Hair Donation at Relay for Life

As our first girl, I had big plans for Sissy the moment I found out she was a girl. Those plans included Disney Princesses, fairies, dresses, long hair with bows and braids...you get the idea. Then she was born. At about 2 years old she made it very clear that she did not want long hair, she hated the color pink, she adored her Buzz Lightyear pj's and socks and very much disliked dresses. She kept her hair at a bob length from about age 2 to the end of 2nd grade she she declared that she wanted to grow her hair longer. In about 3rd grade she decided she wanted to grow her hair to donate it to make wigs for cancer patients. So, here we are the summer after 5th grade and she had plenty of hair to give.

She has felt compelled to donate her hair not only because we have a few family and friends who have fought the battle of cancer but because it is only hair right? Well, as she was ready to go on stage to get the ponytail cut she was getting nervous. The long hair had really become a part of

her.

After the cutting of the ponytail, she was grinning from ear to ear and said, "It is still plenty long mom, lets go get it trimmed up."

When we got to the chair to get it trimmed by the stylists, there was someone getting her hair cut pretty short, but it was really cute. It was stacked in the back with the top layer being the shortest and then graduating down to the bottom layer. Sissy asked if they could do that to her hair but keep it at her shoulders. As the stylist was cutting, it kept getting a bit shorter and shorter. When it was all said and done, she felt it was a bit to short. She said she really misses her long hair. At least she was able to donate with a friend who cut about as many inches off as Sissy had removed.

Today, after living 24 hours with the new hair-do, she is really starting to like it!

Enjoying Watercoloring

All of the girls have celebrated birthdays over the last 3 months. I had such fun surprising Peanuts with gifts she did not ask for, but I thought she would like. She is our little artist. She loves anything creative. Give her a pencil and paper and she may be found writing a story. BUT, she doesn't stop at writing, she also insists on illustrating. Or, she may be found drawing her own coloring book, making stick puppets, etc.

One of her gifts was real watercolor paints in tubes, a painters palette and nice paint brushes. Dear friends of ours have a son who loves drawing and painting. So, we spent a few hours at their house yesterday while he showed her how to paint with watercolors. She just LOVED it!

The next art project we'll work on is making clay animals with the clay and book she received as one of her other gifts. I'm not sure which she will enjoy more - painting or sculpting.

Beautiful Morning Watching Things Grow

Just a quick picture and some thoughts....one of the biggest reasons I started this blog is so that I have a place to record thoughts I have about raising our girls and share pictures. Especially for those days that are "bad" days when I feel like I have no idea what I am doing being a parent. I needed a place to record things that make my heart sing. This is one of those moments.


It is a beautiful Michigan early summer morning - the sun is shining, slight breeze, nearly no humidity, the garden is in full shade early in the morning - so, I decided to do some weeding for my husband. (The garden is his baby, I'm not much of a fan of getting dirt under my fingernails - I know, I'm a priss.) We are doing 2 different Summer Reading Programs and Sweet Baby is constantly wanting to read to me, since she is just finishing up kindergarten she really needs to read aloud to get help on the words she does not know. It was sweet to be sitting there working while she sat in her chair reading Biscuit and Strawberry Shortcake books to me. I love listening to her read to me, it has been amazing watching her grow and listening to her reading skills improve. Again, I remain in awe of what the Lord has given me.

Chicken Coop Is Nearly Done

You will recall that we got 6 chicks in April. They were to small to regulate their own body temps so we needed to keep them under a heat lamp for about 6 weeks so they were living in a large container in our back livingroom. As they grew (and grow they have!) I've been anxious to get them out of myhouse. The last 2 weeks it has been warm enough that they did not need the lamp so they have been in the garage at night and in the dog's old dog crate during the day while my husband worked on designing and building their coop.

He did an awesome job and has been diligently working on it each evening after work and on Saturdays. They finally are sleeping in the "big house" . This weekend we will have the run completed so they can move about freely between their coop and their fenced in run.

Once all the sawing was done he was able to use our help in getting things put together. Here is daddy and Sissy working on the roof. I LOVE pictures like this...

Sissy enjoyed hammering the nails.

Ahhhh, Time to Relax

We officially finished school about a week and a half ago. Ahhh...it feels so nice to be done for a bit. We will be doing lots of reading this summer and all around just hanging out. You would think the girls would be excited to not have to think about school, but the day after we declared that school was closed, I snapped these shots.

The funniest thing is that these "school days" were occurring at exactly the same time in 2 different rooms of the house.