And Here's June!

The day after school ended I took Melodie to have her haircut. I think it was 11 inches that we donated to Locks of Love.

I wanted to show Melodie a way to help others and that it's just hair. It can always grow back. We're struggling with the short hair. I'm not sure how to style it (the above was done by the lady who cut her hair) and after a few days of everyone commenting on it Melodie says she wishes it was long again. It will grow back!

Melodie is now a Brownie. There was this whole bridging ceremony and everything.

Aria and I went to my youngest sisters' high school graduation. The limits on tickets was ridiculous (she got four tickets...she has five siblings) and even Aria (who can't even sit by herself) needed a ticket.

I made the cake for her. She really wanted a tiered cake. I only had a few hours, so it's now as fabulous as I would have liked, but I thought it turned out alright.

We harvest our first thing from our garden...zucchini!

We're also growing bell peppers, carrots, yellow squash and pumpkins.
Aria is now four months, and because it was also Father's Day this month her pictures were taken with Rocky. They are so cute!

Our big adventure this month was Sea World. Melodie's girl scout troop went (with money from cookie sales). We have friends who live in the area so we thought it would be fun to all go.

I just love Sea World. It's one of my favorite places.

Easter Fun

  A few years ago I bought a great book called The Christ Centered Easter. I love it. Starting on Palm Sunday, and then each day until Easter Sunday, you do activities following what Christ did leading up to Easter.

 We didn't do it last year because we were on our road trip (Easter was celebrated in Texas). We didn't do it this year either. Aria's blessing was on Palm Sunday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm on Monday, etc... But no excuses. We should have done it because I really felt a lack of the spiritual this year. I'm not one that feels the need to do the secular Easter stuff on Saturday and the spiritual stuff on Sunday. I like to do plenty of both all week. But like I said, the spiritual stuff fell by the wayside this year. But there was plenty of secular stuff!
 We went to Knott's Berry Farm with lots of the extended family and Knott's was doing something called

The kids went to different areas of the park, got a card stamped and then turned it in for a prize (an Easter egg with a candy inside).

 Wednesday was the last day of school for Melodie before spring break. And she got sick. She started throwing up the night before and was very sad she couldn't go to school. I went (my dad was here so I had volunteered to help in the classroom) anyway and picked up her eggs and basket.

The bug only lasted 24 hours and then I got it! We had already paid for an Easter event at Pump It Up (a place with a bunch of inflatables), so Rocky took the day off work and took Melodie and Aria to the event (he took Aria because I was so sick). Normally I don't pay for Easter events, but some of her friends from school were going, so for $13 (including lunch) I thought it wasn't a bad deal.

24 hours later I was fine too...just in time for Saturday Easter fun. Every year we go to various city events (we live on the border of 4 different cities, with a few more just minutes away). We started off at one that had a pancake breakfast, the Easter bunny, and crafts.

It's very unusual for me to put headbands on babies, but the only "First Easter" onesie I could find that I liked was a boy one. So, to make Aria look more like a girl I stuck a headband on her. All the pink girl onesies said some variation on "Somebunny loves me" which I didn't like.
 Both city events we went to had an "egg hunt". Really it's just candy thrown on the ground and the kids make a mad dash to see how much they can get. Melodie got way too much.

But she was so happy and declared it the best day ever in her life. Oh, and I made her shirt. I messed up the iron on transfer a little, but I thought it was still cute. I used the Chick-a-dee scrapbooking kit by ScrappyNat.
 Later that day we dyed our Easter eggs, always a favorite thing to do for all of us.

We ended the day making resurrection rolls. They are floating around pinterest now, but I've done them for years (from the Christ Centered Easter book). They are rolls with marshmallows in them. When you bake them the marshmallows melt and they are empty...just like the tomb Jesus was put in.
 For church on Easter Sunday, Melodie and Aria wore their new-to-them Easter dresses and I did Mel's hair in a fancy 'do.

This is another one floating all over pinterest. The basket weave (inspired by an Easter basket) is on various hair sites. This is our version.
 I tried to take a beautiful picture of the girls at home, but Aria was not cooperating. We ended up taking more at church that did turn out beautifully (including one of the whole family).

At home we did a real Easter egg hunt (the eggs were actually hidden and required some effort to find).

And, of course, I had to get Minnie in on the celebrating.
 We went to the Anderson house for dinner (like always!) where Mel had ANOTHER egg hunt. We had a yummy dinner. The Andersons always get Mel an Easter basket (I think they were astonished when Mel was little and they found out I don't do Easter baskets). This year the basket was a backpack filled with goodies. Aria got one too!

I just had to throw in some pictures of Aria's pjs. The tail on her bottom was so soft and the bunnies on her feet were so cute.
 I hope you had a Happy Easter too!



St. Patrick's Day

 Because St. Patrick's Day was on a Sunday this year, Melodie wore her green clothes and shamrock hair to school on Friday. She looked adorable and the hair turned out great! I learned how to do this hairstyle here.

 

On St. Patrick's Day, we dressed in our green and went to church.

For dinner we had corned beef, colcannon, Irish soda bread and pistachio cake. These are all recipes I got from Sherry Jones (check out her blog here).

We only started eating Irish food on St. Patrick's Day a few years ago, but it is now a fun tradition.
 Since it was Aria's first St. Patrick's Day, we had fun taking pictures of her (and one of the puppy just for kicks).

 

 

Heart Hair

Baby is due today, but so far she's been comfy and there's not a sign she's ready to come out. That could all change in an instant, but I'm glad that so far we've done some of our fun Valentine things. Before she makes her appearance I wanted to first share the fun things I did to Melodie's hair. Last year was my first attempt and it turned out pretty cute. I did heart pigtails. The idea and instructions came from my favorite hair blog.

