Faux Hair

Having little girls is funny... it is difficult not to want to have them be an extention of my childhood love of barbie dolls. I love dressing them up... doing their hair... just doing girly things with them!

When Laina first started dancing, I was a little bit taken aback the first time I saw her in her full hair and makeup for a competition. I felt like I was on an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras! Like I was some kind of pageant mom parading my little girl around in spandex and sparkles. But I have gotten used to it now, and must admit I love it. I love how the studio feels like home to us now... we know a lot of the families and our kids are growing up together and sharing dance. The teachers are so caring and amazing and the kids just idolize them. I love the fact that Laina LOVES to perform, she is excited rather than nervous before a performance! (I personally would be backstage indulging in a big pre-performance anxiety attack of epic preportions if it was me about to go onstage).

So Laina tried on her new curly ponytail that she will wear as part of her Jazz costume this year. She was thrilled with it and actually WANTED me to take pictures!

So here they are...

My Family

Just some random pictures today of my family that I have taken over the last week... I had a super boring day fulfilling the remainder of my ice show costume coordinator responsibilities, followed by a nice relaxing meal at my in-laws house, so I don't have much interesting to say tonight!

Adam... from the child-free day we had on Wednesday...He goes back to work on Monday after being off for 5 weeks since his surgery. I will miss having him help me out errm, I mean, I will miss his presence at home all the time!

Me... I know this looks like I may have been performing a song and dance, but in actuality, I was just stumbling as I tried to step out of the boat on the grass. And since I have mentioned before how much I enjoy seeing a good fall, I thought you all might enjoy seeing me stumble. Serves me right for wearing heels on a muddy day.

Okay, and this one.... well, it is completely random, just some houses I thought were neat!

This is the look Laina gives me when I tell her to do something.

Completely blank. Like I am speaking a different language. Also, a side note, this is one of the Peekaboo Beans outfits I bought at the wonderful sale I talked about here.


Evie

Also Evie, after she destroyed a chocolate cupcake for dessert. I am pretty sure at least half of the cupcake was used to bathe her face.

And finally Mylie... the most amazing sleeper in the world. Right from the start, you tell this kid, "Go to sleep!" and it is like a light switches off. She goes from chatty to zonked out, in two seconds flat. This time she fell asleep sitting up while listening to stories.

Oh, ok, I can't resist... I haven't wasted enough of your time yet. Here is one just cause I like it. Laina reading in bed. I am THRILLED to pieces that she has finally taken a liking to reading. It is a real testament to the wonderful teachers she has this year... not only have they taught her to love reading in french, but they have given her a real love of all books. Yay!

And that is it! Good night!

The Great Blue Heron

This is probably a "had-to-be-there" story, but the problem is, I was the only one there... and it wasn't funny at the time. Let's call it, "The Great Blue Heron".

When I was younger, I used to work at a gas station/ grocery store on a busy road out in the middle of the boonies. I know that sounds contradictory, but the store was surrounded by farmlands on all sides except one side which ran a busy highway coming from the border. This was before the invention of those nifty signs that digitally change the price of gas from the comfort of a warm office. We had to trek out into the farm fields and use what was essentially a large suction cup on the end of a very long pole to get the plastic numbers down from the sign and replace them with the correct numbers. On a side note, this was a very tricky business, and it used to cause us no end of amusement watching a newbie try out the changing of the sign.

One rainy day, I was so intent on hurriedly changing the sign, that I didn't notice that a large bird had alighted in the field less than 6 feet behind me. I heard the grass rustle behind me, and all of the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.... what was creeping up behind me???

There, standing behind me and staring at me, was a Blue Heron. To put this into perspective, this bird is approximately 4.5 feet tall. It was staring menacingly at me, with it's beak poised for attack (okay, okay, it was just standing there looking at me, but it seem very menacing at the time). I froze in place, holding my giant stick with a suction cup. I wondered if perhaps I should swing at the menacing bird?

I decided against that as it might anger the bird into a full fledged attack. I took steps very slowly backwards, inching my way back towards the store. The bird was still. Once I got to the edge of the field, I turned around and sprinted at full speed across the parking lot, not daring to look back at the heron. When I was finally safe inside the store, I gasped out my story to my co-workers, who laughed at me. "Hahaha, you ran away scared of a bird?? Hahaha" they taunted me. And now when I tell the story, it seems pretty funny to me too... but if you were faced with a bird of that magnitude, what would you do?

