this past summer, it hit her that kids much younger than nine able to ride like the wind. That got under her skin so she set her mind to the task. Of course, setting her mind to it and actually practicing proved to be two different things. For a long time it was too hot to attempt biking. Now that the weather has improved, there has been more opportunity.
She and her friend, Ansel, worked together on Saturday and that was all it took. Ansel was super-supportive and that is what gave Emily the boost that she needed. She was a little wobbly on Saturday, but by Sunday she was officially riding (and we have video to prove it)! I would never have predicted that she was just a day or two away from knowing how to do it. Not surprisingly, she is very excited and proud of herself. :)
As I mentioned, Emily had two Halloween costumes this year. There was her non-scary white witch costume for school and then there was her Other Mother costume.
Apparently, she was not the only white witch (as you can see)! Also, it was a very cold day so she had to bundle up with clothes under her costume, etc. They went trick-or-treating through school during the day and she had a pretty big haul, which gave her a head start for that night. As you can tell, she was very not scary for school, but that all changed for her actual Other Mother costume.
Abbie did her make-up for her. There was a YouTube video that they tried to follow, but it is always easier said than done. It took them over an hour, but it turned out really well. Multiple people thought that it must be a mask, which of course it was not. Frankly, I was really impressed with how it turned out. Also, it was definitely more on the scary side, which Emily was pleased with.
Showing off her button eyes!
Emily's goal was to scare some little kids that were out trick-or-treating. She was exceptionally pleased because she literally had a kid run away from her while yelling, "I'm not scared of you." She also overheard a couple of kids saying to each other, "Don't go near her." LOL. She noted that scaring kids is a delicate balance - on the one hand, it needs to be late enough that it is dark enough to be spooky, but on the other hand, it can't be so late that the little kids have gone to bed. Rough life. She also had some disappointment on Halloween in that we went to the usual neighborhood party and as we left she lamented that she was the scariest one there. I couldn't disagree with her. Poor thing - nothing is ever quite scary enough for her!
Just a quick update - Emily had her annual check-up last week and she is now 4 feet, 3.75 inches tall. That puts her in the 30th percentile and means that she grew just over two inches in the past year. She also had a dental cleaning last week and I was really hopeful that she would ask the dentist to pull out her crazy baby tooth that is sticking out at an angle. The permanent tooth has already come in behind it and it seems like this crazy tooth would be annoying to her because it looks like it is poking into her lip or cheek. However, she doesn't seem bothered by it and didn't want the dentist to pull it, so there it sits. I guess maybe eventually the roots will disintegrate and it will fall out.
The Other Mother from Coraline
The other big item on the agenda is Halloween, of course. Emily has decided to be The Other Mother from Coraline. As you can see, there is the less scary version and the more scary version. I think that she is aiming for the more scary version, but my guess is that we will end up somewhere in between. We ordered a black wig and a polka dot dress, so now the issue will just be the makeup, including the button eyes, which are probably the creepiest part. Of course, this is just her trick-or-treating costume. She wants to be scary for trick-or-treating, but she doesn't want to scare the little kids at her school, so the costume for the school party will just be your basic witch costume. Stay tuned for pictures of both!
With the exception of Donuts with Dad Day, life at school has mostly been business as usual for Emily over the past month. Her week days are filled with school, reading, and violin and her weekends are filled with play dates, swimming, and birthday parties.
One rather unusual event was that our work hosted a family party a few weeks ago and it was really impressive. The whole party had a Frozen theme, which the kids loved, and an open bar, which the adults loved. As you can see, there was face painting, movie characters, cotton candy, balloons, etc. Emily has a blast and was in a ton of photos from the event. All of the entertainment for the kids made it much easier for the adults to socialize.
In her spare time, Emily has been making rainbow loom necklaces for herself and the kids in her class (who are all putting in their requests for specific colors). She has also become interested in writing stories and she wants to get one (or more) of them published someday. She wrote a story called My Dog the other day and then worked really hard at searching the internet to find exactly the right images to illustrate each page of her story.
Having things "exactly right" is a big thing for Emily these days. She has some perfectionist tendencies and her clothes have to be "just right" as does her hair. It has to be parted perfectly, or if it is in a ponytail, there can't be any lumps or bumps anywhere. Its a rough life for sure. What has not been "exactly right" this week is the pimple that appeared on her cheek over the weekend. Needless to say, that was not in her plans and she is mortified. She came home last night upset that "everyone" at school had commented on it. Poor thing. All she can do is wait for it to go away and it just isn't happening fast enough! Little does she know that this is just the beginning!
