Very First Haircut

After months of trying to convince Livie to get her hair cut, she finally decided it was time. Why, you ask? This is the girl who said she (and I quote) "Never, ever, ever, ever want my hair cut!".


Well, we straightened it the other day for fun. Granted, two seconds after she stepped outside in this humidity, it curled right back up as if I hadn't done a thing to it! But, when we straightened it, I could show her how badly the ends were damaged. They were very blonde and very frayed. She could see that for herself and finally agreed to get 2" cut off - and That. Was. It. Period.

So, today, we went to the hair place for her to get her hair cut. Here is the "Before" from the side. The back is longer than the front and almost to her waist.

Here it is from the front. You can tell she's getting excited!

Now, she must have asked me 10 times today if it was JUST GOING TO BE 2"?! I reassured her time and time again. She really wants to keep her long hair. I told her we were just cutting off the back ends. She even told Sandy like 3 times, "Just cut the ends, right?" I think she was nervous that we were going to cut it clean off!

But, we ended up with nearly the same look, just evened out all the way around. Sandy didn't even cut the front. Just brought the back up to the same length as the front.

Livie was really happy with the results - subtle though they are. And, I think she looks beautiful. :-)

Prayers

Just a quick note to ask for prayers for Pete today. He's already left for Chicago and will be flying out around noon today. Getting to Beijing sometime around 2 or 3am our time. He'll be there for 21 days, so it's the longest trip yet. I feel better prepared emotionally for this trip than I was the last. Not sure why, but glad for it. so, let the countdown begin!!

More Weekend Fun

Well, we have had another great day together. Not as adventurous as yesterday, but still lots of fun!


Because of the incoming rain (which actually didn't end up being all that much), we stayed inside and the kids did lots of activities together. Trev, Madie, and Livie made some codes up and then everyone had a treasure hunt.

Noah and Ty, and later Madie and Trevor, played air hockey. They're all getting pretty good at it!

Then, of course, there had to be flubber time!

And, Wii time!

And, Martian Matter time!! This was another one of those fun games they got for Christmas that I set aside for just the right time. And, since this came from Uncle Adam and Aunt Jill, the boys could show us exactly how it worked. :-)

Now, they are all out on the floor of the living room, stuffing their faces with homemade popcorn and watching "Prince Caspian"! The boys have only seen "The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe", so we figured they'd better get caught up so they can see the new one - "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Can't wait to see that one myself!

Afternoon Fun

Our silly nephews came today and are spending the weekend with us while their mom and dad get a fun weekend away with friends. They were SOOO excited to come and I think our kids might have been even MORE excited than that! So far, it's been a loud, crazy time, but lots and lots of fun too. We decided since it was such a beautiful day (and the entire next week will be hot beyond belief) that we should take them to Starved Rock Park. The boys were game, so we left shortly after lunch.







As you can see, the shenanigans started early. ;-)








One of our first discoveries was this sycamore branch that the boys thought looked like camo. We now have 5 sticks of it in our house. Just glad they all decided that a branch taller than their daddy was too big to bring home and went with the sticks instead. ;-)

There were lots of informational rocks along the way, so we stopped at a bunch of them, so the kids could read them.

Then we walked up to the actual rock that named this park. Trevor and Ty were especially excited to be up there, since it was their first time visiting. They couldn't get over how far they could see!

Especially with these telescope thingies.

After such a long walk, up a lot of stairs, to get to the top of the rock, we took a little breather in the shade. It was a beautiful day, but still pretty warm.

Then we headed down the trail and went to the visitor center where they have a little museum of sorts. This is a replica of what Starved Rock looked like a long time ago. Pretty cool fort they used to have!

We looked at all the stuffed (real) animals they had. Saw the aquarium of river fish. Then we headed down to look at the indian artifacts they have found on site here.

They lined the walls with different owls and hawks. This one had a snake skin in it's talons. The kids thought this was really cool!

Of course, after all that, we had to stop and have our drinks and snacks!

In the lobby, there is this crosssection of tree that fell back in 2000. It dates back to before the civil war. The kids couldn't believe it. It was really big and even had a bullet hole in it from before 1900.

This is where it came from. All of the kids got on it and there was still room! It was an amazing tree!

They found a hawk feather, which they insisted I get a picture of.

Then we drove up to the lodge where they climbed the "Headless Man" statue.

And climbed a wood carving in front of the lodge. We also walked over a bridge and looked down into the canyon, which was cool. We thought about walking one of the trails that went into one of the canyons, but they were all getting pretty tired, so we headed home. Watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and they are now all in bed reading. It's been a fun day! Looking forward to whole new one tomorrow too. :-)

Back to School Preparations

Since Pete isn't going to be here for Madie and Noah's first day of school, I thought we should at least include him in the Back-to-School shopping!! I'm sure he was thrilled we got that in before he left. ;-)


One trip to Target and $100+ later, we are at last prepared for school to start. Well, with one exception. Haven't gotten Noah's "First Day of School" outfit yet, but really, with boys, what can you get them besides a tee and some shorts. Still too hot to send them in layers of cuteness when they go to a non-a/c school. So, we'll see if that's even necessary. Got him a new tee for $1.25, so guess he could always wear that! It's new, right? ;-) Both of the kids got new backpacks this year after using the same one for 3 and 4 yrs respectfully. Packed them with everything from crayons to ziploc bags, so they are ready to go! And, mommy's ready to send them!!




Livie wants sooo much to participate in back-to-school shopping, but unfortunately there is nothing on the list for her. Got her a new outfit, which is adorable by the way, but they don't need her to bring in pencils or crayons or anything. But, just to make sure she wasn't left out, Pete got her a pencil box and 2 erasers to which she added her tiger scissors, frog card, stuffed frog, and a fake $100 bill. All the necessary items for any preschooler. So, now it's just a waiting game until the 19th when the oldest two get sent off to school again, then a couple weeks after that before Livie starts up again. Yay for school!!

Not Much to Report

You can see we're all doing fine. Just haven't had anything to post on for a few days. Just been enjoying our week off together. Pete went into work today to get some things done before he leaves on Monday, but has been off the rest of the time with us and it's been really nice. Though, I'm looking forward to things being back to normal. No trips to look forward to or mini-vacations in between. Just want the normal working day, school days, come-home-and-have-dinner-together days. But, until then, we're trying to just soak up our time with Daddy until he has to go back again. Getting school shopping done soon and are anticipating the arrival of our nephews for the weekend, so lots of fun stuff coming in the next few days, but it's been really nice just having a week off to enjoy each other and not have anything planned.