Taming the Hair Accessories

When I had just one little girl, I had a lot of hair accessories.

And then I had another little girl.  And another.  And with each girl came more hair.  And with more hair came more hair accessories.

Suffice it to say there are A LOT of hair accessories in our house.  It's not unusual to find clips, ribbons, bows, headbands, ponytail ties, brushes, and bobby pins strewn about our house.  They seem to multiply and resurface even when I think I've put them all away.

So I had to find a way to wrangle all of the hair loot.

And while that method worked, it wasn't practical.

So I use this fancy storage technique:

I hang a shoe organizer over my closet door (which is next to my bathroom where all the hair action happens).  Each type gets its own spot, sometime sorted by color.  It's made a world of difference!  The girls know where to put things away and it's all easy to find at a glance.

It may not be very fancy or pretty, but it's practical.  (I just noticed the baby bottle in one pocket.  Ha!)

Although, this storage method is pretty handy.  ;)

a tale of three critters

In the last three weeks, we've had just as many pets come and go in the Flibbertigibberish household.

1.  Dole the Centipede

• The girls found Dole in the backyard and put him in a jar.
• They taught Brody how to say "Dole" and they all convinced themselves he was their new brother.
• They faught over who would sleep with Dole that night.  Emma won.
• They kissed and hugged the jar good night.
• Dole died sometime in the night.
• Brody trudged up to me the next morning and said, "Dole Dead."
• We threw Dole away and moved on with our lives.

2.  Elizabeth the Caterpillar

• We found Elizabeth in one of our puzzles.
• The kids had been doing the puzzle outside earlier in the day.  I suppose she was a stowaway when we packed it up - I guess she was destined to be part of our lives.
• The girls put her in a jar, along with a small aspen twig from our yard and a drop of water.

• Each day, the girls would clean out the jar (caterpillars poop!) and put fresh aspen leaves in there for her to eat.  She would leave bite marks in them - kind of fun to see!

• The girls took really good care of Elizabeth, and even took her to Grandma's house to spend the night.  Grandma was thrilled.
• They liked to play with Elizabeth.

• Is it weird to think Elizabeth really loved us back?
• They were letting her race a roly poly bug on the backyard table when they turned their back for just a few seconds.
• When they turned back around, Elizabeth was gone. Gone!
• I helped them look for Elizabeth, but she was nowhere to be found.
• I choked back tears.
• Had I really gotten attached to a CATERPILLAR?
• Yes.  Yes, I had.
• The girls were sad, but no tears were shed.

3.  Molly the Vole

• The girls found a mole rat mouse vole in the window well.
• They rescued it and put it in a tupperware container.
• They bathed it with the garden hose.
• They fed it cheese.
• I came home and almost puked when they showed me.
• They said it was cute and cuddly.
• I refused to believe it.
• They did not fight about who would sleep with Molly the Vole, because Molly the Vole was NOT allowed into the house, because YUCK.
• The next morning, Molly the Vole was very dead and very stiff.  Legs up in the air and everything.  I bet it's tongue was hanging out too and maybe it's eyes had turned into x's, but I didn't get close enough to check.
• Addie declared she'd been a good pet for a day and went on her merry way.
• No tears.
• Except my tears of joy.
• I don't do rodents.

I wonder what our next pet will be?  I can handle bugs, I can handle frogs, but I don't want it to be anything featured on the Orkin website.  LIKE A VOLE.  Stay tuned, because I have a feeling this is just the beginning...

My Little Sister's Little Man Shower

My baby sister Abby is about to have her first baby!  So naturally, my Mom, Amy and I threw her a shower to get her ready for her new little man.

I'm going to start right off the bat by saying that we totally copied the idea for this little man baby shower.  I wish I could claim it was our idea, but the internet pulled through for me again and provided all the inspiration we needed.  So all the credit goes to Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy and Emily at Remarkable Home!  There was little to improve upon, so seriously, we copied, copied and copied some more.  As they say, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!"

Let's start with the decorations!  I love the manly colors: navy blue, lime green, white, and a few touches of gray.  So manly and sweet, all at the same time!  And who can resist drinks served in mason jars with fun gray striped straws?

 We made these bow ties (again, just like Lindsey!) for everyone to wear at the shower.  So fun!

Clever little Amy stamped all of the paper plates with fancy mustaches.

  Here's how she did it!

Yummy cupcakes with green polka dot liners and darling toppers made by Amy:  

 Party favors!  Chocolate mustache lollipops - almost too cute to eat!

(Get the candy mold here!)

Here's my 93-year old Grandma Jinni hamming it up for the camera:

It may have been a manly shower, but we still needed flowers!  

