Curly Hair

I have had strangers, church associates, friends, and family all comment on Lily's curly hair lately. 

Some people have been pessimistic about how messy Lily's hair is and how she:

needs to pull it back,

needs bangs,

needs a haircut,

or needs it brushed.

And I admit, it can totally be messy (at times), but that's usually in the morning, or right after naps, or when all of our hair clips have gone missing. Regardless, I still think she looks adorable. Messy or not!

But then their are times when she's dressed up all pretty and my heart just melts with how her locks make her so beautiful.

In the middle of the day...

After playing in the sprinklers...

But even when she wakes up in the morning, after we put a clip in her head to pull back her curls so she can see, it looks like she just stepped out of a salon and is ready for a photo shoot. 

And sometimes she tries to show that off with her crazy sense of style!

(Still in her pajamas).

Workin' it after breakfast!

And another picture to show how awesome her curls are before we take a bath, or jump into the shower in the morning.

And at the end of the day, Lily is still as cute as ever.

I am, in fact, jealous of her curls. I fight my curls every day to make my hair look presentable, but if I had little girls locks - I would rock it and love living in the south to show off my fabulous head of hair! I'm grateful that I can do that vicariously through Lily!

Math

The T-Shirt above was meant to be a really funny joke, because lately my life has revolved around tutoring students with their math and statistics. Ever since I decided to go back to work, I went from one student, to doing two students homework, to a full course 30-40 hours a week (at $30/hr) during the month of May. May was crazy busy because of EOG (End Of Grade) and EOC (End Of Class) Testing. Students wanted to do well on their EOC and EOG tests because if they didn't pass with a certain percentage, they would have to retake the class the next school year (and who wants that!). 

So I began making some extra income for our family. And in the process, really enjoyed being able to get out and spend time and really help other students. It brought me a lot of fulfillment to be able to see someone finally understand math, or finally get above a 80% on a test, or ace a quiz. Even the "aha, I get this" light in their eyes was totally worth it!

I did have a few students who really gave me grief and had poor, poor attitudes about Math. But I quickly helped them overcome this and - believe it or not - we became friends. *Gasp* 

I love that Math was my major. I love that I get to help teenagers one-on-one. I love that I get to spend time away from my family to do some good. And I love that I have a resource to fall back on, and that I have such a talent to use to help make some extra money for our family. And most importantly, I'm grateful that I have a husband who is supportive and patient and lets me go out to help others because he knows how much it really ends up helping me!

Lily Loves Marco

In a lot of my past posts, I've noted at how much others love Lily or Marco... or how much Marco loves Lily... but I've failed to mention how much Lily loves Marco.

They are getting to the age where they really enjoy playing with each other.

Usually in the morning, after breakfast is consumed, they leave the table and head for the playroom where they are engaged with each other for a good hour. This gives me the necessary time to clean up and start preparations for lunch or dinner. I know that's silly that I'm preparing dinner at 7:30 in the morning - but when they play really well together - I have to take advantage of this time!

Besides playing in the playroom, they love going to the park and watching out for each other on the swings and the slides. Marco is fearless and from this fearlessness he has helped encourage Lily to go down slides or climb up steep places. If Marco, half her age, can do it - she feels almost compelled to be able to copy-cat her brother and participate in the same activities.

And when there is only one swing... Well... They are friends enough that they can share one swing and still enjoy being on the swings!

I can't stand the humidity (and the bugs), but these kids love to go outside. But when it's the middle of the day, and I want to get Marco down for a nap in the next ten minutes, I know that if we go outside it will turn into an hour ordeal. So to make do, we compromise and have picnics inside the house. We try to have fun creative foods that encourage them to try new things. Most of the time they eat a few new things, stick to the fruit, and then end up having yogurt to top off their meals!

But like I said earlier, when the day is early, or it's after Marco's nap time - we try to go outside. They love playing in the pool together and seldom are there any fights when we are outside. Everything gets shared and they play well together.

^^ Marco signing "again" in sign language.

And while we try to get out and about and play everywhere else, the favorite room in the house is still the playroom. And Lily and Marco get really creative in playing with their toys. This particular day, I decided that I would bring the laundry baskets down and give one to each of the kids and they could do around and gather their toys in the laundry baskets and bring them back to the playroom instead of me going around the whole house and cleaning up their mess. They had different ideas! They decided the laundry baskets were meant for playing in and henceforth Lily pushed Marco around in them. That is, until Mommy put the baskets away because her idea didn't go according to plan. 

