Our Kids Blog

I can remember as a kid my dad loved to wrap presents with extra items to disguise the actual present.  I vaguely remember him wrapping a brick once with something small just to surprise my mom.

But this present disguise that Grandma Swany did for you was pretty awesome.  She secretly slipped an American Girl Gift Card into the kleenex box so at first you thought it was just kleenex! Ha!

It didn’t take you long to get Grace and all her accessories all moved in downstairs.

 I love all your attention to the little details.

Not being a morning person, our birthday tradition of opening the “family” presents before dawn isn’t my favorite. Unfortunately you do not share my love of sleeping in.

Happy 9th birthday my sweet Emma!  We love you so much!

Thanks for letting Kenny open a couple of your presents.

Your birthday week celebrations started with lunch at the American Girl Doll Cafe in Mall of America.

After lunch the birthday crew hit the ropes course and zip line in the mall.

And the final stop before home was jumping fun at Sky Zone.

For the last few years our New Years Day tradition has been to go to the Mall of America in Minneapolis. American Girl always has extra special activities and giveaways in celebration of their new doll of the year.  You couldn’t be more thrilled with this year’s – Grace Thomas – who loves Paris and baking.  Two of your favorite things!

This doll bakery is amazing!  I love that you have started saving.

They even had cookie decorating and little luggage tags for the kids and dolls.

Today you used your Christmas money to get Grace and are “trying” to wait patiently for your birthday so you get some of her accessories.

The rest of the day you both enjoyed the rides even with the long lines.

~Just for fun~

-Your love for Paris started at age 4 after our fun mother and daughter trip to Germany and France in 2010.

Emma loves to watch American Girl Doll “tours” on You Tube.  Here is her “tour” in pictures.

Today we picked up Emma and Kenny early from school and headed to Mall of America to celebrate Levi H.’s birthday and to say goodbye to his sweet family who are leaving to go back to China.  We met them in China back in March of 2007 and have had such a special bond ever since.  Check out some of the cutest pictures of their daughter Abby and Emma growing up over the last few years.  I guess I went a little overboard with all the pictures!

This is Emma and Abby H. at the Beijing Zoo in China March 2007.  Abby had just turned 2 and Emma had just turned 1.  What cuties!

Abby and Emma at our house in May 2007 (Age 2 and 1 respectively)

Abby (2) and Emma (1) in Minnesota ~ November 2007

Emma’s 2nd Birthday Jan. 13, 2008 – Abby 3

Abby (4 1/2) and Emma (3 1/2) ~ Our house ~ August 2009

In March of 2011 Emma and I took a girls trip to visit them in China.

Emma age 5 ~ Abby age 6

The Great Wall of China

The Beijing Zoo

The next 13 photos are from the H.’s summer in Minnesota in 2011.  Abby was 6 1/2 and Emma was 5 1/2.

Here they are at the Mall of America in September 2013.

Abby’s 9th Birthday ~ December 2013

~Emma’s American Girl Hair Salon~

(She just got a new American Girl video showing how to do different hairstyles.)

Emma’s American Girl Doll room is always changing but here is a snapshot from today after the massive cleaning and organizing.

Before and After!

(This finished room is actually a few days later.)