Thanks for arranging these just perfectly, Mom!

 

A clothesline of onesies.  

I appliqued them using with neckties, bowties and a mustache.  

He'll be a dapper little dude!

 

On to the food!  

For drinks, we served lime sherbet punch, cucumber and blueberry water, 

and of course... root BEER!

 Brunch included blueberry french toast, southwestern egg casserole, Paula Deen's bow-tie pasta salad, sliced fruit with fruit dip, blue and green M&Ms and jellybeans, and blue chips with guacamole.  Mmmm-mmm!

 And a shower thrown by our family wouldn't be complete without the games.  We didn't want girls to groan when we pulled out the traditional shower games, so we got creative.  We did "Minute to Win It" games - shower style.  There were five rounds, with very lenient elimination after each round.

Round one:  The Oreo game.  Each team picked one person to complete the task.  They had to get the Oreo from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands.  Let's just say we had some very good sports.

Round two: using a bulb syringe (also known as a snot sucker, a nose vacuum or that blue thingy), each team had to transfer 4 oz. of water from one bottle to another in under a minute (which, by the way, is way easy).

 

Round three:  Using toothpicks and marshmallows, each team had to build a "crib" for "Baby Ruth."  If "Baby Ruth" was not elevated off of the ground, the team was eliminated.

Round four:  Stack 35 diapers without them toppling over.  

Sounds easy, right?  

Abby's team FAILED.

Round five:  Each team had to dig through a huge bin of little toys (puzzle pieces, LEGO blocks, baby toys, etc.) to find a complete set of magnetic alphabet letters, and then alphabetize them on a cookie sheet.  First team to complete this task won!

Shoot!  I didn't get a picture of the prizes, but they were the CUTEST little tins of mints... in the shape of a mustache!  Amy found them at Cost Plus World Market. 

 

 

 

 We all had a great time celebrating Abby and the little miracle inside her.

Can't wait to meet you, Noah!

 

(That's Noah with a mustache.  Silly Abby!)

I'll take CRAZY for $200, Alex

I've always wanted to compete on a game show.

When I was younger, I was confident I would rock Wheel of Fortune and show Pat Sajak who's boss.  I wouldn't even need to buy no stinkin' vowels.  I was sure I could solve the puzzle with consonants alone.  That's right.  Confidence.   Vanna would turn just a few letters and BAM!  I'd solve the puzzle.

When Emma was a newborn, I rarely missed an episode of Family Feud.  I had big plans for my family and I to be on that show.  In my sleep deprived state, I was certain no family in the history of the Feud had ever been on the show that would be nearly as entertaining as mine.  And we'd school that other family in "famous pigs" and "things you look for in the dark."

Now, I can't get enough of The Amazing Race.  Watch out, people.  Someday, as soon as I'm done having babies and done nursing and my kids are old enough to take care of themselves, Gary and I are taking off and we'll win that million dollars.  If it's still on the air.

For now, I live vicariously through others.  And last week, a friend's husband was on Jeopardy! for two days!  I've only met him once, but the way I was rooting for him, you'd think we were life long pals.  When he won that first day, I was thrilled for him and came bounding down the stairs to announce the news to Gary.

And then an odd memory came flooding back into my mind.  I'm afraid what I'm about to tell you won't support the claim I keep making that I'm not a stalker.  I am not a stalker.

I've posted about spending the day with Beth Moore.  (Except... I didn't.)
I've posted about posing as a newspaper reporter to gather info on a classmate.  
I've posted about leaving notes in a stranger's mailbox to find out about her laundry habits.

Truly... I'm not a stalker.

But there was this one time...

I loved watching Jeopardy! in high school.  I mean, doesn't every high school girl?

No?  Oh.

Well, I loved watching Jeopardy! in high school.  One time, during the teen tournament, there was a really cute guy competing.  To this day, I remember his name.  Matt Morris.  He won.

We had our picture taken together.

Like I said, I'm NOT a stalker.

(I know... WHO DOES THAT?!  Matt Morris should just be thankful Google and Facebook weren't around then.  Just sayin'.)

But hey!  Great news!  I must've married my dream guy, because Gary competed on The Price Is Right in college!  One day, if I can figure out how to convert the video tape, I'll post his clip.  It's worth watching.  You'll have to wait and watch to see what he won!

Gary, I promise that had I seen you compete on The Price Is Right, I would've started stalking you immediately.  We would've had our picture taken together, unbeknownst to you.

(Matt Morris, if you read this, I promise I'm not a stalker.  Do not be afraid.)  


UPDATE:  Matt Morris DID end up reading this!  Read this follow-up blog post.

