Pretty Ears

I've been asking Ally for a while if she'd like to get her ears pierced. She's always said, "No way... well, maybe when I'm sixteen." We've even used her fear of the prick against her, "If you don't clean your room room right now, we'll pierce your ears..."

Yesterday Mike's mom showed her the pattern for her Halloween costume and I said, "Wouldn't it be pretty to have earrings like the girl in the picture?" (I won't say what the pattern is... that would ruin the Halloween surprise.) So this morning she woke up and told me she wanted to get them pierced today. I told her she had to earn it by cleaning her room (just to be sure she was serious). When her room was spotless we took off to the mall.

Here it is, step by step.

Step 1: Show off your naked lobes for the last time.

Step 2: Sit in the chair-- with your blanket of course. This isn't so bad.

Step 3: Keep telling yourself to be brave. Be brave. Be brave.

Step 4: Wonder if the worst part is over. (It was.)

Step 5: Tell your mother it was awful and terrible and it hurt really bad and you never want to go through that again.

Step 6: Recover with chocolate ice cream and cartoons.

Step 7: Show off your sparkly (and a little bit blurry) flowers.

July's Twelfth Dozen

So... I completely failed at doing a dozen pictures in June, but I actually remembered this month! It was noon when I remembered, but that's not the point, right? So here we go again...

I took Ally to buy new shoes. Her old ones completely fell apart. And you can only see her feet because she decided to be a weirdo when I turned the camera on.

She helped me with the laundry. I expect the willingness to help will disappear as the newness of the appliances wears off. Ignore the grey stripe at the bottom of the picture. There's something wrong with our card reader.


Crit has decided now that he's two, he can throw tantrums for no reason at all. He's on the kitchen counter for this one.

The kids played "gimme five... too slow." They loved it for ten minutes straight. We were annoyed by it for nine and a half minutes straight.

Mike and the kids ate popcorn downstairs. I was in the kitchen while they were eating, so I only have proof that it happened because they left some on the carpet.

Ally drew a bird. At least she told me it was a bird. This is her "I am smiling, Mom. Just take the picture already!" face.

The kids ate dry Fruit Loops in front of the TV for lunch. Mother of the Year, I know.

We went to the library and came home with EIGHTEEN books. So we know what Mike will be doing for the next few days.

My baby suddenly turned into a little boy. When did that happen? I promise his left arm is really attached to his body. I don't know how he's bending it.

I filled out the paperwork for three appliance rebates. And yes, Dad, those are stamps. We are totally supporting the Post Office.

We had "tiger teeth" for dinner. That's what Ally calls quesadillas. Don't ask me why.

The kids got pajamas on. This is after Ally turned hers around. She put the top and bottom on backwards the first time. And yes, she likes to mix and match. It drives me crazy.

Laundry Room Makeover Part II

So all of my loyal readers (you know who you are) will remember this post about how we put up some new shelves and got some new hampers to sort the laundry in the laundry room-- and how happy it made me. Apparently I still wasn't giving the room enough attention, so it demanded that we do more. And here's what it looks like now:

It just gets better and better, doesn't it? Last week the washer started leaking all over the floor. We decided that it wouldn't be worth it to get it fixed, so it was time to replace it. The old dryer was still working fine, but between the fantastic sale and the energy rebates, a new one was almost free. So we splurged and got the matching pair.

The leaking washer made the old vinyl floor bubble (and it also buckled the wood floors in the kitchen, but that's another story) so I pulled it up, scraped the glue off the floor, and we put down peel and stick tiles in one hour for about twelve dollars. That's right. Twelve dollars. Can I find a bargain or what?

So stay tuned next year (or maybe the year after that) for part three of our series, "Laundry Room Makeover" where you'll see expertly installed ceramic tile, freshly painted walls, and pedistals to raise the appliances. I can hardly wait.

My Baby is Two!

So yes, this is really late, but in my defense it's not really my fault. I haven't had a camera for almost a month, but now that it's back, so are the pictures. This is Crit's birthday party last month. No, that's not a piece of cake. He doesn't like cake. Or ice cream. But he eats ice cream sandwiches like nobody's business. We didn't practice blowing out the candle, but he did it all by himself. He has been in LOVE with Buzz Lightyear lately, so many of his presents followed the Toy Story theme.

Yes, the party was inside again this year. Both of his birthdays have been rainy so far. But it was one hundred degrees the day he was born. Go figure.

Please excuse the red eyes in the next pictures. He really isn't a demon (unless he knows you have chocolate and won't share). I promise.

He was very proud the candle went out.

It may have been his birthday party, but I still didn't let him hold the ice cream sandwich himself.

I don't know what he's doing here, but I thought it was cute.