Bouncy Bouncy Curly Hair

Growing up, I distinctly remember my mom giving my sisters and I baths on Saturday evenings, then spending hours tediously rolling each of our five little heads in pink, sponge curls. It would be an awful, uncomfortable nights sleep, but we would wake up Sunday morning with our little curlers still in and whispies flying out of the them. Then mom would yank each of those curlers out of our poor little heads. OUUCHH!! We always had a little less hair than we started with, but BOY was our hair curly and did we look GREAT!!!!! We would walk with extra 'bouncy' in our step so that the tight Shirley Temple curls would boing up and down, showing the world that WE HAD CURLY HAIR!!! Ohh life as a child with curly hair! How joyous were those Sundays.


So last Saturday I decided it was high time that Sam enjoyed the memories I and Kaylee already had.... I gave her a bath... and tediously rolled 43 little blue sponge curlers in her hair (the pink were too big). Then she tossed and turned all night long... even coming into our room several times..... couldn't sleep comfortably. At 5am she woke me up frantically because one curler had fallen out and it needed to be put back in!!! 7am promptly, she was wide awake (dark circles under her eyes), and I yanked out each little blue curler and suddenly Sam's hair was curly!!! We got her dressed in a cute little outfit and off to Church we went. Suddenly.... Sam was walking with a little.. no... a LOT more 'bouncy' in her cute little step..... she was smiling bigger and running around giggling! SHE HAD CURLY HAIR!!! Oh the life of a child with curly hair!! How joyous was her Sunday.

Aww the memories!!! Here are a few pictures... I took them after church (her bangs had long since gone flat), and it took a few tries to get a good smile out of her!






And Miss Kaylee! A much easier photo target.




Sunday evening when we were getting ready for family prayer, Miss Sam couldn't get her jammies on, and said, "Oh mom, I am really a blonde now cause I have curly hair!"

This is Halloween.. this is Halloween...

I love Halloween!!! Growing up we always were something creative, and stayed out late going from house to house getting a 'stash'. This year was similar.

Kaylee wanted to be a vampire. No talking her out of it, that is what she wanted to be. So earlier this week my mom and I made (more so my mom LOL) a very cool cape for her. This material is awesome!!! Here is how Kaylee's costume turned out:



Very cool!!! Sam wanted to be a butterfly. Then changed it to a fairy. Either way, this is how she turned out:



She was pretty crabby before the evening started, but once the candy started coming in, she cheered right up. I put her hair in sponge curlers for the first time. Oh so cute!!!!!!!!


Here are both of the girls after the first part of the evening. Sam is much happier here! Kaylee was having a great time, too!!! After trick-or-treating, we went to a friends house for chili and a Harry Potter Marathon. WOOHOO!!!

Pernell did a great pumpkin carving this year:


And here is Kaylee's:


This year I decided to try my friends advice. She let her kids eat any and all candy right away, then it is GONE within two days. No worrying about giving them a candy a day and having it till Easter. No worries about the kids fighting, or candy hanging around being tempting. So, that's what I did. I am happy to say the girls candy is just about gone, I have not been tempted, and only one tummy ache. Hahhaa!


Earlier this week Kaylee was the 'Cool Cat' of the day in her classroom, so she got to bring home the Traveling Cat in the Hat and it's journal to write in. Kaylee has been doing awesome at 2nd grade!!!!

Family Home Evening Fun

The past few weeks we have had quite a fun time with Family Home Evening.

One evening we decided to make some fun cookies. I came across this recipe from here. They were a HUGE hit, and we will make them again! Here is the recipe and some pictures




Rainbow Play-Doh Cookie Pops

3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
assorted colors of food coloring
24 lollipop sticks

Directions:

1. In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms. Divide dough into fourths. tint each with a different food color. (This takes some time and fore-arm muscles, so get ready! The more the food coloring, the more vibrant the color.) Wrap each color in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and for each cookie place one of each color and form into a ball. (Make sure they are all sticking together well.) Shape the big ball into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into bottoms of cookies.

4. Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.


Pictures of the process:

They turned out great! Works of advice, once you start rolling the 'snake', coil it quickly, as the dough warms up fast and it's more difficult the more you handle it.
The girls had a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Then the following Monday night, we decided to go to the Temple to visit the grounds. It didn't dawn on my till we were almost there that the Temple is closed on Mondays, so I started to worry that we wouldn't be able to walk around. Much to my surprise, there were people working on the yard, so we just drove in and walked around. The girls really enjoyed this, too. It was SOOO cold!!! Thank goodness we had coats! The grounds are absolutely beautiful!!



After we walked around, we visited with some very good friends of ours, and enjoyed a great dinner at Sweet Tomatoes.


Those are just some of the things we have done the past few weeks. I've been really trying to make our FHE nights fun and memorable for the girls. If you have any great ideas for something to do, let me know!!