Emily actually missed her first two days of school this year thanks to our San Francisco trip. So there was no downtime for her when we returned home. She was back at school the next day. As luck would have it, it was a casual Friday and a half day - not a bad way to ease back into the routine.
First Day of School
I think that she was excited to be back and her friends were happy to see her. She really likes her teachers this year (with the exception of the new PE teacher) and she talks about how much she likes her school.
First Day with Uniform this Time!
Unfortunately, the germs have already started to circulate and Emily actually stayed home with a cold today. Nothing major, but according to her, she "just needed one more day of rest." I can't blame her. I feel like that sometimes, too!
It's been a long time since I have shared one of her classic one-liners. They happen all the time, but I often forget to write them down. She had a good one this past weekend, though. I went to pick her up from a friend's house and the mom was telling me about how she hadn't really eaten anything because everything they offered her was something that she doesn't like. One such item was some freshly cooked chicken, to which she replied, "No, I only eat chicken in France." I got a kick out of that one because it sounds so pretentious, but it really is true. Emily tried (and liked) some chicken in France, but she hasn't tried it again since then. Maybe we'll have to get her to eat some chicken in the US so that she doesn't give people the wrong impression. LOL.
After returning from France, we headed up to Minnesota almost immediately - no sense in hanging out in such hot weather! Emily was very excited to get back to her "summer home" (even though it is not actually ours). She says that it feels like ours because we rent the same place every year. The temperatures were definitely cooler, so we enjoyed that and all of the great food.
It wouldn't be the mid-west in the summer if it didn't get its fair share of wild thunderstorms. We had some big ones this year, but they were always great for cooling things down. One afternoon, a storm arrived very unexpectedly and I told Emily that it was probably a warm rain that would make for a good shower. She got pretty excited about that and immediately put her swim suit on so that she could go play in it. As you can tell, she loved it! :)
Emily was also thrilled to see her cousins and spend some time at the county fair. They rode rides together, saw the animals, and Emily even went to her first ever demo derby. Not surprisingly, the rides and the animals were a hit, but the demo derby was too loud and boring for her. I agree!
Upon our return from Minnesota, we didn't waste much time before flying to San Francisco for a conference/boondoggle. Our conference activities gave Emily a chance to swim in the pool where she always seemed to make a friend (not shocking!), and oftentimes it was with a child whose parent(s) were attending the same conference.
Enjoying the view from our room
We did plenty of sight-seeing with the girls (a bus tour, Berkeley, hiking Muir Woods, etc.), and there were a few things that Emily really loved. One was watching the seals at Pier 39. We took two trips to see them and spent about half an hour each time. For a couple of days Emily decided that she was going to be a marine biologist, but that thought has already waned and she is back to wanting to be a baker.
While in the area, we decided to stop at the Buena Vista, a place that we discovered on our honeymoon. It was rather fortuitous for Emily because it turns out that it has the best french toast that she has ever eaten (and Abbie agrees with this assessment). Emily ordered it three times during our trip.
As you can see, yet again, she has a bit of a snaggletooth as an adult tooth is pushing a baby tooth out of the way, but the baby tooth isn't quite ready to come out yet. While walking along the pier, Emily also stumbled into helping with a magic show. :)
Finally, Emily seemed to enjoy walking around Chinatown. She even bought herself (actually, I bought her) a Chinese dress that she was very excited about it. You can see it in her hand below, although her main interest here was in reading with the little bronze girl. :)
All in all, it has been a whirlwind summer and I think that Emily has enjoyed all of our trips. She has seen and done so much in such a short period of time, but I also think that she is looking forward to staying put for awhile in her own house (her real house!). :)
Emily was very excited for our trip to France. She did great with the plane ride and with the jet lag. Food, however, was another matter. I think that she actually lost weight on the trip, barely surviving on not much more than bread & butter and chocolate croissants. Even that became a challenge because there were times when the butter "didn't taste right." And, towards the end of the trip, she was even getting sick of chocolate croissants. Imagine.
Bonjour!
Food issues aside, she seems to have loved the experience. Of course, her preferred activities all involved the water. Fortunately, there were a number of these. After a few days in Paris, we traveled to L'Isle sur la Sorgue - a small town where we rented a lovely house with a beautiful backyard that included a pool and backed up to a small river with the clearest water that I have ever seen. There were constantly ducks floating by, ready to eat bread any time we were ready to provide it. We also took two short trips to Vacluse, which had the same beautiful, clear water. Besides just enjoying the views, we also took a kayak trip down the river, which I think that Emily really liked.
