Elizabeth's surprise

Today was Professional Development day at school.  This means that the teachers spend a day as a student, and administrators get to take their turn as teachers.  Ryan was at work late the night before to get ready.  He's really feeling the pressure to do well at his job with it opening up again.  Not that he hasn't been trying really hard all year, but well, now he has just a touch more incentive to show everyone how indispensable he is.  

Anyhoo.  Emma also got to spend her day at school.  All of these extra activities she's involved in has really cut into her days off.  She spent President's day at school getting ready for Science Fair, and today she was to work on her prosthetic/robotic arm.  Emma was not pleased at all to be missing free time again.  

Ryan went into work earlier than regular time, and after we dropped Emma off at 9:45 (she didn't have to be at school before 8, so that was at least a silver lining), I took the girls to Tri-Cities.  Annie really wanted a hat for Hat Day for Dr. Seuss week, and I needed to pick up a gift or Target gift card for my cousin's wedding the next day.  I also wanted a new skirt for said wedding, but with three kids in tow, clothes shopping for me is iffy at best.

After lunch, I decided I was not going to find a skirt for me.  There were skirts- too short, too expensive, not my style, and not what I was looking for.  I did find one I really liked, but the smallest size was a size too big for me.  I am not confident enough in my sewing skills to fix something like that, especially in the time frame I had.  So walking by Claire's at the mall, I decided to blow my skirt money on Elizabeth.  It's been over a year since we decided it was best to leave her poor, infected ear alone to heal without an earring hole, and Elizabeth has been reminding us that she would really like to have her ears pierced again.  I felt extremely sneaky not informing Ryan of the ear piercing decision ahead of time, but it's not like Elizabeth's yearning has been a secret.  And we had informally agreed she could probably get her ears pierced for her birthday.

I didn't photograph the event this time.  But on the ride home, I let Elizabeth take some pictures of herself to send to her dad.

This, I assume is her happy face:

 And this of the actual, exciting pierced ears.

Elizabeth had the option of getting both ears pierced at the same time, and she jumped at the chance. She was close enough to the previous event to remember the pain of doing one at a time.  She was a trooper and shed not a tear.

As we were getting into the car to come home, I got a call from Emma saying that she was done early.  Dang.  I had planned on being back a little bit before we thought she would be done, but I was off a bit.  I told her to try her dad, but the next phone call told me Dad wasn't available.  I was already hurtling down the freeway a bit faster than I should have been, but I was on my way.  Luckily Emma keeps a book with her at all times, so she was able to pass the time easily enough until I showed up.