bits & pieces

a couple of weeks ago, hazel noticed one of her teeth was loose. she happily wiggled it until grant told her that it would leave behind a bleeding hole when it came out. she left it alone after that and fretted anytime we mentioned it falling out. days passed and we noticed her new tooth had already broken through her gums behind the loose tooth. we tried to convince hazel to yank out the dangler (it was hanging by a thread) and she dissolved into tears and whimpers. today, it came out:

how? not by tying a string to it and a door knob, and slamming a door (though i may have suggested it). it came out because we are awesome parents who reward our children with tasty treats: 

hooray for chewy, sticky candy! it didn't hurt a bit and luckily hazel noticed her tooth before she swallowed it. here's her gappy smile: 

even more exciting than the loss of a tooth? the fact that the tooth fairy was pulling a day shift:

the tooth fairy seems to be a big spender but i have it on good authority that the first tooth gets the largest sum of money.

in other news, i had my hair chopped off yesterday (based on this photo): 

i wasn't really a fan of it at first but i'm starting to really like it. plus, it'll make summer here so much more bearable. 

other hairy news, grant shaved his beard off:

it looks good, right? too bad it only lasted 5 minutes.

that's the happenings. tomorrow we're taking off for sea world san antonio for a spur-of-the-moment vacation. i'm sure there will be a nice, big, juicy blog post when we get back.

hearts for everyone

2 years ago:

last year:

 today:

they are the cutest.

falling into autumn

houston decided to end summer this week . . . at least for a couple of days. to celebrate the onset of chilly weather, the girls and i decorated our front window (i even cleaned it for the first time in the two years we've lived here):

we put leaves blowing in the wind:

i thought it was pretty clever. hazel and lucy decorated their window (free from my ocd directions) with the extra leaves:

the best part of this 60 degree weather? it coincided with the girls' final swim lesson:

they still had some fun:

and even learned life jacket safety:

once again i'll point out what a thoughtful mommy i am: i brought along two towels for each of them. a hooded one for during the lesson and one for after: 

eventually, despite the towels, the kids were turning purple so the teacher had them hang onto the wall in the water (thank goodness for heated pools, right?). hazel was sneaky and didn't hold on to the wall: 

good thing she's tall. for the final event (jumping in), the teacher carted the kids in the water to a different spot on the wall: 

she was such a fantastic teacher (i wish i had learned her name) and presented the girls with their certificates saying they had passed the first level. to celebrate, we had a dinner of noodle soup and hot chocolate:

they were a lot happier about it than this picture shows. i promise.

the cooler weather also reminded me that halloween is around the corner. hazel decided to be a butterfly ages ago. i had a great idea for her wings. i bent two wire hangers into the basic shape of wings and wrapped them in tulle. it was pretty much a disaster. they were passable as fairy wings but nothing close to butterfly wings. grant and i brainstormed that night and i came up with another idea that grant executed to perfection: foam board cut into wings with fabric glued to it. bingo. i had several yards of ikea fabric that i'd bought with the intention of making more pillows for the couch but the oranges clashed. are you ready to see it?????? 'cause it's awesome:

grant cut four slits into the middle and we threaded some ribbon though to make a harness. lucy's was a little more involved. she wanted to be batman first. then a ladybug. then a bee. then batman again. once i'd told her to make up her mind already, she settled for batmangirl. not batgirl. again i had a vision. it seemed easy enough. i figured the hardest part would be re-learning to use my sewing machine. ha. ha. heh. *sigh* summary: wrong fabric, @#%&^! sleeves, small hems, velcro malfunction, etc. in the end, the easiest part was the insignia which makes the costume:

don't look too closely and definitely don't look at the back. i'll probably try to fix it later but i was in a hurry to finish so we could go to the gym's trunk-or-treat:

here's the back of hazel's wings:

that fabric worked so well for this costume. lucy's cape fell off so i used the safety pin that was holding the back closed (don't ask) and a hair clip to keep it attached. anyway, as soon as we arrived we ran into our friends. rebekah and her baby sister (who's not in the picture) were beautiful peacocks:

what followed next?

candy:

cow attacks:

crafts (put on by the lovely ladies that run the child care at the ymca. love them):

camel riding (no pictures since the girls didn't want to do that one). crowds:

and hula hooping:

follicles, fire & a flower

lately . . .

last saturday night, i decided to chop off lucy's mullet. of course, hazel wanted in on the action. she said, "i want it [her hair] up to my eyes!" i compromised with her chin. i didn't really like it that night and berated myself for getting carried away. hazel, on the other hand, loved it. she kept shaking her head around like she was in a commercial. sunday morning it looked better and then i styled it:

it really suits her and she still loves it.

tuesday night, grant and i went for a run along the bayou near us. i took this picture with grant's phone just before we turned around:

that's smoke from a fire northwest of us. it looks like it's mostly taken care of but we sure could use some rain down here. i think we've offically experienced every type of extreme weather houston has to offer: a hurricane, snow (twice), flooding, blistering heat, lightning storms and now drought. thank you, houston, for making us so mother nature savvy.

yesterday we headed for the zoo. i had heard about the blooming of a corpse flower and wanted to see it. the girls took their nap on the drive over and slowly awakened as they ate energy bars before entering:

once inside we made our way to the african forest. we paused at the komodo dragon so lucy could play peek-a-boo: 

the girls drummed on the fake elephant:

and admired the real ones:

after a quick gander at the ankole cattle:

we were there. meet pewtunia:

sadly, she was on her way out. i wish we'd been able to go the day before. oh well. (matchy-matchy. you'd think i'd planned it...) we still had the rest of the zoo to see. starting with the chimps:

the rhinos were actually out:

and playing in the mud:

then came the giraffes:

that's when we came across the lion king looking over his pride:

by then we were dripping with sweat so we ducked inside the reptile house:

grant was enamoured with this snapping turtle. it was holding perfectly still while wiggling it's stringy, pink tongue. i thought this lizard was kind of cute:

both hazel and lucy showed their skills as snake charmers:

and we finished our trip by lounging in the fish tunnel: