Summer rituals - The Reunion.

Our weekend started off with cousins visiting on their way through to the reunion.

Pony rides are obligatory.

Then off to go camping!

Making fairy houses with cousins.



We spent a day at a lakeside beach.

In the water ...


out of the water ...
building sandcastles ...

destroying sandcastles ...

pondering ...

(not my baby, but she was too cute to pass up)

Back at camp it was s'mores and reading by the fire.

The next morning was investigating junebugs while eating breakfast. Yum.

Then a full day of playgrounds and fishing that I have no pictures of because I forgot to take my camera. *sigh*

That evening we had Homer the Clown come visit - Hannah was in stitches. She was also thrilled that she got to go up and help him do a trick.

I didn't get any pictures of how hard she was laughing during his show, but look at this little cousin - they were laughing just about as hard as each other.

Then there was the Spongebob pinata ...

the only casualty was Spongebob. Ainsley got his leg. She was pleased.

And then we slept like the dead.

Until Grayson threw up. Then I got up and walked him around for hours on end.

It was a very fun weekend.

Snapshot Sunday 07-12-09

Just got back from a long weekend reunion-ing and we're tired. Sacked. Worn plumb out. So after everyone else went to bed and I'd cleaned out the car, I remembered it was Sunday and took this picture. I seriously thought about taking it from five different angles and calling it a night.

But I didn't. So here are four more.







Have a lovely week!

How it began.

Other snapshots -

Heart Rockin' Mama
Sherry
dcart's joining us today!
Jessica
Leslie

If you're joining us this week, let me know and I'll add you!

How do you know when something is really delicious?

That was really delicious.

Hair stylin'

First, before I forget, if you want to see a video I took of a cute little adolescent skunk, go here.

I decided that I wanted lilac streaks in my hair, so I called up my hair stylist - who is also a dear friend - and scheduled a time to come in when Matt could watch the kids. Then Hannah found out what I was doing and wanted to come with me. Then Ainsley wanted to come. Then Hannah wanted to get purple and blue streaks. Then Ainsley wanted to dye her hair "awwl da way pink".

Red hair doesn't take dye well, and Ainsley's hair is nowhere near long enough to even attempt streaks, so that was out. We've tried dyeing Hannah's hair with kool-aid before, but it would burn her scalp, so I didn't think this would go over too well. Still, she was adamant that it would be fine, and neither her father nor I cared if she did it. Hair grows out. So she looked at the color book with me and ended up picking pink. I stuck with the purple.

I've never had my hair dyed professionally before, so this was an experience for both Hannah and me. She watched me get my hair done and then she jumped up in the seat with no hesitation.


Of course, some of that lack of hesitation has to do with the fact that she adores Shannon. Like all hairdressers, Shannon is a pro at conversation and every time Hannah gets her hair trimmed, Shannon talks with her as if she were an adult client. It's lovely.

After we both got done, we had to sit and wait for the dye to sink in and Matt got his hair trimmed. Ainsley kept staring at me with a funny expression on her face, not unlike the time I shaved my head. I did look a little different with all that foil in my hair.



Ainsley *really* wanted a turn on the chair, so we told her that after I got my hair shampooed and rinsed, she could get her hair trimmed. The first trim of her little life. ("No, second," Hannah reminded me. "Remember when I cut her hair?") As soon as my body lifted off the chair, Ainsley's little body was squirming up into it. She loved her new little bob (she doesn't have much hair - especially for a nearly three year old).



After Hannah's shampoo and rinse, Grayson got the first trim of his short life also.



Matt loves it, I don't. I want my little baby back.

So this is how Hannah and I look now.



Hannah's is vibrant and much cuter in person. I was surprised at how fantastic it looks on her.



Mine is not so noticeable. I went to the store today and Hannah had to tell the cashier that her mother's hair was purple after which the cashier looked closer and said "Huh! You're right! That's really pretty." So it's not *exactly* what I was going for, but I am in no way disappointed. I like it very much.



In conclusion, this is what happens when Mother schedules a hair appointment for herself so that Father can watch the kids for a few hours by himself. The entire family gets their hair done.

You should know this.

My brother informed me that today, at four seconds until 12:35, it will be 12:34:56 7/8/9.

That's purty cool.

Park day.

Well, kind of. For a short time, it was park day. We needed to kill a few hours in town before my hair appointment so we went to a local park called 'Storybook Park'. Most of the playground equipment is themed, from storybooks of course.

There's the (pretty pathetic) climbing wall.

There are the dragon slides,


and the unicorn slide. Oh, the unicorn slide.


Look at the freckles on that girl. Her cuteness will be the death of me.

There's the racing boat,

the dinosaur pit,
and the castles, one of which, from an alternate angle, doubles as a rocket ship. (And neither of which you get to see, because they're taking too long to load.) Then there's the tot area with bugs, a farmyard, and a shark. You'll just have to trust me about how cute those are because I want to go to bed and that won't happen tonight if I try to load the pictures.

The swings weren't themed. My kids love swings. I should say that my girls love swings. Gray's never gotten into them too much. This is pretty much what he thinks of swings.

Have you ever seen a kid protest swings like that before?

Funny story for you. A few years ago, when my sister was living with me, we were both pregnant and suffering from severe short-term memory loss. Our kids loved swings and we would spend hours - hours, I tell you - pushing our two girls on the swings. One day we went to the city park for a town celebration and while we were sitting on the grass I noticed that the swing sets miraculously had two empty swings. I turned to my sister and said "Does Emma like swinging?" Seriously. "Does Emma like swinging." As if I hadn't been pushing Emma on the swings daily for the last month. And the best part is, my sister turned to me and said "I don't know." Then she turned to her husband and asked "Do you think she'd like to swing?" He looked at both of us as if we were crazy and took the girls over to the swing set.

Style or utility? Where does your wardrobe fall?

When we pulled the dress-up clothes out of their boxes, there was much rejoicing. The girls dug in immediately.

Hannah went for style. Ignore that expression. She really is rejoicing.


Ainsley, however, went for utility - a ballerina dress went on and she didn't stop moving until the music went off.





Want to see real rejoicing?

Serious rejoicing. Serious enough that it inspired her sister to get in on the act.

And all is right with the world again.

I'm thinking that our run of pictures in which the wardrobe included no dress-up clothes is over.

Snapshot Sunday 07-05-09

How it began.

Other snapshots -
Sherry
Bona Fide Mama
Sunny Day Mama
Jessica is joining us today!
Ramblings
Rinnyboo

If you post a Snapshot, comment and I'll add you!

Ainsley's birth pictures.

I pulled these over from my old private family blog to share with some friends. And I didn't include any pictures of the actual birth. You're welcome.

Ainsley was my first homebirth, and it was surprisingly less intense than my pitocin-induced labor in the hospital with Hannah.



An hour and a half into labor I woke Matt up to take this picture ("It's not labor," he said. "Go back to sleep."). Four hours later, he was holding Ainsley.






Karen, our midwife, doing all of the measurements a few hours after the birth. She waited until we were good and ready to let someone else hold the baby. Such a difference from a hospital birth.



And that's me, fifteen minutes after I gave birth. It was amazing to be able to recover completely at home, wherever I felt most comfortable.

Sidenote: Ainsley came into this world staring (check out the picture of her with Matt - that's two minutes, max, after she was born), and didn't sleep for over twelve hours. I was sure at the time that it had something to do with the lack of medication contributing to an alert baby, but after almost three years with her, I'm thinking that it was mostly her personality.