A (Very) Belated Birthday

As you may or may not know, Cienna Elise's 9th birthday party was postponed indefinitely due to her ski team commitment in the winter. After telling her for months that we would figure out a weekend that we could celebrate (and then having every single one of those weekends filled with commitments or trips) we FINALLY came up with July 16th as the ONLY weekend the entire summer that we would have available to celebrate the half way point between childhood and legally becoming an adult. God Help Us All.

With only 7 days noticed we managed to obtain a 100% attendance rate from 8 of her closest friends for a belated day out. Inspired by a presumably very rich little girl from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, we were able to employ our good friend Mr. Lanny Ross to pick up the girls (and AJ) in his limousine, deliver us to the movie theater to see "The Secret Life of Pets", followed by an arrival at Bahama Buck's shaved ice company and then back to our house for departure.

We arrived at the theater and immediate dread came over me when I saw a sign posted stating that the movie was sold out. OK, plan B. Get tickets for the next show and go to shaved ice first. As I stepped up to the window I was told that the next show was sold out as well. Damn it! Plan C. Pick a different show. BFG it is! I got all 10 kids nestled into their seats and ventured out to get some popcorn. Being that I am (slightly) budget conscious, I decided to get 2 large tubs of popcorn because I could get them refilled once each. Only after I broke out a level of crazy on the theater manager that I am sure he has not experienced before, he graciously reluctantly gave me 10 large plastic bags that I could distribute the popcorn evenly in. 45 minutes later I returned to the theater to pass out the popcorn and 10 smuggled in water bottles along with 1 napkin each. Perfection.

I maybe should have done a little research about the shaved ice place before arriving with 10 screaming kids who were allowed to pick up to 3 flavors each with 50 flavors to choose from. It was about this time that I was hoping I still had a pocket shot in my handbag that I could dump into my sno cone. Unfortunately for me, I did not. Unfortunately for Cienna, we will never be going back to Bahama Buck's due to my PSD that has been clinically confirmed.

I Love Emerica!

We spent the 4th of July one man lady down while Cienna was working on her tan in CA with Granny. It was her first flight by herself and there were a few tears between she and AJ before she left us for greener pastures. I tried to bribe them with Kiva Juice (Jamba Juice for all you Californian's reading this) but it did little to help the emotional toll saying goodbye for 8 days would have...for 5 minutes! As she boarded the plane she gave AJ a hug and a kiss on the cheek which he returned by hooking her neck and yelling in front of all of the A boarding group "No! On the lips Cienna!" It got quite a laugh from everyone.

As I watched her plane taxi out to the runway all I could think was, "Boo yea! 1 child for a week!"

Once we knew she arrived safely we could finally allow ourselves to have a bit of fun. We headed up to the cabin for traditional Emerican 4th of July festivities such as rafting while drinking cheap Emericanbeer....

Throwing our body on the ground for good ole' Emerican sugar in mass quantities...

And legally bought Chinese fireworks brought illegally across state lines! It's the Emerican way!

Although AJ did not want her to return, Cienna did come home just 2 days later. Word has it that UC Santa Cruz is now on her college list!

And my mom may just invite her back!