A Big Day

Miss M has had the most beautiful hair since she was born. It is thick and wavy and gets these gorgeous sausage curls when the humidity kicks in. Whenever anyone sees her, they always comment on what beautiful hair she has. She loves to have it it pig tails, braids, free flowing, and "tinker bell" buns. I've always felt that little girls should have long hair - for me it represents a certain innocence and carefreeness that is so "little girl". I suppose I've thought that as long as she has this long hair, she is still my little child.

But there is one problem with long hair...Miss M HATES having it brushed. HATES is putting it mildly. Brushing her hair has become torture for her and me. I dread it, and she runs and hides whenever the word "brush" is merely whispered. She had a haircut last fall with about 4-5 inches cut off. But the battles with brushing her hair continued and I've grown old and weary. Plus I've become a bit concerned that at some point she'll start to believe that her hair is her identity and I never want her to develop that ridiculous sense of self. She is so much more than her hair and I truly want her to learn this. So I made the decision to get the locks chopped off. We talked about the Locks of Love program and she was excited to have a "big girl" haircut. Actually, she was overjoyed!

While I admit that I did quietly shed a tear for all of the emotions I was feeling about this big day, I'm so incredibly proud of her and thankful that there are programs like Locks of Love that help children.

Maya, I love you and you are so amazing and beautiful through and though.

Before:




The Big Day:










After:

I'm Always Amazed...

at how fast time flies by. This is little Cullin (my nephew), now one month old. It totally seems like just yesterday that he was born. One month old and already wide awake more then sound asleep, already holding his head up high, already a heart breaker!

Details, details...

The Jedi training academy was such a huge success some of the children wore their "uniform" t-shirts they received at the party to school on Monday! Since I had so many pictures from the party I made them small so the page wouldn't take a long time to load. Sorry about that - here are some more details on the party and a few more images that are a bit larger for those who complained. ;-)

The party started off with everyone being issued official Jedi garb which consisted of a "I became a Jedi Master at Jonah's Training Academy" t-shirt and a special training lightsaber made out of a pool noodle and PVC pipe. (I originally planned on making Jedi robes for everyone but quickly scrapped that idea as my sewing skill pretty much suck. Jonah took a bit more convincing that a t-shirt would be a much better idea. I'm glad he finally decided on a t-shirt and that I was able to get it printed on short notice!).

Ken-Obi reviewed the Jedi Code and the Jedi Oath. Note that MUCH emphasis was place on using the force for the good of the universe and that Jedi's never hit one another with their lightsabers. The younglings needed to be reminded of this every so often. The Jedi training then commenced with sword skills, battling the mighty Ken-Obi, concentration skills, teamwork skills, accuracy skills, and speed skills. Balloons, bubbles, hula hoops and water balloons were key for this training. A bounce house added to the necessary skills training. The younglings demonstrated their skills by attacking the death star pinata. At the end of the training, all participants received a very special certificate proclaiming that they had become honorary Jedi Masters.













Now that I'm going through all the images, I realized that there are so many of the little detail shots that I didn't get. This makes me a bit sad as I like to try to capture EVERYTHING, but I was running around crazy the whole time trying to make sure that everything was being taken care of. But all in all, it was a great time!

J's Jedi Training Academy - The Force was with us!

J celebrated his big day - the one he'd been waiting for "ALL YEAR" - with a few fellow younglings who all were summoned by the Jedi Council. We were informed that the dark side was gathering their droids and set to attack our galaxy on the exact same day as J's 7's birthday party! Fortunately it just so happens that J's dad, Ken-obi, is a Jedi master and trained under the great Yoda. Phew! So all the younglings convened at our home for J's Training Academy. They were excellent students and soon were channeling the Force for the good of all mankind. I'm sure you felt the energy shift over the weekend.

My kids

Just a few shots of my children these days. It is utterly impossible to get a photo of all four of them together, mostly because when all four of them are actually together I want to pull my hair out and scream. Who knew parenting could be so rough??? That little diddy wasn't in the "So you think you want to have a kid" book. Oh wait, I don't think there is such a book. If there is I know I certainly didn't read it. Maybe I should write one. But if I did, no one would ever have a child again!

Anyway, back to the photos...since I have no chance of getting a decent shot of all of them together, playing oh so sweetly and innocently with one another, I have to make due with individual snaps.

No matter how crazy parenting them makes me, they are growing up too fast. Even with the major a.t.t.i.t.u.d.e. that they can whip out, they are still stinkin' cute!