Hair

When Jasmine was 4, shortly after a haircut, when she looked something like this:

...she saw a woman with beautiful hair down to her waist.

And she told me she wanted to grow her hair that long.

I said that would be great, but figured she'd fizzle out after a few months. After all, she was my mini-me, and I couldn't grow my hair out.

Boy, was I wrong!

Unfortunately, her being 7 and the child she is (and having the mother she has), it didn't get brushed or washed as frequently as long hair would prefer. So I started putting the idea in her head that maybe she could think about cutting it. I didn't tell her it had to go short, though I did mention she'd have fewer snarls if it was shorter. And I told her about Locks of Love.

She decided she wanted it cut for her birthday. (May 10th).

But this morning, since Josh and Hudson were getting haircuts anyhow, she decided she could go along and get her hair cut too!

We'll send in her donation on Monday. She's very happy to be sending it in. Can't you just tell by her picture? (moral of the story: don't take pictures when they're watching Star Wars)

I'm very proud of her, and I love the way her hair looks.

How to know if you have a Jasmine in your house

Do you suspect you have a Jasmine living in your house?

What follows is a simple diagnostic test to find out for sure.

1. Do you hear words like regleear, name-bee, and renember?

2. Do you hear phrases like "as clean as a feather," "as happy as a bird chirping," and "as sad as an ant doing none of its work"?

3. Does the person in question skip everywhere she goes?

4. And sing in the bathroom?
5. Is every outfit change a character change?

If you answered "yes" to all these questions, you, too, might have a Jasmine living in your house!

Jasmine's Fish Sandwiches

Jasmine got a book for Christmas, "101 things to do before you turn 12."
In it, they suggested making up your own recipe. So Jasmine jumped on that one.

1. I didn't make my own bread this time. We just used some Publix Multi-Grain.

2. Her fafrit fish is haddock. I sprinkled on some Garlic Garlic I just got from Tastefully Simple.

3. I threw it in the oven
(Hudson immediately says, "thwew it in the oven??" No, Hudson, not actually threw. I placed it gently.)

I cut it in half lengthwise, because these were thick but short fillets. I had to get it to fill 5 sandwiches.

4. I shredded up some cheddar cheese ("string cheese" means any cheese that gets stringy when melted) and had Jasmine help me butter the bread.

4b. I then grilled the sandwiches until they were perfect.

5. And THEN it was finisht.

I thought it was really good. Next time I'll use a milder cheddar, so it doesn't overpower the fish, but it was really yummy!

Jasmine's Restaurant

Welcome to Jasmine's Restaurant.

Jasmine has created her own menu, full of creative and flavorful options.

Feel free to inquire about the flavors available, as well as which are more nutritious options.

You will be expected to calculate your own tab, and her prices are a little high for her sundays (sic), but it's worth it for the incredible service you'll receive. And she wouldn't think of taking a tip!

Jasmine and Math

Jasmine doesn't enjoy math.
I don't understand this. I always loved math. It was my favorite subject all the way through.
Josh enjoyed it, too.

But Jasmine...she wishes people hadn't figured out math. I can't get her to realize how many other things need math, like all the luxuries we take for granted.

I sat with her and helped...and got a bunch of pictures...of course!

Talents

Train up a child in the way he should go
And when he is old, he will not depart.

Most people take that to mean train them biblically, which is definitely a huge part of our role as parents.
But there's another side of it, which a couple different people have mentioned to me, and which I've been thinking about more and more lately.
It's about finding their strengths, finding what makes them tick, and helping them hone those into skills that will hopefully give them more joy and maybe some career direction later in life.
For Jasmine, right now she has two passions she's been working on. (when she's not learning all the dances on our "ABBA So You Can Dance" Wii game).
One of them is drawing. She's gotten a really sweet feeling to her drawings lately, and her newest makes me smile. I told Josh we should make a children's book and use her as the illustrator. We could have a success on our hands!

Introducing Jasmine's clowns, Sweet Girl and Juggle Man.

The second thing she's been really working hard on is gymnastics. She has no training, and, um, Josh and I are over our heads in this arena. But she's learning, and today she achieved one of her goals:

I wasn't sure what she'd think when she saw the last picture...she knew immediately what her next goal is (to get her legs to be "straight like a board"). I'm so proud of her, and I love seeing her determination going toward something positive and awesome!

Second Grader

Even though we started school in the beginning of May, we always do our school pictures in early September.
Probably because it doesn't occur to me until I see others posting pictures of their kids in their new clothes and backpacks, waiting for the bus.