Relaxing in Vacluse
From there, we moved on to Aix-en-Provence - no water, so not Emily's favorite part of the trip, but it did have good markets where she was amenable to the fresh strawberries and cherries. After Aix, we went to Cassis and Emily was back in her element. We spent two days swimming in the Mediterranean and Emily was in heaven. Besides just being on the shore and enjoying the waves, we took a boat ride that provided some great views of the coast and culminated in some time to swim off the boat in incredibly clear, deep water. We were able to see little fish swimming beneath us and the salt in the water improved our buoyancy so it wasn't overly tiring.
Sisters!
From Cassis, we traveled to Annecy in the Alps. Again, more clean, clear water for swimming - yay! Emily was perfectly content to swim in the lake there and had a great time playing with a French girl her age. The girl chattered at her in French and Emily just faked it by randomly saying, "Oui" and "No." The girl caught on, though, and had a conversation with Chad in which she told him, "I can tell that she doesn't understand French, but I can tell that she and I have the same heart." Love this!
Exploring Roman Ruins
Beyond all the water activities, Emily did a ton of walking as we toured pretty much anything we could. She was a good sport about all of it, taking in the Catacombs, Luxembourg Gardens, and a climb up the Eiffel Tower in Paris, hikes in Vacluse and Roussillon, the ampitheater in Arles, and various attractions in Beaune.
Showing Anne around Town
Of course, Emily also thought that it was important for Anne to get out and experience France, so she made the journey with us and Emily took good care of her, making sure to show her the town. Emily also feels that she expanded her French, although I think that she is still just limited to oui, no (which she already knew), bonjour, and merci. LOL.
Being the homebody that she is, I think that Emily was fine with the trip coming to an end. She was so happy to be back in her own bed and in her room with her toys, etc. Upon our return, she just spent the next few days puttering around the house, building with her blocks and legos and having imaginary adventures with her Barbies and her Littlest Pet Shop animals.
Now that we have headed to Minnesota, Emily is looking forward to seeing her cousins and the friends that she made at summer camp last year. While she is comfortable in Minnesota, my guess is that she will again be happy to get back to her own bed, etc. when the time comes!
Emily turned 9 years old yesterday. She had her birthday party on Sunday and it was very informal, but she declared it the "best birthday ever." She had two friends over and the idea was that if it was nice, they would swim. If it was raining, they would watch a movie and eat popcorn. As you can see, it turned out that it was nice enough to swim so they did, then they watched a movie, then they went swimming again, then they had dinner, then they went home. It may have been the "best birthday ever" because it included the longest birthday party ever. The girls got along well, though, and seemed to have fun.
As for the movie selection, I asked Emily what she wanted to watch and she declared, "Labyrinth." Yes, the old 1986 David Bowie movie. She had seen it last summer and apparently really liked it, so that is what they watched. The other girls had never seen it before and seemed to like it. The food situation also seemed to be up to everyone's standards. Emily had decided that she wanted mini-cupcakes rather than a cake, so we ended up with mini-chocolate and mini-red velvet cupcakes. Between those, the popcorn, some watermelon, and some buttered noodles, I couldn't believe how much they all ate.
On Emily's official birthday yesterday, it wasn't that different from an ordinary day. She went to summer camp and then came home and relaxed with some Legos. I told her that she was looking much older now that she is nine. She responded, "You're just saying that." Busted. Yes, I had to admit that I was actually just saying it. I asked her if she feels any different now that she is nine and she instantly responded, "Nope!" So I guess that is that!
Emily is finally out of school for summer break. Her last day was Friday, although it was only a half day and was filled with the annual talent show and the year-end awards. Emily wanted to play her violin for the talent show. She and her friend Ansel decided that they would do a piece together with Emily playing and Ansel singing. They decided on "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," which is Emily's favorite piece. I am not exactly sure why, but Ansel decided to sing only the 1st and 3rd verses. Overall, I think that they did pretty well and I think that Emily was pleased with how it went. Also, Emily is known in her school for enjoying the macabre so this song was good in that it further fueled her reputation. :)
As for the year-end awards, all of the kids got lots of awards for their work during the year. A couple that stood out for Emily were her character award - she embodies Responsibility - and her AR award. Apparently the Accelerated Reader program is able to estimate how many words the students have read based on the AR tests that they have taken during the year. We were surprised to discover that Emily had read well over 300,000 word this past year. That seems like a lot and was by far the greatest number of words read in her class.
