Hi Mom - Here are some pictures from Emily's Birthday. I took her out for a movie and shopping, and Diane make a home-made Birthday Cake. She got some books and other gifts. But the big gift was this: She loves this musical called "Wicked", which is a farily recent Broadway musical about the Wicked Witch of the west. So we bought her a CD of the songs, then in the last envelop was tickets to the show, which is happening at the end of April in Eugene. So the pictures below show her excitement when she opened the tickets. 
Hi again Mom (and Myrna)!
It's very stormy today. Diane has a sinus cold this weekend, so I'm doing double-duty parenting.
Yesterday I took Sara to her friends birthday party at the local pizza parlor, which also has arcade games, laser tag, and blacklight mini-golf. We were there 4 hours! Today we're staying home mostly. I did take Emily to a paper store to get materials so she could design her own invitations. She wants to invite friends to go night-bowling (they turn on the black-lights so the bowling pins glow, and they turn the music very loud - perfect for teenagers!!!)
Last weekend Sara had a her friend Mackenzie come over and we took them bowling. Here are some photos:
Hi Mom!
Today is Sunday -- another drippy weather day. We did have one nice sunny day on Friday (the first taste of Spring, and the daffodils and crocuses are blooming - always a nice sign).
It's been a busy week. Last Sunday Emily went to a birthday party. Tuesday night was high school orientation night: we went to hear the administrators tell the freshmen to get involved with activities and there were tables about the clubs, but not too well organized. Emily definitely wants to be in the all-girls choir in 9th grade. On Thursday Emily had her last choir concert at her school gym, but there are two competitions coming up in April and May, one in Salem and one in Portland. Also, Emily is doing a club activity that's connected with her math class. The math teacher organizes something called "Pentagames", and Emily and others will be practicing for a few weeks before competing against other schools.
Last Saturday Sara, Emily and I went to the Salem synagog to help with their annual hamataschen baking. Over 3 days they make enough for 300 boxes (a dozen a box). Sara and other little kids had their own table for rolling the dough, filling, and pinching to make the cookies. Emily was helping the adults with their batches. I rolled dough while Emily did the filling and the "pinching" in triangle cookies. We should get our boxes in a few days.