Thankfully, Jasmine doesn't have to wait for the bus. My night owl is thankful daily that she doesn't have to do the early-morning scramble. She's not usually up before the bus has flown past our house (and I seriously mean "flown." That driver thinks it's a race track down our little tiny street. I wouldn't want my kids on that bus!!)

Sorry for the tangent. It's what I do ;)

Here's my beautiful second grader. (my kindergartener needs her own photo shoot. I kinda forgot that she needed pictures too, since I don't record her work like I do Jasmine's. But she's doing her school, and doing beautifully, and I started pictures 2 years ago for Jasmine, so I need to for Boo too!)

Favorites:

Kindergarten....first grade...second grade:

Second grade is off to a good start. Not perfect, but good. We took a chunk of time off in June while we were getting the house on the market, and since most of her craft stuff is packed, it's less exciting stuff she's working on. But she's decided she actually enjoys reading and I usually see her with a book. Her favorites are science-related, though she enjoys beginning chapter books as well. 

She's a blossoming artist. She loves to draw and is very good at it. All of her self-dubbed "masterpieces" are completely different and creative...they all have all five of us in them and we're all doing different things. I'll have to see if I can find some and get them posted here, but here's her very first masterpiece. This one took her three days (tenacity!) but usually they take 20-30 minutes these days. 

(we're at a farm. I don't remember now which is which of us, but there's a sheep, a rooster crowing, birds in the sky, and the sun rising. Thus the orange sky) 

Cute Stories, edition 2903

1. Josh was dishing out ice cream for the kids. Hudson said, "I don't want a lot!" and had him put some back.

2. Jasmine told me tonight she'd like to be a "teacher in a school" when she grows up. She asked how old you had to be to teach, and I told her 22. But then I told her she could graduate at 17 if she wanted, so she could start teaching at 21, and she said, "it would be my prize!!"
I asked what she wanted to teach, and she said:
"I'll teach little kids math, and a little bit older kids I'll teach science, and to bigger kids, I'll teach spelling!"

(I should mention that this is the same child who fought me, tooth and nail, to try to get out of spelling today, and who asked me a month ago why we had to learn math.)

3. We've started (very gradually) to start learning Spanish. I need something more official so we can all really learn it, but at this point they watch a DVD about all things related to waking up in the morning.
Jasmine told me she'll start going up to someone and saying "hola" to them, to see if they speak Spanish. If they don't answer, she'll know they speak English.
I can't get through to her that it's not the best way to go about it, but in her mind, it's foolproof!

4. Jasmine keeps calling the gusts of wind "turning into a gal." (It's not a gale. it's a softer a). Tonight she  told me she hoped it wouldn't turn into a ....ready for this?? ...a "Galilee." I think someone has her stories jumbled!

Masterpiece

Jasmine likes to create masterpieces. Whatever her newest drawing is, is her newest masterpiece.
They're all unique. Amazingly so. They all include all five of us, and they all tell a story.
I really need to get more pictures of them, since most are on construction paper and will fade quickly.

This is her newest creation, made tonight.
She drew it on some paper I'd cut off the bottom of my Seamless Paper for photography. It's perfect for getting her to think even bigger!

Storyline in this one:
I'm flipping pancakes.
Hudson's sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking "green drink."
Josh is pouring coffee (see the second mug on the counter?) I like how clean the kitchen is :)
Jasmine's sleeping in her NEW BEDROOM, off the kitchen, and Bekah's gone in there to tell her that the pancakes are almost ready.

I'm in love!!!

Birthday Time

It's hard to believe, but Jasmine turned 7 last week.
She's officially a "big kid."
She can reach almost everything.
She understands things when Josh and I spell them out (we're in trouble!!!)
She's funny and creative and so imaginative. I love her so much. She's filled our lives with so much love and joy.

We made her a "tea party" theme for her birthday. I couldn't post these pictures until today, because they use some scrapbook papers for the banner that weren't released until today.

She walked in and said, "it's perfect!" If you've ever spent time with her, you know how infrequent those compliments are!! 

I love you, Jasmine!

Jasmine and Math

I should post this on the homeschooling blog too, or instead, but it's too cute not to share with family so here it goes!

Jasmine's math problem was to add the three numbers you see in the bottom left of the picture, using "base 10" cards. She knows the steps but was hoping to find a different way to do it. Here's the conversation we had:

Abe had 1849 sheep, Amy had 2735 sheep, and Abagail had 3817 sheep. They decided they wanted to know how many sheep they had altogether. 

Here are Jasmine's solutions:
They could stay up all day and all night and count them.

or

They could hire more shepherds; one for each sheep.
(I then told her that was okay, but how many shepherds are there??)