Even when I have to work outside, weed, or harvest the garden - Lily takes her job as a big sister really seriously and pushes Marco in the car, keeps him away from the road, and teaches him how to draw with chalk. 

At the end of the day, I love how much these two are friends and how much they play together. I love how Marco emulates his older sister and I love how Lily tries to teach Marco new things. And most of all, I love how Lily encourages Marco. 

Thanks for making me smile, you two, I love watching you play together!

Piano Recital

June 20, 2016 

I decided to hold a Piano Recital at the Gifford's home for the six girls that I teach piano to. They all practiced their hearts out and really made such a gallant effort to perform their upmost best! And they did! They made me so proud! I just beamed with how well they did! I couldn't have asked for a better recital. Their hard work and effort really came through and showed how much they practiced. 

Each family invited a few people, but our recital was small. Only Carmen Welch and the Parano-Stevens girls came to cheer on their comrades. 

To start off the recital, I had each girls' name written on a piece of paper and I drew it out of a bowl. It kept it random, but also kept everyone on their toes about who was going next. I did it on purpose to give everyone the same type of anticipation and nerves and teach them how to conquer that anxiety. I was floored with admiration at how they all presented themselves and how none of them made a mistake. It makes me hope that Lily is as cool and confident as they are when she reaches piano recital age. 

Listed below is a repertoire of what the girls worked on and performed (and the order they performed).

Jane Henderson

"Spanish Guitars" by James Bastien

Eliza Gifford

"Ode to Joy" by Beethoven

Lillie Gifford

"Tarantella" by 

Kate Henderson

"Fur Elise" by Beethoven arranged by James Bastien

Jayne Gifford

"Minuet in G" by Bach

Addie Gifford

"Floating Clouds" by James Bastien

At the end of the recital the girls gave me some flowers and we took a group shot together. 

I can't wait to have another recital and see how much these young ladies grow in the next year! They truly made me proud as a piano teacher and fall in love with them as a friend!

Fun with Friends

In June school got out, so at the beginning of the month families were busy trying to wrap up projects for the end of the school year. And at the end of the month, other families were busy with going on vacations at the beginning of their summer break. So we tried to capitalize on when people would be around and get to play with them. I think that overall we did a pretty good job of getting together with different friends!

At the beginning of the month,  I taught Piano lessons, but Kim Henderson was crazy busy - so she loaded the kids into the car and they were able to have a play date with Molly and Claire while Kim had to run kids to band practice.

We were all a little sad to see the end of Piano until school starts again, but we made sure to get plenty of hugs in to last the whole summer. 

In the meantime, the Browns moved away for a year. So to say "Good-Bye" Tye Brown decided to give away "awards" to his favorite friends. It was mainly things that people left at his home that accumulated at his home over the years. Some example of awards included:

Stacie Gifford: All of her old mail back.

Marcia/Cristian Parano-Stevens and Kim/Duane Henderson: Granny panties made for two.

Michal: a graduation cap and gown

(I can't remember) an oversized leg (seen in the background pictures).

We made a good effort to take kids to the park at least twice a week because we wanted to make sure that kids got their energy out before bedtime... and before the humidity struck with a hellish vengeance. 

When days were unbearably humid and hot, we took a break and went to the local library to play. It was a special treat when we made new friends to play with.

But it's always more fun when we have current friends to play with! Lily loves when I get to watch Lucy and Tanner Dunn when their Mommy has an appointment she needs to be to.

We were invited to the pool several times in June. But... out of all the times we were invited - this was my absolute favorite! Leila decided to be such a good "big sister" to Lily and really help her swim on her own. She was encouraging, stayed with her, and helped her if she was struggling. It made me feel like I didn't have to watch her because Leila would have told me if something was wrong. Don't get me wrong - I still watched her - but it was with a warm smile instead of a worried heart.

We loved the pool so much with the Maki girls, that we decided our month wouldn't have been complete unless we had them over for dinner and got to play dress up. They rocked Lily's costumes! Even though they were a couple of sizes too small, they still managed to fit into them and look adorable!

The last friends we met up with were the Tuckers. Allie invited us to meet her for Ice Cream one afternoon. It made the kids more hyper from all the sugar - but we didn't care - because air conditioning. 

We love playing with friends! We love having friends over! We just love friends!

My favorite quote (that I came up with) is: "I like to collect friends." And I'm so grateful I've been able to collect all the ones that give a bright warm smile to my kids faces!