Other than the activities on the last day, the month of May was also filled with performances, field day, and a trip to the pool. Overall, I think that Emily enjoyed the performances and the trip to the pool, but was not very thrilled with field day. She doesn't like feeling pressured to go, go, go, so I think that sort of competition can be overwhelming for her. Anyway, here are a few shots to commemorate the month:
Celebrating the performance of their play, "Squirrel Etiquette"
Swimming and popsicles
The Rainbow Team on Field Day
Although the school year is over, the students still have work assigned over the summer to keep their skills up during the break. Emily has been working on that and also keeping up with her reading. She tried to bring her kindle to tennis/swim camp yesterday, but I made her leave it home. More and more, though, she seems to be finding time to curl up with a good story.
We also received Emily's 4th quarter report card last week and her teacher said, "How I will miss Emily's dry sense of humor and view of the world. She is a child who seems to take everything in stride and has a sense that while this moment may not be great, it is just a moment and a better one is coming. She has certainly helped some of the children in the room with this perspective. It has been a joy to be a part of her learning journey this year." Very sweet.
As for the rest of the summer, there is camp this week and next and then we are off to France and Minnesota for the rest of the summer!
It seems that Spring didn't last long because it already seems like Summer, which involves tree climbing and swimming. Emily has her favorite trees to explore, such as this one in our yard.
"C'mon, mom, take the photo already!"
She also seems to be excited for pool weather. Poor little thing was in the pool for about five hours yesterday and ended up with raw pads on her toes and fingers. Apparently she needs to toughen up her skin a bit. Despite the wounds, she was back in the pool today and loving every minute of it.
Emily and her bestie, Ansel
Although it feels like summer, there are still a few more weeks of school. There are lots of fun events coming up though, including Field Day, which has a ninja warrior theme this year, and a field trip to celebrate everyone's hard work during the year. Emily's new school has been so incredibly wonderful this year and she is already looking forward to next year. She knows who her teacher will be and it is someone that she really likes, so she is really excited about that.
Also, Emily has really come into her own with reading this year. She declared to her teacher that it just took the right book to make her love reading. It turns out that the Upside Down Magic series was just the ticket. It is a series of (so far) five books that chronicle the lives of kids in an upside down magic class. In the books, all kids get a certain type of magic when they turn ten, but for a subset of kids, their magic is a little unusual. For example, some kids are Flares. They get the power to light things on fire, but an Upside Down Flare might have the power to freeze things instead. It is an incredibly cute and compelling set of stories with a female protagonist who is a Upside Down Fluxer. Instead of shape-shifting into normal things like kittens, or birds, she shifts into unusual animals like a Dritten - half kitten, half dragon, or a Squippy - half squid, half puppy. Emily just thinks it is all hysterical and so do I. Unfortunately, we have read all five and the sixth is not due out until the Fall. Who knows when the seventh will arrive, if ever.
Other than that, life continues to roll along for Emily. She is progressing with violin and continues to love Legos, building all sorts of structures, playing with her stuffed animals (there is always a wedding in progress), chasing geckos around the patio, and baking/eating all things sweet. :)
Emily has been enjoying the warmer spring weather lately. She has been able to get to the park on a regular basis and never fails to find someone there to hang out with. She has also been busy with friends from school. There have been lots of play dates and birthday parties recently. Chad commented today that Emily's social calendar is more full than his, mine, and Abbie's put together.
Never afraid to jump
Although it wasn't that warm over spring break (think 50 degrees), Emily and her friend decided that it was warm enough to play in the baby pool. I would have frozen to death, but they seemed perfectly content to play for hours, ultimately getting bathing suits on and everything.
Speaking of school, she continues to do great! Report cards came out this past week and her teacher commented,
"There are so many things that make Emily a delight to have in class. Her sense of humor, her willingness to laugh at herself, her steadfastness in marching to her own drummer and her diligence to persevere when tasks are not easy are just a few. She also seems to appreciate the time and effort that everyone puts in to helping her be successful and she doesn't take that effort for granted. What a blessing she is!!"
Apparently, her teacher was so happy with her for remembering one of the spelling rules that she had taught the class that she actually kissed Emily because she was so overjoyed. LOL.
