My Emily

Whenever I talk with anyone and they ask, "how's Emily?" my reply is usually the same.  "Oh, she's crazy!"  Truth be told she is hard to describe.  

She is almost never "bad" or misbehaved, yet she can drive you totally bananas.  She demands 110% of your attention at all times yet usually just wants to watch a show or play a game.  My money is totally on her in a street fight yet she is very kind and loving to her friends and family.  She talks a lot but cries even more and when you ask her why she says matter of factly,  "I just have a lot of tears in me today."  She is the ultimate hostess when we have guests and genuinely hates when people leave.  Those of you who have visited know that one.  Her wardrobe is her ultimate possession yet she would give you the clothes off her back.  I could go on and on but you get the gist.  She is a complicated and fantastic girl!  

Don't know if you all got the memo but the new Barbie movie came out a few weeks ago.  It's now mandatory in our house that we buy it the same day it's released and watch it straight away eating only pink food.  I'm not kidding.  

You will be happy to know, Barbie Princess Charm School did not disappoint and even had a character named Emily along with all the other standards...nice girls, mean girls, cool fashion, big hair and glitter.  

Emily is also a BIG drawer and note writer.  She leaves notes and pictures all over the house.  Her spelling leaves something to be desired (namely vowels) but once I decipher the message it usually cracks me up.  The other night David found this diagram.  Allow me to translate:

One circle - Boys

Boys swim without a shirt on

Other circle - Girls

Girls don't

Intersection of circles - Same

they both swim.

All those silly marks you see on the letters is the new reading.  Seems like every sound has a special mark through it or over it that is supposed to teach them to read better.  Frankly I'm lost, but she seems to know what she's doing.  

The other day she showed me a picture of a girl at a desk with scribbles all over it and when I asked what it was she said (again, not kidding)  "this is a girl who isn't controlling her impulsivity."

Ok.

So last night was a big night.  Not the first tooth, but a big one.  Emily has an extremely low tolerance for pain so tooth pulling is not a fun experience.  Let's just say there was some screaming.  

She is not a fan of her new look so hopefully no-one laughs at her today.  Luckily I had a free dress pass for school so she got to glam it up a bit.  As you can see in this photo, she often wears stickers on her ears to look like earrings.  

That's my Emily!  

Diamond Head Lighthouse

If you haven't heard from me in a while you can almost be certain it's workshop time!  It was.  Yesterday was our kick-off event for the year and we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Diamond Head Lighthouse for the morning.  

The home is occupied by the Coast Guard Admiral in command of the Pacific. 

Views like this are available from every room (including the kitchen sink!)  This might be the only house where people fight to do the dishes.

Not a bad day's work!

Of course, we all got to tour the lighthouse itself.  Many stairs -  and they only got skinnier and twistyer.

Worth every step!

I don't know how they get anything done living here!

The event was awesome!!  Our speaker was funny and informative, our seats were full and the sky (as you can see) was cloudless.  I'd like to take all the credit but honestly, it's hard to mess up with this backdrop!

School Photos

Since I can promise I won't get around to sending these out before Christmas card time (and in the past I have been known to forget about them when that time comes), I'll give you a preview of this years school photos!

Normally I'm not a fan of professional photos because they look so posy and never seem to represent my kids personalities but I think this is a particularly nice photo of Liv.  She is growing up so fast but I love her look and smile in this.  It shows confidence which is the one thing I hope to raise her with.

This one doesn't capture Em as well.  This girl is so full of life that she probably can't be contained in 2D!

But if she could it would look more like this!  Doesn't everyone scooter to the pool half naked in silver heals?  That's how we roll :)