When Emily was about 3 she met her Aunt Kristin's class pet, Midnight. She thought he was a pretty neat pet, so starting about age 5 she let it be known that she would also someday have a guinea pig as a pet. Loving parents that we are, we didn't want to crush our dear daughter's dream so we told her, "When you are 7 you can have a guinea pig". Figuring that 7 was at least a year and a half away, guinea pigs would be loooong forgotten by then.... Fast forward to present... you guessed it, she never forgot and we had to make good on our promise. So the day after her birthday, the quest for the pet guinea pig began. Since I don't like to make things easy on myself (and I'm very much in favor of adoption as the way to go for adding pets to the family), we couldn't just go to any local pet store and buy a guinea pig. First we thought we had found a great solution: the local guinea pig rescue society. Emily and I took the time to fill out their adoption application only to be denied "because we don't adopt to families with small children". Huh??? Who else is looking for guinea pigs? Fine, we'll check the local shelter, they can't be nearly as picky. Sure enough we found a posting on their website for 2 male guinea pigs. I sent John and Emily down the next day to put her name on their adoption list. Turns out that since these 2 were abandoned by their owners there was no waiting period, they were good to go that day! The only question the shelter asked them was "Will you take both?" They are supposed to be siblings and have always been together so no one wanted to split them up. So Emily's guinea pig turned into pigS. She is over the moon happy to have her piggies at home. Claire lucked out that she has one to play with too. Though Emily is quick to point out that one belongs to her and the other is the family pet - not Claire's!
Without much further ado... this is Spots with Emily:
His name comes from his very prominant cow lick spot on his forehead.
The cage was quickly upgraded from this one. We really thought we would have a few days to prepare before the pigs came home. They didn't seem to traumatized by the old cage.
Claire with Skitter. Originally she wanted to name him Lovey (her make up name for everything) but it was quickly changed due to his behavior. Once caught he really is sweet to hold.
His name comes from his very prominant cow lick spot on his forehead.
The cage was quickly upgraded from this one. We really thought we would have a few days to prepare before the pigs came home. They didn't seem to traumatized by the old cage.
Claire with Skitter. Originally she wanted to name him Lovey (her make up name for everything) but it was quickly changed due to his behavior. Once caught he really is sweet to hold.
After lunch and some playtime, we played a game with Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The Houses had to sample 10 different types of Beans and identify their flavor. Here are the Gryffindors hard at work:
While tummies settled from eating all those Beans, Emily opened her presents. She loved everything!
Her "cake":
Emily and one of her classmates share a birthday, so on the real day the two girls treated their class to a pizza party at lunch. Her button says "Birthday Girl".
That night we went out to dinner and met up with Emily's friend whose birthday is 7 days after hers. 
A few weeks later the Little Sisters had their first dance rehersal and an Etiquette Tea. I'm not sure if Emily took the manners lesson to heart.
Then each Saturday in January, there was another rehersal until finally it was pageant night!
Finally, they got to escort their Big Sisters off stage during the evening gown phase of the competition.
The show went on until nearly 10:00 which made Emily one tired puppy. Unfortunately, Jenna didn't win either. But it was a great experience and Emily has been recreating parts of the practice and competition around our house ever since.
