Locks of Love Revisited

Zoe had been having a difficult time with her hair. It was getting very tangly even just after brushing it. So, I told her if she wanted it cut, to let me know. She thought about it for a day or two and then told me she wanted it cut. I called (because I can do trims on girls…barely, but I didn’t trust myself to cut a lot) and got her in this week. I didn’t think she’d have enough hair to donate, but our hairdresser measure it and it was just enough. So, off it went and off we’re sending her hair to Locks of Love. This is the second time she has donated her hair. The first time was when we had just found out a friend had cancer and so, we measured her hair and let her get it cut then. She doesn’t look like a little girl with it short!

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Latest Beachwear

edit note: I had scheduled this to post on Thursday, but I guess it just didn’t make it. Here it is now!

So, I got Zoe’s swimsuit made! Yippee! It was actually really a lot easier than I thought…I just hope it doesn’t fall apart on her in the water. We’ll test it out soon! The pattern was super easy and came from here. I found the fabric here and they shipped it really quickly. I am going to get another swimsuit out of it thereby making her swimsuits cost somewhere around $10 to $15 (compare to other modest swimsuits that cost between $50 and $80). Zoe picked out the fabric all on her on. I thought she did a good job!

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The Moment Ya’ll Have Been Waiting For…

Swim Lessons!! The kids finished up today and this is one glad mama that we don’t have to get up and spend our whole morning at the pool! We will probably go at least once next week though, because they have a blast!

Zoe is doing great learning to swim on her own. She’s still very hesitant about swimming on her back.

Goggle Boys! They found the goggles this week and since one was broken, we purchased some more (how many times did I want to write google instead of goggle…the internet, shish!)

Zoe graduated!

I wore Ceili Rain for two days…pretty much the whole day. While I love to wear her, I have to admit that was a lot and very draining. So, we pulled out our single stroller and tried her in that. This is what she did for most of the swim lessons.

Ace after the teacher dunked him under. I love the face!

Liam liked to venture out on his own a little. He still obeyed the teachers and stayed close to them and to the side. He’s become an expert “digger.”

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Look What I Did!

I went in search of a pattern to make a swim skirt for Zoe since I realized this year, that I don’t walk around in my underwear in public and I didn’t want to wear a swimsuit that appeared as though I did. And that I didn’t want my daughter to either.

So, I found these directions for a skirt called the Lazy Day Skirt. Simple enough. I made a very, very basic swim skirt from the directions and then decided I’d use a piece of fabric I had to make a regular skirt for Zoe. She loves the skirt! I was thrilled considering the last time I tried to make something for her she hated it and never wore it. This, she loved*.

To say it’s easy is putting it mildly. It’s super easy! I finished her skirt in about 30 minutes and sewing novice, I ain’t. I loved hers so much that while Mark and I were out on our date we found a Quilting shop and I picked up some cute fabric and made me one.

The difference on mine and Zoe’s is that I had to make it much bigger. I measured my waist and doubled the size. I took that measurement and divided it by two and cut out the coordinating material into four panels. I sewed those together and then followed the directions from there. Except I was in a hurry and missed a step.

The kids dear Grandmere has said she would like to come over this summer and teach me how to sew. I gladly welcome the instruction and am hoping to make this in the near future both for Zoe and for me (and eventually Ceili Rain). We don’t need them to be super long, but to cover our rears so they’re not sticking out would be great!

*Please focus on the skirt and not the fact that she paired a shirt with contrasting patterns with the skirt.

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Zoe’s Awana

Our children start to memorize verses when they turn about two, or when they can put together 4 to 5 words for a sentence. We don’t militarize and force them to memorize them. We just ask them to repeat after us as we say the verses. We do this at mealtimes and since I stay home with the kids that’s three times a day they hear and repeat the verses. Since Zoe is reading now, we still go over the verses with her like, but towards the end of this school year, she hasn’t need that much of our help. We love Awana because what we teach the kids at home is reinforced through the Scriptures and Bible time they have there. And they don’t just memorize a verse one year and move on to more…it’s repeated throughout their years in Awana.

All that to say, we are very, very, proud of Miss Zoe and her determination to glorify God through Awana. This was her first year in Sparks. She not only worked through her first book and completed all the sections, she went back and reviewed those sections and then memorized and worked through another set of sections in an extra credit book! Because of her dedication to memorizing and knowing God’s word, she was given a merit award as well as a Book One award. She also was asked to say the Sparks Key Verse for everyone at the Awards time last Sunday!

Since Zoe accepted Christ as her Savior, we see her growing more in Christ everyday. We know everyday that she is a blessing and sweet gift from God.


Zoe’s friend, Laura, as Mark was making faces at her!

Zoe and Awana Awards Night from Abbie Character on Vimeo.

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Yeah, I Don’t Make This Stuff Up

Zoe was showing me a beautiful dance Tuesday morning. When she went to twirl, her foot didn’t follow and she fell on the floor. She complained a little about the pain but then got up and kept going. However, she continued to mention here and there that it was hurting pretty bad. By the evening, she said it was hurting worse. We sent her on to bed thinking she just bruised it badly.

In the morning, she woke up to a nice tennis ball size swollen ankle. I thought that it was just a sprain and started icing it and keeping her from running like a wild child through the house. It still wasn’t down by the evening so we wrapped it up and went to church. I stopped her pediatrician in the hall, told her what was going on and asked if she could look at it to see if she needed an x-ray. Sure enough, she said yes.

Where Zoe is complaining about the pain is where a growth plate is and a typical place to get a stress fracture. Dr. B wrote a script for an x-ray for the morning.

I took her in for the x-ray this morning and it didn’t show any fractures at this point. Dr. B gave orders to ice it and medicate and elevate until the swelling goes down. If it doesn’t improve by Monday, we’ll call her and then she’ll send Zoe on to orthopedics.

All this and then Josiah woke up this morning with a low grade temp. He’s acting generally yucky and so now they are all piled up on the couch for our sick day.

And…on the way home, God watched over us. Or I should say watched over a driver. He had a small truck and decided to cross over four lanes to turn onto the interstate. However, I was in the first lane he wanted to cross over and he almost ran into the side of the van. I looked and swerved just in time and caught a look of either complete surprise (because it’s hard to see a big red van passing you) or complete disgust (because I was in his lane). I didn’t slow down to confirm the look. I realized later that we would have been okay, but the driver of the truck would have been in a world of hurt…thanks to our big van.

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A Bunch of Characters

Zoe, Ace, and Liam played dress up this weekend and politely asked for a photo shoot! They positioned themselves and everything. Pretty impressive.

For those wondering, that is one of my old color guard (flag corp) uniforms…yeah, I kept them for this very purpose. I also have my old graduation robes.

I think the stained floor really fits with the scene of the sleeping princess…

And roaring dragon…pay no attention to the man in the back taking diapers to the washing machine.

Oh yeah, he’s tuff.
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