Play Date!

One of our dear friends (Alden & Logan) recently moved a little ways away and was hoping to connect with others in their new area. Lucky for them I have another good friend (Adia & Thad) who lives there so we had a big playdate to connect them!

Triple A: Adia, Addy, and Alden are about the same age, Thad is a bit older and JT and Logan are about the same age.

It was a blast (minus the loosing of little Logan who literally in about 30 seconds followed a lady with dogs out of the park and down the sidewalk, talk about panic inducing fear, luckily the lady with the dogs brought him back but with Meghan, Kris, and I searching for him, it was terrifying).

The kids had a good time! They made their silly faces, ran around, and even sat for a couple pics! They all got along really well and Adia and Alden will be both starting Kindergarten in the fall in the same school!

For the record all six kids sat and I actually got a decent picture!
Holding hands!
Waiting patiently...
Adia and Addy played with dress up after the park...
And then the boys joined in!
The day before, Addy found her purple wig which was still in the box, took it out, asked me to braid it and to take a picture of her in her purple hair!

She's beautiful with any color hair!

Hair, Hare, and Hope!

Today was hair day for Miss A. She had her cutie hair turban.Pinned bantu knots with twists on the sides. I love bantu knots but they never last very long now that her hair is longer. So this time I tried using mini bobby pins (which I've been looking for for months and finally found some) so we will see how it holds up!
What a beautiful little head!

Then we took a trip to the Mall to visit the Easter Bunny! Not sure why JT isn't smiling in the pics because he was SUPER excited to see the Bunny!
Even got some cool masks out of the deal!
Do you see what I did below??? Another fun find from Pintrest... A fancy filing system to keep your counter clean (and by fancy I mean file folders and a dish drying rack)! If you've been to our house, you've probably noticed our counter is a disaster! Papers, mail, bills, handouts, flyers, etc. pile up quite rapidly. I've tried numerous ways to try to keep it under control with a big FAIL after a couple days. Seriously I'm not sure what's wrong with me but I cannot keep it clean! Having a nice big kitchen with a lot of counter space apparently is a bad thing, just more room to pile! And so I'm hoping this is the answer (positive thinking right!). But this time I actually have a plan (my last attempt was a rubbermaid to throw everything in to contain the pile...big FAIL)... so my files are labeled: incoming (aka new mail and crap that doesn't have a home yet), pay/do, keep, Jared (for his crap), gift cards/coupons, memories (for those things that I'm not ready to throw, things to put in scrapbooks etc), and file (for stuff that needs to be filed in the real files in the basement (aka but rubbermaid full of papers to keep). I've got a spot for pens, I added a notebook for our menu planning stuff, and a couple other things that I need to get done.
Our counter is cleaner than its ever been! The pile left next to it is my TO DO pile and hopefully will be gone in a day or two.
So anyone wanna take bets on how long it will last? I'm hopeful that this will help or at least get us through surgery etc. and it looks cute! And the bonus, if it doesn't work out, then we have a new dish drying rack!

Sweet little boy...

Ji'Robert and I took a lovely trip to the park one night....
After having LASAGNA for dinner which both the kids LoveD!

We even got his hair all coiled up!

This is what Jared came home to one day.... Ty wearing his pants, AJ wearing his shirts!

A Post This Weekend?

Maybe!

I'm hoping to have some time to get a real post with fun pics posted later this weekend! In the meantime...

Ji'Robert got a second try at real finger coils! They are SO cute! In another inch I think they will be perfect!

And before bed borrowing one of Sissys sleep caps... AKA Happy Dreams Hat!

Weekend fun and hair fun!

This weekend we had the pleasure of going to a friends baby shower! Addy was super excited to hold and meet the baby. Baby was hungry in this photo and mama was making a bottle!

We had a special mommy and me day and much to my dismay, Santa was already at the Mall! And since it had just opened there was no line and a lovely elf came over to us in the mall and asked if we wanted to visit with Santa. He was really great, spent about 5 minutes talking to Addy who thankfully hasn't thought about what she wants to ask Santa for Christmas. As a bonus, he gave her a big pack of Christmas Tree Marshmallow Peeps (as if we need more candy!).

We took a trip to the local Christmas light display and maze. We typically wouldn't do this until after Thanksgiving but since it was in the 50s, figured that we should take advantage of the nice weather! We got to do the light maze, drive through the displays, watch a stage singing/dancing thing, eat snacks and have a ton of fun!
The kids will be in Jareds sisters wedding in a few weeks so I needed to do a test run of AJ's hair!