For the record, the bird pictured was captured by me on camera two days ago. I may have still be scared enough not to get out of the van... only pulled over to the side of the road and leaned out the window with my camera... ready to beat a hasty retreat at any sign of attack!

Day 41 - Feb 10th

Darn Internet!

This is going to be super short because my internet connection went down on my laptop while I was in the middle of uploading my photos for this blog post and now I can't get it back up and running again! So I had to haul my lazy butt out of bed and come to the desktop computer and all I can think about it climbing back into bed (I think I have mentioned before how much I love my bed and sleeping?).

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the University that I did my Associate degree at (and most of a Bachelor's degree) to see about going back to school and finishing off my Bachelor's! Exciting and scary at the same time... I will probably offically be the old lady in my classes... you know the one... who sits up at the very front of the classroom and talks way too much about life experiences as a learning tool?

Anyways this is getting long... hubby and I had a wonderful kid-free day together while one was in school, and the other two went to my parent's house. It was the best. day. ever. We went to a super fun warehouse sale of cute kids clothes (peekaboo beans) where I got $800 retail value worth of adorable clothes (20 pieces) for $175 ish (an obsession of mine... adding up the retail value of clothes that I got on sale... gives me a head rush). Then we adjourned to a cool seaside historic fishing village where we had (an uninterrupted!!!!) lunch, then I took pictures that I will share tomorrow when I have my internet connection back.

Here is one for now, mental note to self, time to put Christmas-like jacket away for the year.

Blah

Boy, I bet that title really made you want to read this, right?

I am just feeling a little bit blah about this whole bloggy business today (and lately). I know it is the pressure that I have put on myself by doing a 365 project, and that happy bloggers probably don't post everyday! So it is my own fault. Most of the time I really enjoy writing, but lately it seems a bit like a chore because I don't have much interesting to say and I am not sure anyone is reading anyways! But in spite of my blah, here is to 39 days straight DONE out of my 365! Hey, I am more than 10% done right? Something to celebrate?

Evie and I tagged along with my husband to his follow up appointment with the surgeon today in a nearby beachy town. Not exactly beach weather, but I wanted to try and take some fabulous photos for my end of course assignment. Didn't really happen.... but I will show you what did!

First, I thought, let's take some pier shots! Good idea right Evelyn?
She is thinking about it....

Hmm, "Mom, why did Daddy put me down in the middle of the pier? I want you!"

"Mom, you can count me OUT of your photos today... I will NOT cooperate!" (okay, she didn't say any of those things because she can't talk, but she might as well have!)

Alright, and now for a neat fact. The photo below shows two countries. In the distance, over the water is the USA, the pier and beach I was standing on, Canada! I drew a diagram in Paint on this picture to demonstrate but it was lame, so I left it off.

Evacuate the Pool

The title isn't very interesting to you probably, but that phrase has been going through my head over and over for the last couple of hours. Not just the phrase... it is the words set to music. This music to be exact. It is one of my girl's favorite songs after hearing it over and over at dance festivals last season. And after the events of tonight, it became "Evacuate the pool".

Mylie had a private swimming lesson tonight at the local indoor pool. She is trying to finish up one more skill before moving on the the next level, hence the single private lesson at a random time. So we all went along and Laina went swimming by herself in the pool since she is old enough now, while Mylie went with her instructor. A few minutes into the lesson, one of the life guards blows the whistle, and tells everyone to get out of the pool as quickly as possible. There is probably at least 100 people in there, and mayhem ensues. The entire contents of the building is ushered into the lobby (most still dripping in their bathing suits with no towels, but luckily I hadn't gotten a locker so I had the kids towels and clothes with me). We all mill around wondering what the heck is going on, and they are telling us that the building isn't safe to be in and we all need to leave, something about too much chlorine gas in the air.

I am left wondering (and singing Evacuate the Pool), why can't our family ever do anything without a big gong show or drama? Why does it follow us around?

Anyways, we went to a little village to take pictures today with a funky feel to it. Unfortunately, I took crappy pictures. But at least I have some neat sites scoped out for next time!

Oh, and PS. Mylie picked out her clothes today :)