Pierced Ears!

After years of waiting, the long-awaited day finally arrived for Lia to get her ears pierced.  Years ago, when she first asked me about it, I told her that she needed to wait until she was 12 years old.  I just felt that this would be the perfect age since she would be old enough to handle the responsibilities that come with having pierced ears.  In addition, I have always felt like getting one's ears pierced is an appropriate right of passage to becoming a young lady.  So after turning 12 last weekend, I looked at the calendar and discovered that we actually had a free Friday afternoon which is amazing considering how busy we have been this school year now that we have three children involved in after school activities.  Par Lia's request, I coordinated with the mom of her good friend, Elle, who had gotten permission to get her ears double pierced, to meet them at Claire's at the same time.  Since Ron had to work late today, Lia and I met Elle and her mom at the mall at 5 o'clock with the three other children in tow.  After filling out all of the necessary paperwork and choosing hwe earrings, Lia volunteered to have her ears pierced first.  Since Lia has never had a huge tolerance for pain, I worried about how she would handle this entire experience, but to my surprise, she handled it like a champ.  Since both store employees were available to assist, Lia opted to have both of her ears done at the same time.  It was quick and easy and Lia barely flinched.  Afterwards, she was so excited to have her ears pierced that she barely looked back!  Here are some pictures of the big event in Lia's life...

Lia sitting in the 'piercing chair' waiting to get her ears pierced.

The employees getting ready to pierce Lia's ears.

The moment actually happening.

A close-up of Lia's, sparkly earring in her ear after it was all done.

Lia's 12th Birthday!

We wrapped up Lia's 12th birthday celebrations tonight a day after her actual birthday.  Due to her ski bus getting turned around on her first scheduled ski lesson back in January, a make-up lesson was scheduled for yesterday.  As a result, Lia spent most of her birthday on the slopes which I think is a pretty cool way to spend her birthday.  I did manage to sneak up a bakery-made, sugar cookie with colorful sprinkles and the words, "Happy Birthday," piped on top for her to eat for dessert at lunch time.  When Lia and Ron pulled up last night in the garage, Lia was greeted by a birthday banner that Logan and Ella helped me make along with a bunch of balloons.  When she came into the house, we had turned off all the lights and lit the candles on a small birthday cake that I had bought.  We surprised Lia by singing "Happy Birthday" to her right as she walked into the door.  We enjoyed eating our favorite teriyaki takeout for dinner and then feasted on her birthday cake with mint ice cream before heading to bed.
We started off today with our traditional buttermilk waffles with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast.  We enjoyed singing to Lia again before she blew out her candles.  After church and a lazy afternoon, grandma and grandpa joined us for Lia's, family birthday party.  As always, Lia requested "breakfast for dinner" followed by gift opening and her favorite banana cream pie.  Lia got the ultimate surprise during gift opening when she opened up a brand new, retired, Felicity doll.  Although she has loved this historical, AG doll for years, I had never planned on getting it for her especially after I announced that we were done buying Lia dolls after we gave her Kanani a few year ago for Christmas.  However, after Lia and I recently had a conversation about her still wanting Felicity, I found the deal of a lifetime on OfferUp on a brand new, still-in-the-box doll from 2011. This doll had been purchased by a women who used to work at the Seattle AGD store and who had kept it all these years until she recently decided to sell it for a really low price.  When I found her posting, I decided that it was a deal that I couldn't pass up!  It was so priceless to see Lia's reaction when she opened up her doll this evening.  She seriously jumped up from the floor and hugged the box with the doll inside.  It just made me so happy to see Lia get so excited about this gift especially at the age of twelve (thanks to all of the photos she takes and videos she makes for her AGD social media accounts).   I hope that she stays this way for a few more years to come!

The banner and balloons that greeted Lia when she drove into our garage on Saturday evening.

Lia and Ella posing next to the little cake we surprised her with after her long day of skiing.

Lia getting ready to blow out the candles on her waffles this morning.

Blowing away!

The family gathering around our dining room table for Lia's dinner-for-breakfast this evening.

Lia posing with baby Emmett before opening up her gifts.

Lia opening up her Felicity doll.  Since I knew that she would recognize the size and shape of the AGD box, I put it in a large, plastic bin so that she wouldn't figure it out in advance.

Lia posing with her new doll.

And hugging it, too!

Lia showing off her new Caretaker's Guide to Fablehaven book that she received from Aunt Austin and Uncle Robbie.

Lia reading a card that Ella made for her.

Giving Ella a hug after reading her card.

Opening up grandma's and grandpa's card.

Lia waiting for us to sing "Happy Birthday" to her one last time.

Big sissy giving Emmett an adoring look.

Blowing out her twelve candles.

Mama posing with her two girls before cutting into the pie.