The other interesting event that happened recently was Emily's interaction with the tooth fairy. She lost another tooth and decided to put both of her teeth (the one that had been relegated to a Tupperware container and the recently lost one) into a miniature treasure box. She put the box under her pillow before bed, but then changed her mind before falling asleep and moved the box to her nightstand. The tooth fairy was a little too aggressive and didn't realize that she shouldn't take the teeth on the nightstand. So, Emily was disappointed the next morning when she woke up and found the teeth gone and $2 under her pillow. I told her that I wasn't sure, but that there was a possibility that if she left the money and the open treasure box under her pillow, the tooth fairy might return the teeth. It was a bit of an experiment, but she tried it and it worked! The teeth are safely back in the treasure box. :)
Emily's class had a western-themed Valentine's Day this year. I didn't think that she would have anything to wear that fit the theme, but she came up with a perfect outfit, complete with little pink hearts on her belt.
As you would imagine, they did the standard exchange of valentines and also had a school-wide party with games and activities.
It may be difficult to see in the photo above, but there has also been exciting news on the tooth front - the crazy baby tooth that was sticking out of her mouth for so long is finally gone. It got so loose that it fell out in her sleep and she found it in her mouth in the morning. Fortunately she didn't swallow it! Surprisingly, she has elected not to monetize the tooth - rather than going under her pillow, it has gone into a small Tupperware container. I'm not quite sure why or for how long, but that is its current fate.
Of course, Emily had a day off yesterday for Presidents' Day. She enjoyed it thoroughly - she had a play-date followed by a birthday party. In contrast, I had to work. As I lamented to her that I had to work, she didn't offer me much for sympathy, responding, "That's OK. You already had your time [off] when you were a kid." Yes, I suppose that is true.
Emily continues to crack us up with the stuff that comes
out of her mouth. I received a pair of socks for Christmas that say "I
was f**king talking" on them. It has been a running joke because I seem
to get interrupted a lot. Anyway, I interrupted Emily during her violin
lesson last week. In response, she looked at me and said, "Am I going to
have to get the socks??" Chad laughed pretty hard.
Emily's December went pretty smoothly. There wasn't too much craziness in connection with the school year. They had a winter concert for the parents one day, which was really cute. Then the school always finishes the term with an all-school holiday party in which the kids all dress up for a special lunch.
The girls!
These are just the girls in Emily's class on the day of the lunch (there are also three boys in her class). They are all pretty cute and seem to get along reasonable well. Emily's teacher, who is standing in the background on the left, has been great this year and I get along with her really well. Of course, the moms all had a bit of a laugh about the sweet girl who is second from the left. Her mom said, "Maybe I should have a talk with her about keeping her knees together." LOL. In case you can't tell, Emily is sort of in the middle with the silver dress.
As for Christmas, I think that Emily was pretty happy with how it turned out. She started out asking Santa for a robotic girl that she could have as a permanent playmate, but then she decided that maybe that would be too hard, so she backed off and asked for squigz, a camping set for her American Girl doll, clothes, mythology books, a tree house, a fawn (stuffed animal), and a mermaid tail (for swimming in the pool). I think that Santa delivered on all but the tree house.
After Christmas, we took a three night trip to New Orleans and I think that Emily really enjoyed it. We told her tales of the yummy beignets at Cafe Du Monde and she was NOT disappointed! We walked over from our hotel every morning and loaded up. Emily was in heaven and we frequently had to tell her not to lick the powdered sugar off the plate, table, etc.
Beignets!
Of course, we also had a number of other meals in New Orleans and Emily pretty much subsisted on the bread and butter. In particular, we had a great lunch at Commander's Palace. That place never seems to disappoint and Emily gave their bread and butter her stamp of approval. We even managed to get a decent family photo afterwards.
Family photo
Note that Emily is wearing some lovely necklaces that she finger-weaved for herself during the trip. :)
Emily is back to school now and seems to be enjoying it. Today we attended an American Girl lunch with a few of the other moms/daughters. It was a good event. The girls all brought their dolls and ran around and played while the moms chatted. The food was kid-friendly, but also made me realize how much I love "kid food" - mac and cheese, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, pasta, etc. Yum!
As for the teeth that I have mentioned before, one of the two top baby teeth is gone now, but the other is still there and we have practically begged her to wiggle it out. People are so anxious for it to fall out that even her teacher mentioned it in her weekly correspondence with me. She was shocked that it was still there when Emily returned from the break! Also, every time she arrives at her weekly violin lesson, her teacher immediately checks to see if the tooth is still there. Of course, it is, but any day now, I hope!
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