We started with cornrows to a puff...
Then added flexirods (48 individual clumps of curls)Slept in them over night for the gel to set.... and VOILA! Defined curl clumps!

I actually like the way the puff looks with it more natural but the flexirods give it more definition and it stays nice longer and actually looks better after a day or two when they have stretched out. We got a special clip to put in her hair for the wedding to cover the band as well!

We also had a playdate recently to test out a new hair product on Ji'Roberts hair... the Nudred..Basically a hunk of foam with holes in it which is said to produce teeny finger coils quickly and effectively.

The Before:

During:
After:
He wasn't thrilled with it the first day but then asked for it to be done again the next day and loved it!

Here is my sweet little boy... with his finger stuck in a pretend otoscope.... nice....

Good Hair

This may be one of the cutest hair do's ever! (the first picture does it NO justice!) AT camp they had a braider and although I didnt have AJ's hair done there, I noticed something interesting. She put beads at the base of the cornrow.... so I HAD to try it! It was super cute on the girls at camp and SUPER cute on my little A! I changed up the parting pattern a bit to do something different and really like how it all flows. I did realize about half way through that I should have done 4 beads per braid to line everything up better but otherwise its cute and keeps the braids a little tiny bit looser so as not to pull on the scalp either!Aerial view...
LOVE!

A visit from Aunt Robyn!

Almost two weeks ago I did a new parting pattern on AJ's braids and Love it! They have held up SUPER good and I didn't even use my typical products! So after swimming tomorrow night she'll be getting a new style but here is a pic of the horizontal braids that then were braided into two big cornrows!

We have been pretty busy around here! A couple of weekends ago, Meena came and helped us make a chalkboard wall in our kitchen! Supergirl helped. The kids have had a chance to draw all over it now and just love it! Next step is to get some chalk holders!Aunt Robyn was in town on her way to move to Texas so we got to spend some time with her. Since we only see her about once a year we thought we should grab some pics of her and the kiddos at one of my favorite pic places!

We spent some time at the park and had some fun with chalk! We figured since it was nice out and typically it is cold that we should enjoy the nice weather before the snow covers our ground!

Saw this on PINTREST and since both kids are being superhero's knew that we HAD to do this! I haven't edited the pics yet but they are still SUPER cute!
One of the other Adoptive moms arranged for a big photoshoot of the adoptive kids in town at the orchard so we headed over there and actually got a few good pics of the kids together. AJ and JT never seem to be on the same page when we are taking pics but that day they were!Addy had found some lady bugs and loved holding them and watching them walk on her arms...
Until about 5 minutes later when I said, "hey look at your shoulder" and she saw one, freaked out, and wisped it off her shoulder (look about halfway down her arm and you can see the orange blurr).She climbed the hay bails and looked just super sweet!Here is one of the group shots!
One of my favorites, the cutest little leggys in the world!
And the girls holding hands and skipping off into the sunset (well actually the pumpkin patch!)!
JT enjoyed the hayride the most. He LoveS tractors!
Figured since I had the camera out that I should have my sister take a pic of me and the kids. I never seem to remember to do that and I need more family pics!
JT has this super soft airplane blanket that he loves. My friend Amanda got it from TJ Max so of course when he finally attached to it they didnt have anymore and the brand was nowhere to be found on the internet...until now! An ad popped up when I was online and it looked a lot like his blankey so I clicked on it.... a big fluffy Comforter!!! Seriously! So I HAD to order it! His room is airplanes and knew it would be perfect for when we got a big boy bed for him. The reviews said that the colors bled when washed so I washed it right away with a color grabber and it did great! Before washing it I pulled it out of the package and there was squeals of pure delight, hugging, snuggling, wrapping himself in what appeared to be a giant replica of his precious blankey! He LOVES it! And being the slightly OCD person I am, I wanted to save it for his big boy bed. Well that seemed a bit mean so I ordered a matching 5ft blanket so that he can have the blanket now and the comforter later! Here he is reveling in his amazing comforter!
All week Addy kept asking when we were going to do face paint! I had gotten some halloween make up for Halloween and had told her maybe we could do a trial run of her super girl face painting. So tonight we painted their faces. Ty's is a little askew since he wont sit nice for very long.
And then we let them paint our faces! Addy did Robyns and JT did mine! Both kids had a GREAT time!
And so tonight, Miss Robyn will start her long drive to Texas to start her next adventure!