Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Hair Cuts and Such

Haircuts. It's one of those necessary things that I hate getting done. I'm so indecisive about my hair though - I want it long, I want it short, I want it long again... I tend to put off cutting my kids' hair more often than I should too. I looked at JP the other day and just thought, "Dang, that kid needs his hair cut." He agreed so off we went that night to trim him up before Easter. 
 On the way over he scrolled through my Pinterest page looking at boy haircuts to give him ideas as to what he wanted. He can be very particular about his hair at times. Remember when he was 3 and styling his hair before leaving for preschool? He knew exactly what he wanted this time, which is the same every time - long on the top, short on the sides.
 Usually I'm the one to cut it, but I took him to get it cut this time. He told her how he wanted it and then critiqued it a bit too, asking for it to be shorter on the sides and to trim up the front a little too. I was so proud of him!
He walked away with a sucker and made me tell dad that I brought the wrong kid home because I couldn't find Jim! He thought that was the funniest joke ever! 

I've been wanting to do something cute to Charlotte's hair for a while now, but after her little hack job on her bangs right after Christmas, I opted to wait until they grew back out to a reasonable length. 
 I bit the bullet today. I love her hair long because I really enjoy braiding it and didn't want to part with it just yet. I just don't like that 10 minutes after I comb her hair, it gets all bunchy and looks scraggly. Her bangs don't help...
Look how long it is! She was so excited after seeing JP's hair cut that she couldn't wait to have hers cut too. Literally bouncing around the house today after I told her the plan!
After the babe I've been babysitting woke up, we scurried over to the mall. I was impressed with her. Lately she's been all about needing mom to the point of meltdowns. We had a mini-meltdown when we arrived at the salon because she wanted to sit in the first chair, instead of the second but once we agreed that Booties could sit with her, she was good. (That kittie of hers goes EVERYWHERE with her. I rather that than her blanket!)
 Before we left the mall we stopped to play on the train for a few minutes and then went to see grandma at work for couple minutes. She was so excited to show off her hair cut! But if I was this adorable, I would want to show it off too!
 #BootiesLikesSwingingToo
Gahh! I can't get enough of her smile! 

And then there is Hunter who is still determined to grow his hair out. He only wavers when Aunt Bobby is around.
 This was a couple months ago after I combed it out. He really wants it straight but he doesn't understand curly hair.
He's also wore his hair in a pony tail to school. It received rave reviews from his friends and teachers. He even had an older kid put it back in when it fell out. Die hard. I love it though.
Since its getting really long, I'm requiring him to "do" it in the morning before school. He hates it. But if he wants long hair, he has to keep it tidy. Or as tidy as it can be with curly hair. 

Here's a few other things that have been happening around here the last few days:
 We found the original Booties! Charlotte spent the night with Grandma in February and came back with the little kittie named Booties. Booties went every where with her until she lost it. It was a rough few days. We happened to be at JoAnn's and found a "new" Booties and bigger one then started going every where with Charlotte. On Saturday when I made up the guest room bed, baby Booties was found and Charlotte had never been more confused before in her life. I don't think she noticed the difference between the two until she was holding them both. All she could say was, "Booties had a baby!" We've since misplaced Mama Booties, and it only took 2 days. 
 We also finally got out internet line buried. It was hooked up in November and since then we've had an orange cord strung across the back yard. Hunter was out there helping them bury it. He loved every minute of it and was excited to be able to keep their unneeded parts, like tubing and wire. 
We also spent the other evening doing a little bit of yoga. JP has always loved doing tree pose so he was sure to do that one often. Charlotte ended almost every pose in a somersault. And Hunter finished each pose by falling over, just because. 
We also went out for ice cream today after we finished up parent-teacher conferences. I don't want brag but our little JP is a rock star. I knew that already but his teacher told us if you were to add up each kindergartner's scores for math, reading words per minutes, naming letters per minute, or whatever they were all scored on, JP's were the highest, by more than just a few. Not just the kids in his class, but in all of the four classes. #numberone I just love that kid! The other day there was a group of kids that finished something before the others so they were able to spend the last five minutes drawing math problems on their dry erase boards. Things like 1+2=3 kind of things. His teacher walked by and saw 20x20=400 and had to tell him to focus on addition and subtraction. Hahaha! Leave it to JP! I think knowing the answer to that math problem makes him feel like the smartest kid in the world. #itsmemorized 

Hunter has also come a long way since the beginning of the year. He still has a hard time listening and paying attention, but he's right where he needs to be in terms of learning. His teacher is also impressed with his writing skills - using correct spacing, capitalization and punctuation. Lots of kids in his class struggle with that. He's also really good at math, as long as it doesn't involve word problems. He hates reading them. His reading had improved tremendously over the last few months too!

Charlotte keeps busy coloring, doing puzzles and drawing circles. She loves circles! She's got a 12 piece puzzle that she'll put together 5 or 6 times before putting it away. She's a smart one too! 

Monday, March 28, 2016

Easter Weekend: Egg Hunt, Egg Dying, and A Lot of Egg Smashing

Easter weekend flew by at house with chaos in the air. My best friend, Britta, came to visit my family over weekend and brought along her two daughters, one of which is JP's age, and other will be 2 in July. It was a busy weekend around here!