I love her, um, creativity!

Cocoa

The kids went outside with Josh on Sunday.

They had a great time in the snow.
I had a great time staying inside and warm.

When they came back, they suggested hot cocoa. I obliged.

Unfortunately, moments after I got this sweet picture, she dropped the mug. The handle was broken. The cocoa was all over the table.
We're not sure which happened first, the handle breaking or the mug falling. Either way, this is the last picture of this mug.

Rest In Peace, Alice Mug.

Surprises

Don't you just love when you go back through pictures, deleting shots that never should have been kept, and come across one that takes your breath away??

I have an incredibly beautiful daughter.

She has two incredibly cute siblings, too. But today this is the picture that took my breath away.

Rag curls

I did the girls hair in rag curls last night. It was easy and pretty quick, and they look so pretty!
(Well, Bekah's hair is fine like mine was at this age, so they fell out quickly)

Put up to dry and curl:

Bekah had hers come out last night, since I did this to them in the afternoon. Waiting is hard at 4!
(or 34)

I left that one in because it was still damp. This morning it was on the frizzy side instead of curly, but she thinks it's cute!

Jasmine had me take out two last night, but when she heard they'd look even more amazing in the morning, she was willing to wait to take them out. I'm so proud!

This is her "small smile" modeling pose. She was quite proud of herself for coming up with the face!

And Hudson insisted on showing off the side of his head, too:

Decisions

Jasmine loves to try on different personas. She loves to use her imagination in her choice of clothes. Thankfully she's very imaginative and doesn't insist that the clothes are identical to what she sees.


That was the inspiration for this picture:

I had a lot of fun setting it up, and even though I didn't wait until closer to sunset like I wanted, I still love the way it came out!

Contests: A request

I'm SO excited!
I've been chosen as a finalist in a contest for the place where I get my pictures printed, iPrintFromHome.com . They chose 14 pictures out of 100, one of them being mine, and now people are voting for their favorites. The top 8 pictures will be featured on the paper packs they send to all their new customers. How amazing would it be if my daughter's beautiful face was on one of those papers?!??!

So...would you mind taking 30 seconds and helping me out?

There are two ways to do it. If you're on Facebook, go to their fan page here, "like" it, and then "like" the picture of Jasmine here.
this is what you're looking for:

If you're not on Facebook or don't want to do it that way, you can email it to them. Go here to see the pictures, and then email them here  with the name of the picture ("Howdy, Girl!") and that will get me a vote too!
(please only vote once) :)

Thank you!!! I'll know in a week if I won and I'll be sure to let you know!!!

American Girl

My beautiful American Girl.

Counting from both ends

Jasmine's big project for today is to write the numbers from 1 to 100.

Well, that's one way to do it!

Why did no one warn me??

How come no one warned me:

just how fast time would fly?

 (actually, that's not true. I've heard it more times than I can count)


Happy sixth birthday, Kewpie!

Favorites: a few lists

I didn't ask Josh to participate because, well, you'd understand if you knew him. Lists and Josh are not the best of friends. And he's at work.

Bekah's Favorite Things
1. to play with Hudson's toys with him
2. chicken nuggets
3. the swing
4. giraffe, tiger, elephant and zebra
5. playing my Leapster
6. coloring
7. reading books (favorite book: Beauty and the Beast)
8. Song: "if you're happy and you know it"
9. playing Just Dance Kids
10. princesses: Aurora, Belle, and Princess Jasmine
11. favorite time of day: evening (her choice to ask, and answer, the question)
(Me: "Bekah, you're a bit of an overachiever." Bekah: "thanks!")

Jasmine's favorite things

1. play Mario Kart with Daddy and Mommy
2. writing things down
3. ilove to play with Bekah and Hudson
4. I love learning math and learning about the days of the week
5. birthdays
6. hippopotamus
7. Esther, the Girl who became Queen
8. Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Donald
9. princesses: Aurora and Jasmine
10. book: The Hat

Hudson's favorite things
1. Rella
2. cheese
3. apples
4. tortillas
5. playing with his sisters
6. hugs and kisses
7. holding hands with the girls in the car
8. Toy Story (AnBeyont!)
9. favorite response: "hmm, maybe...hmm."
10. favorite book: Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Charla's favorite things
1. Josh
2. the kids
3. my camera
4. coffee
5. the weekend
6. truffles
7. birthdays
8. Christmas
9. Jan Karon
10. Jane Austen

(dressed up as an 80s chick for a party with an online Mommies forum. I was pretty proud of my creation!)