Happy Birthday Harry!

After Miley watched the first two Harry Potter movies she told me she had a dream about being married to Harry and thought it was the most embarrassing thing ever.  Oh and Ron and Hermione were their kids.  ;)

So then recently on Instagram I mentioned that she had a crush on Harry. . . then I started feeling a little guilty for posting such personal information about her and had to tell her what I did.

She laughed and got embarrassed, but kinda really loved the attention.  Then she told me that she really has a crush on someone else in the movie.  I asked who it was, and was a little shocked when she said, Dumbledore.  Like mouth open, whaaaat.

Falling into this situation with Miley before I have learned to ask a very important question. . . definitions.  I asked her what 'a crush' means to her. . . and she told me she thought it meant that she thought they were really nice.  ;)  Oh dear.  She doesn't have any older kids to teach her these things, and I'm OK with that.

I told her it meant she thought they were cute and she thought for a second and said, "well Dumbledore does have a nice looking beard I guess."  Hahahahaha

  It's a good thing she's only seen the first two movies, cause the next Dumbledore is definitely not as nice-grandpa-like as the first, and neither is his beard.  ;)

Happy Birthday Harry.  We're so very glad you came to life, and we are totally looking forward to the Magical Creatures movie!!



**and for the record, I checked with her before sharing this story as well.  ;)

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Jovey is crazy about doing hair.  My hair, Miley's hair, her ponies hair.  She loves bossing me around about which way my head should be turned and how still I should hold it (statue, like a statue mom).

She 'braids' her horse's hair, and mine always gets a pony tail after a thorough brush through.  She's actually getting really good at doing two strand rope twists.  I've done them so much on her hair that she's absorbed that information through her scalp.  She showed me her horse the other day and it had a perfect one in it that she just finished.  Tadaaaah!

She'll be ready to do her own hair in no time.  ;)

Jo's hair in the above pictures is what we do when she gets out of the tub.  Moisturized, sealed, and put up to protect the ends.  It's not her going out and about hair, but sometimes it ends up in pictures that go 'out and about' anyway.

Venturing out with Jovey's hair styles.  It's A LOT of work trying new things, especially when they don't work and you spent all that time and then some to take it out again, or it only lasts a couple days.  Boo.  We're working on it.  Tried some flat rope twists last week.  Doing them upside down is tricky business.

 We got a week out of it so that's good enough for me.

Miley fun times

So I was working on Miley's birthday video and came across this little clip. I think it deserves to be shared in it's entirety. . .

Cleaning off my phone

Birthdayness. . . yeah I needed to clean off my phone for some time now

Miley drew this awesome Tiger, cause it's my favorite animal, for a game on my birthday.  I kept it.  It's a keeper.

 Dave bought these twisty balloons and filled them up with helium the night before. . . they didn't make it a couple of hours before they were on the floor, and by morning they looked like this. . . ha

Finished our backsplash.  It's tin.  I was most freaked out about cutting the pieces.  I was sure I would cut it wrong or just cut myself.  Of course that made it my job then, but thankfully I only scratched my arm on an edge and cut everything like a pro, or pro-ish.  ;)  I really love how it looks.  We got a new dining room pendant as well.  My kitchen is looking nice.  I just need to decide what to do with the island.  I'm thinking a red glaze.  Oh and cabinet hardware.  We've survived without it for so long it's weird to think about putting it on.

They were doctors, despite the fact that they were working on stuffed animals.  I guess veterinarians  doesn't sound as cool.  ;)

 Miley scratched her forehead, but thought a bandaid on it would look ridiculous. . . so a piece of a tissue taped was the obvious choice here.  Oh and she's been doing her own hair, check the braids here and then whatever else is going on in the next pic after. . .

Art project:  Make Harry Potter wands. . . chopsticks covered in hot glue and then painted.  Boom, magic.

Freakiness from a phone app they HAD to do because cousin Paiz was having so much fun with it.

 Father's Day with this lucky guy.

 Since I canceled Jo's nap, I instated quiet time. . . which sometimes looks a lot like nap time.

 I took the girls with me to vote in the primary.  I may have voted 3 times.  ;)  I explained to them what I was voting for and Miley decided she wants to be governor now, but only if everyone has to do what she says.  ;)  The next morning Jovey asked me, "who won the government?"  Raising some voters here, or possibly tyrants.  ;)

Stuff I have to take a picture of because I am forcing Miley to throw it away and she requires evidence of her inventions.  I have a lot of these pictures actually.  But very little duct tape left.

We may be REALLY addicted to Chicken Minis from Chik-fil-a.  They are just so conveniently located on the way home from tennis early in the morning.  Mmmmm.  What will be do when tennis is over?  Starve, I guess.

What it looks like when you are sick and your kids need to be with you anyway.

Cute Bear.  Found an old picture of her recently.  I had forgotten that Bear was once all brown without any white fur.  I still love her cute little face.

 Just call her Miley lizard catcher.  You'll have to ask her about her success rates. . .

And now my phone even feels lighter.

Morning pictures

I found these on my phone. . .

I programmed a Miley fingerprint in my phone for emergencies. . . apparently we had one that morning.  ;)  It did buy me a few more minutes of sleep, so there's that.

Let Freedom Ring

Some Independence Day pictures. . .

 We decided to make some fruit pizza.  I had blueberries to make them patriotic, but forgot to get them out of the fridge.  They were delicious anyway.  The thing that makes fruit pizza delicious is the orange sauce.  Before you ask. . .here is the recipe:

Fruit Pizza       

INGREDIENTS:

1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough (or homemade which is what I prefer)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1/2 cup white sugar

1 pinch salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slice cookie dough and arrange on greased pizza pan, overlapping edges. Press dough flat into pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool. (Yeah, I used cookie cutters instead)

In a large bowl, soften cream cheese, then fold in the whipped topping. Spread over cooled crust. You can chill for a while at this point, or continue by arranging the fruit.

Begin with strawberries, sliced in half. Arrange in a circle around the outside edge. Continue with fruit of your choice, working towards the middle. If bananas are used, dip them in lemon juice so they don't darken. Then make a sauce to spoon over fruit.

In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, corn starch, orange juice, lemon juice and water. Cook and stir over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat, and add grated orange rind. Allow to cool, but not set up. Spoon over fruit. Chill for two hours, then cut into wedges and serve.

We went and saw The BFG.  Miley was so excited since she read it this year.  Jovey was less impressed, but the scene with the frobscottle and the queen really saved it for her. . . and all the kids in attendance.  Miley cried at that particular part.  ;)

 Time for some selfies. . .

Long hair problems.

We made homemade ice cream as well, and waited so patiently for it to be done while we started our fireworks.  We actually did fireworks after it got dark this year. . . but not the sparklers, the girls couldn't wait that long.

Firework pictures were taken with Dave's phone since mine was streaming some Americana music.  Ambiance ya know.  Jovey was not afraid of any firework and wanted to be up close.  We purchased conservatively since last year the girls were still freaked out from previous experience.  We didn't need to worry, their PTSD has waned.  Thankfully we had neighbors in all directions who shot them in the sky. . . and a neighbor who came and gave us some too.  He may have been disappointed in our little show.  ;)  Ha.

We enjoyed our ice cream right before our big finale fireworks, and then the night ended in tears as Jo spilled some ice cream on her dress and proclaimed it 'RUINED.'  Oy ve.