Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Play Dates and Nights Out

I have had so much fun lately going out with my nieces. Since they are the ages of my older kids, their children (my great nieces and nephews)are wonderful playmates to my youngest kids. Plus, the kids are so funny that we spend alot of time laughing.

Last week we had a cousins playdate and sleepover. That meant we had 16 people in the house for 24 hours, the majority of them under 8 years old!! It was fun. The adults (minus my husband) worked on our scrapbooks, but the children played, ate, played more and ate more. Sometimes they can stay so busy playing outside, but usually when we are scrapping they have more trouble being away from us! (wink!)

So, we got some scrapping done, but mostly we had fun. The night before our playdate/sleepover, the 3 of us ladies visited a new scrapbook supply store for the first time. It's one of those obsessions I found I can not live without. I TRY to be smart about the money I spend, and am learning to focus on photos that I already have printed out, but sometimes there is paper or stickers or some other type embellishment that just knocks me down and I HAVE to get it! I even find myself daydreaming about page layouts and title pages!

We shopped, ate dinner out and laughed until we cried. We came back to my house, still giddy but tired just before midnight, and planning for our scrapping/playdate/sleepover the next day. As soon as I walked into the diningroom, where my husband and daughter were sitting, I noticed it. First, I should tell you, my husband and I always compete with "how bad the kids were while you were gone," or "it didn't happen on my watch!" anytime we are in charge of the kids while the other is out.

This night, it was his watch. Bella, the 3 year old, had cut her hair. Off. Almost the whole left side. And also chunks throughout. Now, she had snipped bits of her hair in times past, and just the week before had pulled out a hunk of her little cousin's curls (on as-ki-dent, of course). We saved the curls for her scrapbook even. I ran my hand through the back of Bella's hair, and said, "Oh my, what did you do?" as a handful of hair came off as the words came out of my mouth.

Mike, without really even trying to defend himself, simply stated: "She found scissors and the next thing I knew...." Yep. She still had a few piles of the remains of her long locks on the floor of the mudroom. Next to the rabbit cage. Oh no, even the poor bunny had a trim. To his whiskers. Long enough to have missed his face, but short enough to frustrate the bejeebers out of him!!

What could I do? The main thing was getting her to bed, since it was so late anyway. The next thing was to get through our cousin's event, which would give me time to formulate a plan of action on the best way to proceed. My delicate baby girl looked like a teen punk rocker. Not quite the look I was going for...

It's ironic that her gramma and I were just discussing her long hair, especially pretty since she stayed almost bald for her entire first year. I was thinking we were in need of a trim, since her bangs were finally growing in from her last scissor excursion. But gramma had just said, "It's so pretty, you should keep it growing long." Yeah, right. Bella had another plan.

Actually, she probably didn't have a plan. Just scissors and a few moments alone.

On Friday morning, a really nice hair stylist repaired it as much as she could, giving her a short, layered cut that frames her face. In all truth, it's adorable. I had never considered cutting it this length, but since the deed was done, it looks really sweet and cute on her face. And the stylist did a great job with what we brought her!

So, playdates, scrapping, sleepovers. You never know what to expect around here. We find fun whenever and however we can.

And, I got a really nice hunk of hair for Bella's scrapbook too!!

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