Life Happenings Lately...

A few memories from recent weeks:

Mom and Dad went away for a day, and while they were gone, we somehow got on the topic of haircolor. MaryGrace has been wanting to get some bright color in her hair for a year or two, and Mom had recently said she could get it done as a birthday present in March. All of us reasoned that there's no real need to make it a birthday present when the net cost is free when big sis Rachel colors your hair using products from her stash...so we texted Mom our plan, got permission (it was sort of the, "I imagine you'll do it anyway..." sort of permission), and then spent a couple hours doing her hair that evening before our parents came home. Big change! We're all in love with the results!

My littlest sisters have a 'restaurant' called Lumiere's which involves them decorating the table and and cooking and serving a fine meal. It's popped up on several occasions before, but this year, for Christmas, they gave Mom and Dad and Angel and I coupons for a special evening at Lumiere's. These kids made homemade hummus and homemade from scratch yeast rolls for the bread course. There was a salad course, followed by a main course consisting of mashed potatoes, sauteed garlic green beans, and steak topped with grilled avocado slices. There was also dessert -- a choice between ice cream or fruit salad or both, not that anyone had room for dessert by that time. Basically, these kids are like #teenagergoals.

I drew an arm-less cartoon of our family, which disturbed many. When asked "Why?" I simply stated that art is meant to create more questions than it answers. ;-)

During Christmas break we made tiny donuts.

My USA-based sisters sent me a package full of fun and useful treats--I was so happy to get my lovely package!

With one of the patterns we got in the package, I taught Rebekah how to use patterns and a bit about garment construction as we spent the holiday weekend making a dress for her. She's already worn the finished dress to school but I don't have a picture of her in it yet.

One weekend, we got up and left the house before sunrise to go to the local hot air balloon festival. It was so fun watching all of the balloons get filled up and go up and down over the field. These guys were very friendly, and when they caught us staring at their balloon in admiration, they called us over and had me put Sarah up on the basket for a photo. She was a little nervous because the machine shooting fire towards the balloon wasn't too far above her head. Unlike her siblings, she has a healthy fear of fire. The rest of us have slight pyro tendencies and think fire is awesome...

The rooster balloon was the star of the show, given that it's now the "Year of the Rooster".

And, for the kids' Christmas present, we took them out to the new Science Center, which was really cool! Our favorite parts were probably the laser course and the classic arcade games--but I captured on camera Rebekah's death-defying vertical drop (she was the only one brave enough to try that!). It's it the first few seconds of this video:


What have you been up to lately?