She and the girls were going to meet up with us in the morning for an Easter egg hunt, but they had a delay and weren't able to leave on time. Perry and I took our kids to the Linda Vista Golf Course for their egg hunt and met up with Kile and Chris and the boys. I can't even exaggerate. I was the first one there. The parking lot was empty and we were *only* 50 minutes early. But in my defense, every other hunt we've been to you HAD to be there early to get parking, and then plan for walking...
 We played Twenty Questions in the car while we waited and then went into the club house for a little bit. Charlotte's hunt was supposed to start at 10:00 so around 9:45, we went outside to get her, Casey, and Dylan lined up. Much to my dismay, when we came around the corner, it had already started!! Robin was holding Charlotte and I had her run Charlotte over an untouched area so she could have a little bit of a chance to grab a few eggs.
 Little Dylan managed to get a couple too. I'm not sure how Casey faired, but I was a little annoyed the hunt was over by 9:51. There were still people in the parking lot with kids coming over that missed out. We decided it was probably one or two kids who crossed the start line and the parents didn't stop them, so everyone started. 
 I wanted to get a nice picture of the kids together, but JP was mad and cold, and Hunter was just tired of waiting. 
The older kids' hunt was on hole 1 of the golf course. Most of the kids lined up on the far left so we brought Hunter and JP down to the far right edge of the course. Perry gave them a little pep talk and we lay out a good plan for them.
When they said go, Hunter and JP took off running towards where we told them, but veered the wrong way and got caught up in the crowd of kids.
 There wasn't a ton of kids there, but because they were behind the pack, they weren't able to pick up very many. JP snagged 9 eggs, and Hunter came away with 2 eggs, and couple range balls. Those tricky yellow balls...
 By the time we made it back to the club house, we had two VERY disappointed kids on our hands. JP was carried back :(
 I helped crack open eggs as JP's hands were too cold. So were mine... we made it up to the kids by swinging by the store and letting them pick out their own treat. We spent the rest of the morning tidying up the house before Britta and the girls arrived.

That afternoon Perry, Chris and my dad went golfing together while Kile, Robin, my mom, and I hung at my house while Britta threw us an Arbonne party with facials. Yay! The kids were supposed to be napping but that didn't happen. They were all over the place! After we cleaned up the party, we all dyed eggs.
 This picture just cracks me up. The two of them together remind me of monkeys!
I think Casey enjoyed himself, but Dylan had just woke up from a nap and just watched everyone else with Nanny.
 I would love to tell you that JP had multiple colored eggs in his egg carton, but even that yellow one was turned to green by the time he was done. #obsessed
Casey and Charli both worked really hard to get their stickers on the eggs. It was adorable to watch their determination! 
 Charlotte had too much fun dunking eggs into all the colors. Who needs a spoon to get them out? #overrated
 After church on Sunday, we went to Nanny and Papa's house for dinner, and and Easter egg hunt. Hunter and JP pretty much picked up all the eggs before the little ones had a chance. They were supposed to let the young kids have a head start but that didn't happen. 
 I was going to hide them all again but it was pretty chilly out, and I'm kind of a big baby when I'm cold. 
 We even managed to get a family picture taken for my mom. Of course its the oldest kids that are grumpy and can't look at the camera...
Hunter and Rylee adored each other. The entire time she was at our house, they called each other their boyfriend/girlfriend. They held hands throughout church and drew pictures of them holding hands. They were cute. Both have tons of energy so they wore each other out. And on a side note, I'm in love with that one curl on Hunter's forehead! <3 it="" p="" perfect="" ringlet="" s="" the="">

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Children's Museum with Nanny

A couple months ago, my mom, who my kids know as Nanny, took Hunter to the Children's Museum downtown and has been wanting to go back ever since. I've never taken them because...? I don't know. Hunter was such a high-energy kid that keeping track of him was a task in of itself, let alone to have to keep track of JP as well. It just never worked. And it's kind of pricey if you don't have a membership. 

Regardless, this was Charlotte's first time to the museum, and I'm debating getting a membership so her and I can go more often. 
The first thing of interest to both JP and Charlotte was the water table. What kid doesn't love playing in the water? Thank goodness they had water smocks to wear! Charlotte later tried her hand at fishing after Hunter showed her what it was all about. She lit up every time she hooked one! 
 We also explored the various rooms and found the doctors office where Charlotte practiced her skills on the baby. We even weighed her. She's tipping the scales at a whopping 27 lbs.
 We met up with her brothers digging for dinosaur bones. They all enjoyed digging up bones and burying them again. Tar bits were everywhere!

Hunter took a break and had cast Nanny and me in a play. He came up to me as I was crouched down and said while rubbing my back, "Mom we're going to put on a play. You are going to be the lady who can't pay the rent." My mom got the Superhero role. Here's how it played out: 
Mom sitting on the stage. 
Hunter enters wearing construction gear, and says to "the lady", "I need the rent."
M: I can't pay the rent!
H: I need the rent.
M: But I can't pay the rent!!
H: You need to pay me the rent!
M: But I don't have the money to pay the rent!!
Enter Superhero: I'll pay the rent!
M; You've saved the day!
End of play. We had to enact this skit, not once, but twice.
We finished up at the museum climbing on the rock wall. Charlotte did great! I was debating getting Hunter into a rock climbing class at the YMCA. Perry said no, I'm thinking he'll rock at it. (See what I did there?! Hahaha!) Maybe next fall... 
Before heading to Nanny's for dinner, we swung by the Carousal for Missoula for a ride on the horses. Charlotte's been wanting a ride for a while and since we were parked next door, I figured why not? I was ticked off when I got back to the car to see a parking ticket on my windshield when I made a point to pay and put my ticket stub on the dash. Apparently the wind blew it down the dash board by the vents, when I was getting the kids out, so the meter maid couldn't read the date and time on it...There goes $20. Uuuggghhh!