Emilee on Economics

Yes Emilee, you heard it right...they want to spend $700 Billion to bailout the greedy executives on Wall Street, the housing speculators and the "not so bright" people who got sub-prime or variable interest mortgages and now can't afford their homes...it's your problem now.

Emilee's Birthday Party!

This year we celebrated Emilee's 7th birthday with a party at American Girl Place at the Grove in Los Angeles. We had a Mother/Daughter Afternoon Tea and were joined by Abbey, Sarah, Paige, Claire and Savhanna, along with their moms; Cindy, Christi and Mary. Sadly, Anna was sick, so she and Miss Polly didn't get to go. The tea started out with warm cinnamon rolls (which Miss Christi took a definite liking too!) and included delicious sandwiches, scones with jam and creme, iced heart-shaped brownies, red licorice dipped in icing with sprinkles, jello orange slices and pink lemonade! After the meal they brought out a beautiful birthday cake and goodie bags for everyone...even the Moms! We all sang Happy Birthday and then Emilee opened her presents. Afterwards, we explored American Girl Place and each of the girls got to pick out a book of their choice. I had promised Emilee she could pick out a present at the store, so she chose Kit's dog, Grace. It was a very fun day, and to quote Emilee "The best birthday EVER!!!"

Many thanks to Miss Cindy and Miss Christi for driving all the way up there!

Emilee and her new doll Kit in their matching outfits!

The wild ride into LA...

The Birthday Girl!

The cake arrives....

The party girls...oops, where's Sissy???

Window shopping at the Grove...

Back to School "Preview Night"

Friday night, August 22, was "Preview Night" at Hillcrest Academy. We went to see Emilee's new room and meet her 2nd Grade teacher. They also served a great bar-b-que with hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixin's. Emilee was so excited to see her friends again! Even though I love the Fall...I wasn't quite ready to let go of Summer. It's so hard getting back to a strict routine in the evenings. Oh well...time marches on.

Check out her "School Girl" outfit...and those saddle shoes!!! They ought to put me on the Uniform Committee at Hillcrest since this is so much cuter than those industrial-looking khakis and polos!!!

Emilee's best friends, Sarah and Matthew...

Emilee's new teacher, Mrs. Sablan, who she absolutely adores!

Emilee's best event...the rings!

The Terra Cotta Warriors

On August 23, Emilee and I went to the Bowers Museum in Orange County to see "The Terra Cotta Warriors", their newest exhibit from China. We went with Christi, Paige & Claire and were joined by Christi's Aunt Teri, Harmony & Gramma Luisa, who drove in all the way from Oxnard. I had heard about the Bowers, but never been before...it's a beautiful place! The exhibition of Terra Cotta Warriors was fabulous, the next best thing to seeing them in China, which hopefully, someday we will do. At the end there was a great gift shop with "Everything Chinese" so the girls really scored with books and little keepsakes. After seeing the "Warriors" we walked down to the Kid's Museum to see their exhibit on the "Monkey King" then headed back to the Bowers to view the exhibit on Chinese Antiquities. It was a really fun day and we capped it off by going over to Knotts Berry Farm for a Chicken Dinner...with "Everything Boysenberry!"

The highlight of the day was getting to pose with one of the Terra Cotta Warriors...the girls loved him!

The Eagle and The Zebra...better known as Emilee and Claire!