Here's something I never thought I'd do...

About two and a half years ago, we scored an American Girl doll for Penny at a stoop sale for $10.  The girl was selling 4 or 5 of them, and Alex and I literally had $10 in cash between the two of us, or we would have bought all of them.  Luckily for Penny, her big cousin is slowly outgrowing her American Girl doll, and passing along anything she isn't using anymore, and my mom is the world's best thrift shopper, so Molly is living the life over at Chez Z.  What was undeniable about Molly, though, is that something needed to be done about her hair.  I had tried to handle it, Penny tried to manage it - no go.  Originally her hair came in braids, and somewhere along the line before we got her, the braids were taken out and it was all over by the time we got her.
Cut to Sunday.  I had been doing some online research about how to handle this hair situation, and was almost convinced I was going to pack Molly up and send her to the doll hospital, when I found out about the Hair Salon at the American Girl Place.  I was intrigued.  Alex was going to be spending the day at Comic Con, so I told Penny to pack up Molly, we put Milo in the stroller, and off we went to midtown.  There is an extensive line-waiting appointment-making receipt-showing process that took about an hour and a half altogether, during which we bought Molly a new pair of glasses (I told Penny we would be getting her hair done and a new pair of glasses, and THAT'S IT.  I could easily have spent several years' salary in there), and as Molly was discontinued a few years ago, everyone on the staff was genuinely excited to see her.  Only kind of creepy.
When our appointment time arrived, Molly was strapped into a salon chair

I forgot to take a "before" photo, but you can get an idea of what's going on here,  This is already a few minutes in.

I also opted for the "spa treatment" package, where Molly got a thorough cleaning, and some nail stickers to take home, so the first step was rubbing her down with some special powder, and the grime that came off this doll was worth our trip into the city on its own.  Molly's hair is such that it sort of needs to be braided, so none of the fancy half updos that Penny liked would do.  However, the result was incredible:

Truly, I never thought I would be this excited about getting a doll's hair done.  Certainly not THIS excited:

Check that off my mother-of-a-five-year-old-girl list. Luckily Milo is a super chill baby, and he only got upset at the very end of our excursion.

Sleepy, snuggly bedtime listening to the autumn rain

This is what I'm trying so hard to hold on to, but so afraid I will not remember.

First First Grade Family Friday!

Today was our first Family Friday of First Grade, and I forgot to take photos in the room. Penny showed me all around, she read me two books, then I read her a couple. It's officially school! She's got homework almost every night! Such a big kid!

Update:  Penny was going through the photos on my phone and came across this one.  She turned to me and asked "Oh, Mommy, did you like this?" with a giant grin on her face.  She read it to me, told me about it, and it was clear she was so proud and excited to have her work on my phone. 

surprise vacation!

on thursday afternoon, penny and her babysitter made a "monster book of monsters", which is a harry potter thing.  it was a weird coincidence, because:

(a note - it turns out the harry potter wand IS an interactive wand, so there you go...)

so we packed our bags, skipped school on friday, and went to universal studios!

milo correctly identifies that he is about to go up!

milo rode on his first airplane!

penny could not believe it was all really happening!

penny was in harry potter heaven.  we got to see the new Diagon Alley part of the park, and since i was not enormously pregnant, i got to ride rides!  we child swapped!  we saw the dragon shoot fire!  we took this adorable family photo!

milo demonstrates why it's called Diagon Alley:

and he checks out the knitting supplies - he's my kid for sure!

these kids are totally my favorite things:

penny & alex's tough motorcycle riding faces:

i could not be more thrilled that we get to do something like this every now and again.  penny was completely surprised and one hundred percent delighted.  it was great to get away as a family and spend some time together having fun!

First grade!

Due to technical difficulties, we do not yet have Penny's official first day of first grade photo, but I can assure you that she did, in fact, start school on Wednesday, and is enjoying it very much.  September is like practice school, as her first full week isn't until the last week of the month.

Although I may not have her official photo, I do have Penny herself to tell you all about her first day:

Summer's over!

if you zoom way in on my sunglasses, you can see milo and my dad waving to each other.

Today was Penny's last day before First Grade, and her sitter is visiting family, so I played hooky and tried to give her one last taste of summer. We went to Coney Island, ate at Nathan's and visited with Great Grandma Miriam. We went to the aquarium with Grandma Ronnie & Papa Dan. We finished up the day at Ikea. The weather cooperated in giving us our last Summer hoorah - it was 90 degrees out, and it's a week into September already.
Penny's backpack is all packed, her lunch is ready to go (complete with first day of first grade note), and she is ready to take it all on! I am just ready for sleep.

dog days

the summer is just about over, and i feel like i have spent as much time out of work as in it.  we spent a week in Wildwood NJ with two other families.  penny rode her first roller coaster, alex and i each tried ridiculous potatoes, and milo learned to hate the water just a little less.

face-painted penny at the top of the ferris wheel

hipster baby invades new jersey

oh, also - we took a pirate cruise!  this is penny & the captain.

penny fends off enemy pirates.

milo & alex on vacation!

Add caption

aviation museum in cape may

teacups!

penny got her hair done!

penny's first roller coaster!

since we've been back, milo has had his first sleepover at his grandparents' house, we've done our school shopping, and yesterday, milo got his first haircut.

check out that sweet mullet.  if it were still the 80s, we wouldn't have touched it.

tiny ponytail!

proud big sister.

milo got to sit in the fire engine for his first haircut, which is quite a coup.  he doesn't care so much about TV, so he wasn't distracted by sesame street, but he didn't cry too much.  from the front he looks almost exactly the same.  here are penny and milo, four and a half years apart - both got their first haircut at 13 months, and penny appears to be wearing milo's face.

summer is just about over for the zalbens!