Hair, Part 2

If you were wondering, here is the website we found for the girl's hairstyles:

http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/

And McKay took another (slightly blurry) picture of me the other day so you can see how long my hair is getting!

Hair!

Since I've been lacking in material for my blog posts recently, I thought I'd post about some hair-raising changes around here.

First, I was surprised over the summer when Hannah willingly asked me to try a hairstyle she had seen on a Web site for church one Sunday. She rarely lets me do anything with her hair -- not that I'm not willing to try, despite my dire lack of hairstyling experience -- she just doesn't want to bother. So it was fun to do something with it -- and it turned out really cute!

That same Sunday, Courtney and Hayley also picked out a "short hair" style from the same web site -- mini-heart pigtails. They were happy with it, but I didn't think it was nearly as cute as Hannah's. Short hair is harder to style!

Then just before school started, I had my sister-in-law come over to give the girls haircuts. I mentioned how Hayley had a very bad habit of constantly chewing her hair and I was hopeful a shorter cut would help discourage this practice. Julie suggested giving her bangs -- she thought it would be cute and would help with the hair chewing. Hayley was very reluctant at first, but we finally convinced (okay, bribed) her to try it.

As soon as they were cut, she immediately told me she didn't like the bangs and to please get rid of them. She thought we could just completely cut them off the rest of the way. Courtney said she also didn't like them, so that made Hayley complain even more. For the next several days, Hayley insisted that I clip her bangs to the side.

Now I think everybody is used to her bangs (I do think they're cute!) and for the time being she is happy to have bangs, although she told me she wants to grow them out again.

And finally, I hit my 40th birthday and decided it was time to dye my hair -- something I have never done before! I was getting discouraged by all the gray hair making its appearance, so I asked my niece (who went to beauty school) if she'd help me out. She helped pick out a color that we thought was close to my natural color and she went to work! I forgot to get a picture after she was done coloring, cutting and styling (of course, I can never get it to style the same way). I have been letting my hair grow out so I can pull it back in a ponytail for exercising. It's not super long yet, but it's about as long as I've ever had it.

The only recent picture I could find of me was one that McKay took when he was messing around with the camera the other night. It's not a good picture, and my hair is pulled back, but you can at least see the pretty (mostly non-gray) color!

You'd think with 3 girls I'd be better at fixing hair, but I've got a long ways to go still. I'm usually feeling good if everybody at least gets a brush through their hair before heading out the door in the morning!

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Hayley's 6th birthday this past week. My baby is now 6 years old and gone to school all day in 1st grade. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying this new independence, but there are times I miss my babies and wish they wouldn't grow up so fast.

Hayley has picked up on Courtney's dog/puppy obsession, so she requested a dog cake again this year.

Hannah and Courtney had asked me to take them shopping the day before her birthday (which happened to be Labor Day) because they wanted to spend their allowance to buy her a present. They couldn't wait for her to open it, so I let her open that one right after school instead of waiting until after dinner. They picked out a little dog (similar to a Zhu-Zhu pet) that rolls around and makes noises and such. It was fun to see all of them so excited about it.

We had presents and cake after dinner, when the aunts and uncles and cousins could come over to help us celebrate.

Time to blow out the candles!

Hayley got to have a birthday party this year (we do every-other-year parties) and the main thing she wanted was for her best friend Eric to be able to come. Eric moved about an hour away at the beginning of the year, but fortunately we are still able to see him (and his family) occasionally. We arranged for Eric to come on Friday after school, and Hayley also wanted to invite her friend Belle (from church and school). So we brought Belle home with us from school and Eric arrived not too long afterward. I didn't plan an elaborate party -- they just wanted to play. We had pizza and they watched a movie and had a fun time together.

Happy Birthday to my sweet 6-year-old!

Back to School

We survived the first week of school with only the usual moans and groans dragging kids out of bed in the morning. I still have a hard time believing the summer's gone -- it seemed to go by so fast this year.

The girls are all so excited about their teachers. We went in to the elementary school last week to drop off supplies and meet their teachers.

