Emily's Shopping Trip

Emily loves all things American Girl. We've gone to the store, cafe & theater a lot for birthdays, special outings, cousin visits and earned prizes. Last year Em decided it would be great to have $100 whole dollars to spend there (I guess $100 is the largest amount she could ever fathom having.)  She set herself a goal to save $100 and asked if I would take her there for a shopping trip when she had it. Then she started saving.

For every dollar our kids earn they pay 10% tithing, save 40% and then can choose what to do with the remaining 50%. Emily didn't spend a single penny of her "spending" money for an entire year. (Confession; she probably could have got there faster except I am terrible about remembering to pay them. Really, it's awful. I am great about remembering their job charts and making sure they do the work ... just not the follow through of paying them for them!) Anyway, she saved $104 which means she really had earned $208 to get it. Pretty impressive. Several times I saw her walk into a store with her money in her hand, contemplate buying something and decide against parting with her hard earned cash & leave! She definitely gets that kind of discipline from her Dad!!

So on our first free Saturday we headed into the city. I told her we'd go for lunch at a place of her choosing. She chose Lombardi's Pizza & Rice to Riches. It's where we had her "Age 8 Big Talk" and it was kind of special to be there with her again. We figured there wouldn't be as much of a line at lunchtime but there was and we were starving, so we went over to Rice to Riches first and got a tide-me-over snack.

Emily LOVES Rice to Riches.

Weird angle & bad lighting - the pizza isn't really bigger than her head!

I love Lombardi's sauce, I could eat it with a spoon!

Then we went back to Rice to Riches for real dessert. We are serious about rice pudding!

We took the Subway back up to Grand Central. Whenever we are walking through & have time we love to go to the 4 corners in the tunnel in front of the Oyster Bar. If one person stands in one corner facing the wall and the other stands on the opposite one you can whisper to each other and hear it well. It's always fun. One of our dear friends proposed to his wife that way!

Then we got to American Girl! It was so sweet to see her in action. She had already poured over their website and knew exactly what she wanted and how much it would be (why was I surprised?) She had a little money left over after the things she had planned and took some time deciding between a pair of shoes or a personalized doll T-shirt (she chose the shirt). Then she also enjoyed browsing and seeing all the new things they have and decided this baking table was going on her Christmas list.

Then we went to the checkout. As we approached I realized that she had a Ziploc bag FULL of pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters and bunches of small bills. I asked her if she would like me to just put it on my credit card for speed and convenience and she could just give me the money. She quickly said "no" and I realized that she wanted to pay with her own money - the money she had worked so hard to save, that had been adding up in her spending jar for all those months, that she had counted a million times until she got to $100.

I did feel momentarily self conscious that we were holding up the line - you know how vocal in their opinions New Yorkers can be, then my mother bear instinct kicked in and I thought I didn't really care how long it took her to count it all out and I would pounce on anyone who said anything. My little girl saved up her money for an entire year darn it, and she was going to pay herself! No one actually said anything, in fact the cashier was delightful and Emily was pleased as punch.

I couldn't resist buying her this purple messenger bag as a reward for her efforts - which only made her happier.

As we walked back to Grand Central they were filming a movie. Clearly something big - it was taking up several city blocks and there were extras everywhere. I asked what they were filming and we were told it was "Men in Black 3." I've never seen the movies but it was cool to see all the old cars everywhere & we walked a little closer so Em could see better. We didn't see anyone famous (no Will Smith) but did have a great conversation about how they make movies & keeping things consistent with the time period they are set in. It was also fun to point out the brief cases that some of the male extras on the street were carrying and tell her they were just like the one's I remembered Grandpa using when I was a little girl.

On the train on the way home she changed Emily (the doll) into one of the new outfits.

And we had a little "game" of tennis.

So proud of you Em - well done!