So this is how Mel wore her hair to kindergarten last year. She looked adorable.

This year I did three days of heart hair. We started on Tuesday (there wasn't school on Monday) and today was our third day. Here's Tuesday's hair style, again from my favorite hair blog. It's called a twist-braided heart.

Not bad, but next time I'd but the top part closer together. When getting ready for school I don't have a lot of time to fix mistakes like I used to, but I still think it's a pretty style.

 

Here's Wednesday's hair style. I saw a picture of these three interlocking hearts on pinterest, but it didn't link to a website. I figured that making the hearts would be the same as the ones I did last year, and then I just played with it to do the best I could.

It looks good from the side, but I didn't like the look so much from the front. I think if I were to try it again I'd try the interlocking hearts in the back.

And here's the one from today. It's called heart down from this blog. I've been wanting to try this one for a while. Mine didn't turn out as perfect as hers, but I still think it's pretty. When I do it again, I'd make the weave part a little tighter. I think that would help.

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas Hairstyles

I know people who cry when they get their haircut. I'm not sure why. Maybe they don't like their new hairstyle, maybe they were attached to their hair. I don't know. I'm not very emotional that way. I've done things I loved to my hair (I loved when I dyed it black) and things I've hated (spiral perm...I looked like a poodle). But it grows out...it's just hair. I also don't like spending a lot of money on haircuts. Seems like a waste when I don't really do anything with my hair. I like wearing it down. So I trim it (sometimes) in the winter to keep it healthy and cut it right before summer. Cutting my hair once a year seems reasonable and usually there's enough to donate to Locks of Love. My hair is just not that important to me, but it's definately imporant to someone going through chemo.

So wanting to teach Melodie that hair is just hair so she won't be one of those girls that crys over a bad haircut, and wanting to teach her that there are people who need things more than we do, we've never cut her hair. She is growing it for Locks of Love. She used to have bangs, and we did cut those, but she's decided to grow those out. We've also trimmed her hair, but never a major haircut.

I am not very girlie. So when Mel's hair started getting long, I had no idea what to do with it. I could do a half up, half down thing, pigtails and a french braid. The problem with Melodie's hair is I couldn't just brush it and then let it go. 10 min. later it looks like she was running wild through the jungle. So I turned to the internet. I found some great sites with great ideas for hair. My favorite is: http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/. The styles are cute and she gives clear direction. I also like: http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/, http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/, http://www.girlydohairstyles.com/. And then, of course, I search pinterest.

Melodie is really good when I do her hair. Sometimes she watches youtube videos while I do her hair because then I can easily switch to the instructions. However, if I'm making something up or doing one I've done several times then we do her hair in the bathroom. We've had some of our best conversations while I do her hair.

I know I posted holiday hairstyles before (4th of July Hairstyles), but I thought some background as to why I do this would be nice. I love holidays. I love doing Melodie's hair. Last year on pinterest I happened upon hairstyles that were themed to holidays and I knew I had to try. For Christmas last year I only tried one:

I took inspiration from here: http://millermanes.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-tree-and-giveaway.html but really felt the tree needed a trunk. I also wasn't ready to try threading the ribbon criss cross through the tree. Not bad for a first attempt.

This year I went a little crazy. First I did this:

I came up with it on my own. Melodie picked out the ribbon. It's a work in progress. Thank goodness people still got that it was suppose to be a candy cane. It would have been better with a twist instead of a braid, but I'm terrible with twists. I will definately try another one next year.

Next I tried a wreath.

I got my inspiration from here: http://redpunzel.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html. I changed it quite a bit. This turned out to be my favorite. I love how the bow looks from the front. Next time I'll work on evening out the wreath. Her hair is so much thicker on top that it made the wreath uneven. Still, I liked it and so did she. Unfortunately it didn't last like because Melodie ran into another kid during recess. The bow and pom poms didn't make it through the visit at the nurses office. You'll also see the lovely black eye in the next picutres.

Then I thought I'd try the tree closer to the inspiration that I used for the one last year.

I still think it needs a single trunk. But I love the beads as ornaments. Melodie loved the pom pom tree topper.

The Rudolph bun came next:

The inspiration came from here: http://princesspiggies.blogspot.com/2011/12/holiday-hairstyles-rudolph.html. This one I actually tried to copy, but I'm not very good at buns. I unsuccessfully tried the sock bun. The I just tried the bun the only way I knew how, but then Rudolph's nose ended up crooked. The kids at Mel's school loved this one. I am going to work on buns this year so it turns out better next time.

I did manage a sock bun for an ugly sweater party we went to:

but it fell out shortly after we got to the party.

And just to show how beautiful her hair is:

Next up will be hair full of hearts. Of course, the baby is due on Valentine's Day, so we'll see. But I hope I'm able to. I have some great ones I want to try.

4th of July

 Melodie and Rocky spent the day swimming at a friend's house. That night we went to a friend's house for BBQ and fireworks. Fireworks aren't legal in our city, but they are in the next city over. I think this is the fourth year we've spent 4th of July at her house. But first, I had to do Melodie's holiday hair.

I took inspiration from one of my favorite girl hair style sites, Cute2TryHairdos. I got all the decorations from a dollar store bow that I took apart. I've only been doing these fun hairstyles for a little over a year, but I love them. Melodie really looks forward to the holiday ones. Here's the one from last year.

 I love making cute food, so I was bummed not to make any this year. I just wasn't feeling up to it, so I'll share what I've made previously.

2009 Not a great picture, but mine are the red and blue star shaped rice krispie treats.
2008 & 2010 were cookies, but I didn't get good pictures.

These are from last year. I love the cookie/candy bouquet. Maybe, because I made two things last year, that makes up for this year. But back to this year. Good food, great people, and fun fireworks celebrating our freedom. Can't ask for more.