Hair Cut * Planetarium * Root Beer Floats

We took the month of December off for swimming, but we made it again this month. Sometimes I feel like we spend so much time in this house, it's good to get out and go do a physical activity. So, the week after swimming was a skating day. I started to hate the skating rink (for several different reasons), but this time I felt like it might be a good idea to go. The girls have been out rollerblading quite a bit lately, and I thought doing it at the rink might be a nice change. They were pretty excited that I took them. I still don't plan to make it a regular activity, though, but it was fun for a change.

My hair's been driving me crazy lately, growing it back out from my last experiment. I just wanted one of the layers taken off to help it along, so I asked Chloe to do it. She did it the last time I needed it done, and did a great job so I had a lot of faith in her. And I like to give her experience. She started out well, but by the time she got around to the other side it was a few inches shorter than we had planned! I was a little lopsided.

So we just ran to the salon and had them fix it up for me. Now my hair is very short. Way shorter than I was hoping for. Sophie really likes it (she thinks it's cute), so that makes me feel a little better, but I really don't plan to keep it short. I was going to post the "after" pic along with the lopsided one, but I haven't got a decent one taken yet.

On Saturday we got to have our one-on-one dates. Chloe has caught the "declutter" bug and just wants to clean her room out; however, she shares a room with a hoarder. She wanted to spend our date together cleaning out her room while Sophie was gone somewhere with Brandon. I explained to her that we can't just get rid of Sophie's things behind her back, but I know how hard it is to live with all her junk! So... I came up with another idea that I hoped would take her mind off her room. I took her to the planetarium. We've been several times so it's not like it was anything spectacular, but Chloe has really been into astronomy lately. She gets her hands on every book about space she can. We've had plans to convert her room into a space room -- someday. So we went and watched an IMAX movie on the Hubble telescope. It was so amazing watching it with her. She knew so much. She'd lean over and tell me what things were before the movie mentioned it, and then give me a big smile when they proved her right. Thinking about space always makes me feel so small, so I just don't even try to fathom it. But there was just something magical about being there with this child of mine, feeling how much God truly loves each of us, and sharing it with her. It was a great date.

Then Monday Chloe wanted to go to a bounce house for her FHE activity. We try not to do big activities very often, but we thought this would be a good opportunity. Especially after we realized that Brandon had the day off so we could go in the afternoon and not break our rule about making people work on Monday evenings (sometimes we're better at that than others!). So right after lunch we left, only to find out the place was closed down! That was a bummer. It had been converted into a church and it was funny to hear Sophie in her disappointed voice go "I don't want to go to church." So, we looked at another place we could go, but Chloe didn't think it looked as fun. It was geared more for younger kids, and didn't allow parents to play. So we went and got some stuff for Sophie's treat, and then went home to discuss new ideas for an activity. Sophie wanted to make root beer floats. They may be fun in the summer time, but it was a little cold for January. Sophie had to put her coat on, and I had to take a picture of her drinking a root beer float all bundled up.

And for the activity Chloe wanted to clean her room from head to toe. So... without taking any of Sophie's stuff away she got her room cleaned up. And they got their bunk beds put back up which they've been begging for months to do.

I should also mention I finally got a new vacuum! My old vacuum had a good run (it was a wedding gift), but we've patched it, glued it, and babied that thing for quite a while. I've been contemplating this purchase for too long, and I finally made it. The best part is that the girls love my new vacuum and think it's so fun to vacuum now. I'm getting my floors clean everyday without asking!