It's All About the Hair

My daughter, Emerson, is 5. She is starting Kindergarten this fall. And she's a little miss smarty pants.

Em's had her hair cut one time. EVER. Its getting really long and she loves to let me curl it, and braid it, and put seven ponytails in it, if I really want to. Well, for the last six months or so she's been begging me to get it cut. OFF. So I told her all about Locks of Love and how she could be a part of that and she thought it sounded like a good idea. I didn't rush her out for a haircut, though. I like the long hair. And, luckily, she forgot about it.

Until today.

Today Emerson told me she was ready for her hair to be cut-all the way up above her shoulders. And she told me she wanted a new COLOR hair, too. What color, you ask?

P.I.N.K.

I'll Take What I Can Get

Today was a big day for our family. We've been planning and organizing for months. Today we celebrated SIX birthdays:

Avery, 10 (my niece)
Reid, 7 (my nephew)
Taryn, 6 (my cousin)
Julia and Adyson, 1 (my twin nieces)
Alayna, 1 (my baby girl)

Did I mention there were 65 of our friends and family there to celebrate? And that it was NINETY-FIVE DEGREES outside? Well, we wouldn't have it any other way. We partied with those we love and we perspired with those we love. HEAVILY.

It started out way back when my sister and I were pregnant together. We couldn't wait for all the things our three girls would get to do together. And we've had some great times! We dress them alike, we swap clothes, we had them baptized together, and almost had their ears pierced together. (Remember the virgin ears? Yeah, we know who's boss...)

Anyway, we started planning this party almost a year ago-tossing around ideas about where to have it, what to serve for food, who to invite, etc. THEN we had the idea to throw Avery, Reid and Taryn into the mix and have an all-out bash. After all, there would have to be parties for them as well this summer, with Reid's official birthday in June, and Avery and Taryn's in August.

So, after a year of planning and organizing and shopping and inviting and all the food preparations and decoration details, and cake making, today was the day. And although this IS Michigan, and weather cannot be assumed, I am happy to announce that there was NO snow, NO rain. It was a perfect day. Perfect for everyone-a huge water slide for the kiddos, ice cold beer for the rest of us, and cake.

If you celebrated your birthday today, you had your very own choice of cake.

For Avery and Reid, that meant cupcakes.


For Taryn, a pretty little tiny cake.


For the babies: smash cakes, of course!

Julia dove in face-first.


Adyson used her hands, but still had a good mess going on.


Alayna was not interested at all, and had to have HELP to get her hands dirty.


Yeah, so my girl didn't want to give us the first birthday cake messy show. She had some cake later with Daddy and didn't have to touch it once. That's just a part of the unique, dainty, reserved, wonderful, beautiful, perfect girl that she is.



And I'll take it.

A Glimpse of What's to Come

I'm not going to lie-I try to shelter my kids. There will be plenty of time in the future for corruption, whether it comes from television, the Internet, friends, or even me. But now is not the time. And frankly, neither is tomorrow. I'm pushing Dora over Pokemon and nursery rhymes over anything that happens to be on the radio.

Conversations with my kids cover such things as planets, dinosaurs, gardening, and those things that live in the darkness at the bottom of the sea. And I'm not the one who initiates these conversations. The kids come up with these questions, some of which I can answer, and some I pass off to Jason or Papa or Grandpa or even great-grandmas, if needed.

As for the actual LANGUAGE they use? I don't allow words like "stupid" or "hate" or any of those poop/potty/butt words that kids find so funny. Sure, I slip one out here and there. I've even slipped out a genuine curse word. (OK, many curse words.) But the kids know they aren't words they can use.

For entertainment while we're traveling, I let the kids keep notebooks and markers in the car for drawing pictures and writing little notes. I always keep the notebooks when they get full-I love to look back on all of their artwork!

You can imagine my surprise when I recently heard the following conversation out of the back of our van:

Em: Owen, I have an idea. Let's write all the words we know in our notebooks.
Owen: Em, I have an ever better idea. Let's write all the BAD words we know in our notebooks.
Em: OK, but I don't know that many.
Owen: Well I do. MOM, HOW DO YOU SPELL "HELL"???

And here's what he had written when I looked at his notebook when we got home:



I guess I need to lay off the curse words...

My Water-lovin' Girl

We are so blessed to have a place like this to take our kids. The same place I've been coming to for 33 years; the same place my dad has been coming to for 59 years; the same place my grandma has been coming to since she was a young girl. Its the place my great-grandparents built so many years ago, when they had saved some money and bought some land and chose to be the first cabin built on this beach. And, oh the memories. Too many to count. The photos could fill our entire house. I'm just so grateful that no matter where life leads us, the lake is always there to welcome us back.

The Un-Wish

We've been spending a lot of time at the cabin this summer and the kids have really gotten to see tons of stars. Its nice to get out of the city and really check out the night sky. Tonight we were out fishing at the end of our dock, my mom (Nene), Owen, Emerson, and I. Here was the conversation my mom and Em had:

Em: Nene, I see the first star tonight. Its the wishing star. Can I make a wish?
Nene: Sure, you can make a wish.
Em: Ok, don't look at me. (And then in a whisper:) Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight.
Nene: Now don't tell me your wish or it won't come true!
Em: Nene, I think I want to tell you my wish because I don't really want it anymore. I changed my mind.
Nene: Ok, if you're sure...
Em: I wished for a TRILLION doll houses.

Ahhh, the boys...

I was shopping this afternoon with O and Em and we were in the checkout lane when this very old man noticed my pretty little girl all dressed up in a fancy dress, wearing mama's jewelry and he stopped to say, "Look out! In a few years you're going to have to shovel the boys off of your doorstep!" Boy, do I know it. And SHE knows it! The kids asked what that meant, so I explained it to them.

Em: Ewwwww. Boys!
O: They're gonna kiss you so hard you're going to have LIP STAMPS all over you!

J: I'm gonna have to get that gun out...