The new playhouse

Keary and Dad put a playhouse together yesterday for the girls.  The one I built them eventually fell apart after it rained multiple times, so Dad got them a new one for their birthdays.  And even though it has been almost one hundred degrees outside, both girls have really enjoyed playing in it.  It has a kitchen, phone, doorbell, and window flower boxes which make for hours of entertainment.
Linking up with I Heart Faces: Props, 52 weeks of happiness, Sweet Shot Tuesday, and Tuesdays around the world

Haircuts

I took the girls to get haircuts last week.  Gwendolyn had been begging to get her hair cut "short like Maggie's and your's" for several weeks.  While I resisted the idea at first, thinking she would wish it was long again after cutting it, I finally agreed that as long as it could still be put in a ponytail, she could cut her hair however she wanted.  It is just hair, it'll grow back (though Gwendolyn's seems to grow more slowly).




Here is Gwendolyn's after shot.  She ended up having three of four inches cut off and some layers added. It is very cute and she is super pleased with it.

It was Maggie's first time to get her haircut.  I really expected it to not go well since she is not too keen in sitting still or people she has never met touching her.  She did so well though.  She sat very still and let the hairdresser trim her hair.  She didn't have much cut, a quarter to a half inch-not enough for anyone to notice, but it has helped with the tangling tremendously.
Linking up with Live and Love Out Loud, Project Alicia, Sweet Shot Tuesday, 52 weeks of happiness, Tuesdays around the world, Black and White Wednesday, Little Somethings: Children, Photo Story/ Give me your best shot, Fabulous Friday, Live Every Moment

Booms and crackles

Growing up, we never shot fireworks on the fourth of July.  If we really really wanted to watch them, we could generally see the fireworks being shot off at the park a mile or so away from my grandparents' deck.

My grandfather was an ophthalmologist and so he saw the effects of people playing with fireworks when they shouldn't, whether it be because they didn't know what they were doing, were too young to be playing, or just too close to the action.  He pretty much convinced us that we would lose an eye if we got too close to the fireworks, so we stuck to watching them from the deck.

 Not that I needed an excuse to stay away from fireworks.  I didn't like the noise so I was completely okay with not getting near fireworks.  and I stuck with it to through adulthood; I have tended to dread fourth of July evening and the evenings all around it because of the noise and jolt I get from being surprised with the crackles and booms.

Gwendolyn was super excited about the fireworks this year though.  She talked about them for two weeks leading up to the fourth.  "Can we go watch them?"  "I can't wait to see the fireworks.  We can just watch them on television." "I'm so excited about watching the fireworks!"

So we agreed to go watch the fireworks.  We went out to one of our friends' house, just outside of the city limits, and they shot off fireworks for about 20 minutes.  Twenty minutes was about long enough for the mosquitoes to try to carry us off.

And as it turns out, Gwendolyn takes after me and the noise associated with fireworks bothers her.  Maggie, on the other hand, hooted and hollered and cheered the fireworks on.  And I wasn't bothered so much by the crackles and booms this year.

Linking up with Photo story Friday and Fabulous Friday, Photo Challenge: Something Patriotic

Wordless Wednesday: The sprinkler

We broke out the sprinkler for the girls to play with this weekend.




They may not have been the only ones to play in it.



What?! I had to show them how it is done.

Linking up with Project Alicia, Live and Love out loud, and Embrace the camera

our 4th of july

The girls and I made a fruit pizza to take to the fourth of July cookout.  We used a recipe from Our Best Bites and it turned out wonderfully.  We didn't use drizzle chocolate over it after we were done like they did, but it was still very good.



As you can see, Maggie kept sneaking blueberries from the pizza. She replaced them later though.  The girl just loves blueberries.



Seriously, she ate berries until I took them away.

We went to the cookout at my cousin's and swam until the early evening hours.  We all looked waterlogged by the end of the day.  Then we went and watched fireworks.  Gwendolyn had been super excited to go see the fireworks all week.  Once we got out to see the fireworks though, she complained they were too loud.  Of course.  Maggie, on the other hand, was completely unfazed by the booms and cheered them on.

I think I got some decent pictures of fireworks.  We'll see.  It was probably the first time in ten years that I watched fireworks at all, and the first year I tried to take any pictures.  I had some issues trying to figure out the best shutter speed, but I have had issues with that all week since I clicked over from aperture priority to manual.  I'll get it figured out.

The theme this week at I heart faces is red, white, and blue.  This was the first picture I thought of when I saw the challenge, and it was taken last October.  Look how much Maggie has grown!  She still wants to wear that supergirl outfit, though she outgrew it long ago.  So now I am on the lookout for a supergirl or wonderwoman outfit to hopefully replace that one.

Also linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesday, Tuesdays around the World, and 52 weeks of happiness

Maggie's busy week or why my hair is more gray

Look at her, so sweet, just sleeping there with her Mickey Mouse.  Her Mickey Mouse makes everything immediately better, simple as that.  Looking at her you probably wouldn't know just this week she has single handed contributed to 10 percent increase the amount if gray in my hair.

It started on Friday.  My sister came over to watch the girls so I could go get my haircut.  When I got back we visited for a little bit and Maggie sat on the couch next to her and when she tried to get up, Maggie couldn't and she needed a hand.  Then she limped and cried as she walked across the room to me.  I assumed her leg had just fallen asleep.  When Keary got home, she didn't want to walk and just wanted him to carry her.  That is nothing really out of the ordinary, but combined with her leg having bothered her earlier, my suspicions were raised.

The girls were supposed to stay with my dad so we loaded up and Maggie cried all the way there.  Once we got inside, we tried to have her walk and she kept acting like she couldn't put any weight on her right leg.  So we got back in the car and went back across town to see my uncle, the chiropractor.

She was hysterical by the time we got there, but she could walk somewhat better.  He examined her and said he thought her hip was out or the hip joint was locked up, but either way he didn't want to treat her while she was so frantic.  He said if she started acting like it was worse overnight to call our pediatrician and that he was try to adjust her the next day.

The next morning, we woke up and she was able to walk and run just fine.

Nothing out the ordinary over the weekend, then she treated me to a house that smelled like a watermelon jolly rancher.  We got home in the early evening from swimming and I gave the girls baths and Keary got supper together.  We ate and then I had to step outside for less than three minutes to take the trash out and rinse out the trashcan.  I stepped back inside to hear Gwendolyn yell upstairs to Keary "Nevermind! Mom is inside now.  She can take care of it."

I went into to bathroom to see Maggie had emptied at least half a bottle of watermelon shampoo all over herself and the bathmat.  "Bath!" she smiled at me.  I took the mat outside and sprayed it down.  There were bubbles and foam all over the driveway and backyard.  Keary put Maggie into the shower and eventually got all the shampoo off of her.                          

Our entire house smelled like a watermelon jolly rancher for 4 days.

That was all in addition to her regular hijinks of climbing as high as she can and jumping, thinking she she exist on poptarts and candy, writing all over every piece of paper she can, and waking up multiple times per night.

Bill Cosby says that "Gray hair is God's graffiti." I believe it.

Linking up with Saturday Confessions, Sunday Citar, and simple things

Quarterly top 5 pics of my kids

My five favorite photos with my kids that I have taken in April May, and June.  I overlooked the part where my children needed to be in the pictures at first and had a few others picked out so I swapped out a couple pictures and had my husband help me narrow it down to just five.

 Dad and Maggie, originally posted here

  Keary and Maggie, originally posted here.

Gwendolyn, originally posted here and here. 

 Keary pitching to Gwendolyn at her last at-bat this tee-ball season, originally posted here.

Maggie and St. Francis, originally posted here.