Hayley was thrilled to get the teacher that Courtney had last year in 1st grade:

Courtney was thrilled to get the teacher that Hannah had two years ago in 2nd grade:

And Hannah seemed excited about her teacher too, even though she didn't get the teacher McKay had two years ago (but we found out her teacher will be doing a lot of team teaching with McKay's old teacher).

The first day of school is almost like Christmas morning -- hard to get the kids to sleep the night before (although Courtney was asking me at 6:00pm if it was time for bed yet) but no problem getting them up the next morning. (By Friday morning, however, the get-out-of-bed excitement had definitely worn off already.)

A few pictures before we left for school.

It was McKay's idea to hold hands in this picture (surprisingly). I think he wanted everyone to lift their hands up, but the girls didn't want to do that part.

McKay is a big 7th grader this year. He was the least excited about going back to school, but seems to be liking it okay. He has a lot of honors classes and picked Band and Computer Graphics for his electives.

Brian and I drove the kids on the first morning. They have a pep rally for the elementary and middle schools (which are right next to each other) and then the parents can take the kids to their classrooms.

This year the kids will be riding the bus to and from school. I had to drive them in the morning last year because of Hayley being in Pre-K. It is a long bus ride for them (especially where they are the last ones off coming home), but it is just too far for me to drive to the school twice a day, every day. And they don't seem to mind the bus too much.

I'm sure I'll be in at the school volunteering frequently as usual -- something I enjoy!

If we can survive the early mornings, I think it will be a great year!

The Big 4-0

Well, my birthday has come and gone, a sure sign that summer is about over. This year was one of those "big" birthdays for me -- 40. Wow, how did I get to be 40? Time marches on, as always.

My birthday was on a Sunday this year and we invited all of the family in town over for dinner and birthday cake. My dad even happened to be in town for the weekend too. Most everyone was so supportive of the big day and dressed in black for the occasion.

Thankfully, no one felt the need to actually put 40 candles on the cake!

I'm looking forward to a great year, and a great decade. I feel good. I feel happy. I feel blessed!

Swimming Lessons, Take Two

A few pictures from our second session of swimming lessons this year.

Hannah:

Courtney:

Hayley:

And my niece's cute little boy Jack (doesn't he look so excited to be there?)

We might get a last trip or two in to the pool this week for fun before it's back to school!

Wonderland!

A couple of weeks ago we met up with some of Brian's family for an evening at Wonderland, the little amusement park here in Amarillo. They are only open in the evenings, but it's a small enough place that you can pretty much see what there is during those 3 hours. And it's usually not so crowded that there are a lot of lines, although I think it was more crowded this time than when we went last year.

Here are the girls excitedly waiting for the park to open:

The little "kiddie" rides are right at the entrance so that is where the girls went right off. First up was the carousel and the "frop hopper" ride (which Hannah wouldn't go on):

Then the girls wanted to do the little helicopter ride. They were the only kids on the entire ride since the park had just opened and yet they decided to all squish in the same helicopter!

The bumper cars were a big hit for everyone and earned a second ride for several of us:

Brian and some of the kids on the Wonderwheel:

Courtney and McKay are definitely the bravest when it comes to fast/whirling/spinning rides. Hannah flat-out refuses to go on them and Hayley tried a few but ended up screaming the whole time and hating them. I even went on the "Tilt-a-Whirl" with Courtney & Hayley but about got sick to my stomach (Hayley hated it too). I guess I'm getting too old. But Courtney would have riden about any ride in the park -- and more than once if she could. She was willing to go on a lot of the "thrill" rides all by herself too if no one would go with her.

Hayley decided she liked the slower-paced rides much better, like the tram and "people mover" ride (can't remember what they're officially called).

And of course, Hannah's absolute favorite ride is still the "Fiesta Swings". And Hayley was so upset that she was still too short to ride it again this year. (Actually, I realized that have never ridden it either since I would wait it out with Hayley.) I think Hannah managed to ride this one 4 or 5 times with different people. Good thing the lines aren't long!

And the whole family got to go on "Rattlesnake River" together. Hannah was a little nervous (she remembers the Disneyland ride with some drops), but this one was easy-going the whole way around.

Despite my Tilt-a-Whirl headache (which fortunately was at the very end of the evening), it was a fun night together!