Lia enjoying her favorite pie with Emmett at her side.

Emmett enjoying his pie that daddy was feeding him.

A final birthday shot with the birthday girl posing with her favorite birthday gift.  Welcome to the family, Felicity!  And Happy Birthday to our favorite, 12-year old girl!  We love you so much and are so grateful that you are a part of our family.

Ski School Is Over!

Today, Lia and Ron wrapped up seven Saturdays of heading up to the pass on a bus for Lia to take a morning ski lesson and spend the afternoon "skoarding" with Ron (Lia skiing and Ron snowboarding).  Overall, it turned out to be a wonderful experience with a rocky start.  Due to a massive amount of snow that fell the day before, their bus ended up getting turned around 10 miles from the ski resort on their first Saturday, January 11th.  Lia and Ron came home around 1 p.m. that afternoon after having spent over six hours on a bus with Lia's good friend, Elle, and a bunch of strangers.  Although their bus made it up to the mountain the next Saturday, January 18th, many things ended up going wrong.  I had to spend several hours on the phone over the next few days fixing out all of these problems.  After Ron, Lia, and Ella lost an hour in the morning having to walk to and from the lodge (which turned out to be over 30 minutes away from their ski school building) to get Lia's day pass and Elle's rental gear, the girls both missed the first hour of their two hour lesson.  In addition, Ron and Lia discovered after lunch that Elle was at a much lower snowboarding level than Lia was at skiing.  Originally, before I knew that Ron would be going with Lia every week, I had invited Elle to join Lia so that they could be skoarding buddies every Saturday after their morning lessons.  However, Elle was so low in her snowboarding abilities that she couldn't even get off the chair lift or board down the easiest, bunny hill.  It took Elle 35 minutes to board down the hill compared to Lia and Ron who could do it in less than five.  It became obvious very quickly that Elle needed her own buddy to snowboard with on Saturdays who was at her own ability level while Lia and Ron skoarded together at their own pace on more advanced runs. 
After contacting two different departments at the ski resort, I was able to get all of Lia's day passes refunded and purchase a season's pass at the discounted rate that had been available in the Fall.  In addition, after having the uncomfortable conversation with Elle's mom, they decided to start renting Elle's gear in Tacoma every Friday evening so that she would already have it when she arrived at the mountain.  They also made the surprising and wonderful decision to start having Elle's dad go up with her every week so that they could learn how to snowboard together.  I also got up the courage to call the ski school director and ask if Lia could have a second ski lesson during the afternoon the next Saturday to make up for the time that she missed during her first ski lesson (since the owner was the one who originally had told me that picking up weekly day pass every Saturday would be 'no big deal). 
So, after smoothing out all of these wrinkles, Lia was able to make the most out of her five remaining trips up to the pass on the ski bus.  She had a great time riding the bus and eating lunch every week with Elle.  She learned some valuable new skills from her lessons and had a great time skoarding with her dad after lunch every week.  She continued to improve in her skiing abilities and was skiing comfortably on 'blue runs' by the end of the 6-week session (which had been my original goal for Lia this season).  Due to the ski school needing to make up one lesson at the end of the session, Lia and Ron spent her birthday on the mountain today.  After Ron told the ski school director that it was her birthday, Lia was surprised to have most of the ski school sing "Happy Birthday" to her outside of the ski school building in the morning after first arriving.  That must have been something to hear that many people singing to her at once!  In addition, I sent up a special "Happy Birthday" sugar cookie for Ron to surprise her with at lunch.  Here are a few pictures Ron took of their last day of ski school today!

Lia and Elle riding up on the bus this morning.

The two girls standing in front of the Alpine West Ski School building.

Lia posing with the hilarious ski school director, Ron, who Lia and my Ron go to know pretty well during their hours of sitting next to him on the bus each week.

Lia skiing down to the bottom of the mountain after finishing up her morning lesson.

Lia showing off her birthday cookie from inside the bus.

Lia and daddy heading out for some afternoon skoarding.

Waiting to get on the ski lift.

Lia skiing down the run.

The birthday girl striking a funny pose.

And giving daddy a smile.

Ron and Lia heading back up the mountain on the chairlift.

Emmett's One Year Photos

After cancelling Emmett's appointment two times, we finally made it in today for his one-year photo shoot a month late.  Better late than never, right?  Besides having to constantly chase Emmett to the back of the studio (where there was an Easter background he was fascinated with) to carry him to the spot where he needed to be at the front of the studio to have his next picture taken, he did a great job.  I learned long ago that these photo shoots for my young children are exhausting and require as much work out of me as the photographer to make the 'magic' happen.  Regardless, we managed to get some adorable photos of this little one-year old playing with some fun props and wearing the cutest little cap that matched his outfit perfectly.  I know that I will treasure these photos for life...