A Variety of Assorted Various Things That Are Random and Assorted

I'm working on a recap of a baby shower that my mom, sister and I threw for my other sister last weekend, but I keep getting distracted as I sort through the mound of pictures which capture every FUN little detail!  So stay tuned.  (And I guess it isn't really a "mound" of pictures since they're on my computer and not a little stack of pictures.)  But I do have a feeling that it will be a very picture heavy post when it's finished.  Yowza.

So in the meantime, here's a bunch of randomness:

NUMBER ONE:  I hate the wind.  Like, really hate it.  But the great thing about wind is that it blows out all the smog and haze and anything else in the way of a crystal clear day like we had today.  Oh, was it beautiful!  The mountains looked so clear and blue and close enough to reach out and touch.  

Sometimes I get so caught up in how pretty my surroundings are that I just can't help it and I pull over and take a picture.  My kids are totally used to it.  Even today, Addie asked what we were doing and Emma said, "Oh, she probably just needs to take a picture of the mountains or something."  Ha!  But look!  Sooo pretty.  Colorado has the bluest of blue skies.  And June is awesome because everything is green, but it hasn't been warm enough to melt the snow from the mountains, so it's just amazingly pretty to look at.  

I would love to live on this farm on a lake.  What a view!

We watched this bald eagle soar for awhile and it kept dipping into the water.  We're pretty sure we watched it grab a fish out of the lake!  (It was much closer than this picture indicates.)

NUMBER TWO:  Emma got to see one of her BFFs today who moved to Montana last fall.  

It was great to see her and her family again!  Her name is Emma too, and the Emmas have known each other since preschool.  

NUMBER THREE:  My girls are really into saying "really" lately.  As in, "We're having cookies for dinner, Mom?  Really?  Really."  (said with much attitude.)  Or today in the car:  "You don't know how many teeth you lost when you were little Mom, REALLY?"  "Um, no I don't remember."  "But they were your own teeth, Mom.  And you don't remember?  REALLY?"  (For other moms faced with this same urgent question, the answer is 20.  And no, I didn't know this, I had to Google it.  Really.)

NUMBER FOUR:  Gary and I count down the minutes until our kids go to bed so we can have one of these:

We are obsessed.  They are so good.  So. Good.  We get them at Costco and we highly recommend them.  I'm not being paid to promote this item, however should Julie herself read this and want to give us a lifetime supply of these strawberry frozen yogurt bars, we would not turn her down.  You reading this, Jules?  

NUMBER FIVE:  Brody had a rough day.  First he fell out of the car when Addie tripped and accidentally pushed him out as he was trying to climb out on his own, and he banged his forehead really good on the garage floor.  Poor little guy.  He had a HUGE bump on his head that got big FAST.  I'm not exaggerating - it looked like a ping pong ball was taped on his forehead.  But he's okay.  Or, at least he was until I dragged him through the street and skinned his knees.  I was pushing him on his bike and didn't realize he'd fallen off but didn't let go!  Suddenly I hear, "Mommy!  Stop!  Ow!" and I look down to see him hanging on and I'm literally dragging him on the street.  Duh.  I'm such a dork for not noticing.  A little Bactine and two bandaids later, he's fine.  

No pictures of this one.  When I tried he held up his hand and said no.  I guess he's tired of the Paparazzi.

It reminds me of when my sister was learning how to waterski and fell.  And then my dad dragged her through the water because she didn't let go.  Eventually either my dad stopped or she let go.  I don't remember how that one ended up.

NUMBER SIX:  Have you seen the pudding face commercial?  It's so dumb, but his face makes me laugh every time.

NUMBER SEVEN:  It's a matter of time before my kitchen eating area is flooded, because this is Brody's favorite game:

He loves it when I put my face right on the glass and he can squirt me.  He also loves to turn the hose on the door the second I start to open it.  So far I've been quicker than him... but one of these days...

NUMBER EIGHT:  Have you seen the Wave At The Bus blog?  Gary showed me the other day.  Hilarious.  It's simple:  this dad waves goodbye to his kid on the bus each day, wearing a different costume and takes a picture.  This is right down my alley!  Makes me wish my kids were riding the bus next year!  The blog has gotten so much publicity in the last week or so that the first post shows a disclaimer by the family, and describes the dad as "a trophy husband (complete with a kickstand)".  You'll have to go read it to find out why.

I'm throwing around ideas for next year... A "Walking My Kid To School" blog?  Start sending me your costumes!

NUMBER NINE:  Blogger was giving me issues last night when I tried publishing this, so it's now Wednesday morning.  We're going to go ahead and pretend I posted this on Tuesday night.

NUMBER TEN:  Happy Wednesday!