Scarlett's 7th Birthday

Scarlett's birthday landed on an already busy day but we did our best to make it fun for her.  

I promised her she could open presents before church, but what I didn't realize was that it was a stake conference day where we had to be meeting on base at 7am.  So we were all up super early to get ready with time to spare for presents.  We made it though!

We decided to buy Scarlett another Our Generation doll.  Her she cut the hair of her previous one within weeks of me buying it and so now she doesn't like it anymore.  That was a couple of years ago and she hasn't cut anyone's hair for a long time so we decided to go with it.  She actually was saving up her money to buy one herself so it was easy for me to figure out which one she wanted.  She decided to go with the blonde doll because she has her ears pierced and even though there was one doll with her ears pierced and red hair Penelope is saving up for that one.  Scarlett said she will like this one because it will remind her of me.

We finished presents and headed onto base.  Our stake is pretty big and they really wanted us to all meet together in Tokyo.  Because of the cost of tolls or the train our ward decided to charter three big busses to bus us up to the stake center.  I think it took us about an hour and a half on the bus.  The kids sat by friends and watched movies on their friends tablets.  They loved it!  On the way back Calista cried a good amount of time, so it wasn't so fun for everyone on the bus.

The busses wouldn't actually drive us all the way to our church building because they said the road was too small.  We got to walk a bit.  I worked hard to finish making the girls matching dresses to wear.  I love this pattern!

So it was a long day.

That night we wanted to do cake and ice cream, but we already had a time consuming birthday cake planned for when her friends came over so Scarlett helped me make brownies instead.  

She was really happy with her big brownie with M&Ms on top!

Scarlett Graniph Shoot

Scarlett's first modeling job was for the Japanese tee shirt company Graniph and it did not go as expected.  Go here for the link to where the company posted her pictures.

When we first arrived all went well as they did Scarlett's hair and make up.

It was after that things started to go south for Scarlett.  They took her to the bathroom and wanted to help her put the clothes on.  She was not happy about that and started to get upset without saying anything.  I figured out that she wanted the helper lady to leave so she could have privacy.  It was after she left that I found out that Scarlett didn't want to wear these clothes.  It was really hard for me to convince her to wear them anyway.

Then after she was all dress they said we should get our coats because we were shooting outside.  I did not realize this and didn't even bring a sufficiently warm coat for Scarlett.  There was literally snow on the ground in places at at this point it was about 8:30am.  Scarlett refused to borrow anyone else's coat so she was just mad and cold about going outside.  It was hard for her to not make an upset/I'm freezing face but we made it through.

The next session went similarly, with Scarlett not wanting to wear the clothes but this time she was posed with a girl.  They were wanting Scarlett to hold her hand or move around with her and Scarlett straight up refused.  I was a little embarrassed and the older girls just posed around Scarlett.  I didn't realize at this point that it could get worse.

In the next shot she was supposed to pose with the boy.  She cried and cried about that.  I promised her the moon and back if she would just stand a little near him and look at the camera.  I didn't even need her to touch him or smile, but nope I couldn't get anything but tears if he was close.  I felt really bad at this point.  Then we stood Scarlett up on the step and the boy snuck around and tried to stand behind her.  They took some pictures that way until Scarlett noticed and burst into tears.  Here is the shot they got of just her.  I guess the ones where he snuck behind didn't work out.

After that Scarlett had one more outfit to shoot and it was with the boy.  She was able to calm down and I convinced her to do it as long as they weren't too close.  We were on the bus when she was supposed to change for this.  The seats were high and so no one could see her, I thought she would be ok changing in our row.  Nope everyone had to exit the bus for her to get dressed.  Then she refused to wear a couple things.  I think there were four things total during the shoot that I could not get her to put on at all.

Here is as close as she would get.

This shoot was a few hours and the whole time she was asking if she could be done.  Next is a picture of one thing she wore that she actually loved.

Once we walked out I asked her what she thought and she said she loved it....What??? To me it seemed like she cried and screamed and refused to do it the whole time.  Kids are weird.  We walked around and got a snack before heading home.

I thought maybe that would be the end of Scarlett's modeling career, but I did decide to give her at least one more try as long as she didn't have to pose with a boy or take pictures outside.  It was seriously a very stressful and embarrassing day.

Selfies with Scarlett

I found these fun pictures of Scarlett and I on my phone.  Enjoy.

A Real Hair Cut...Sort Of

Scarlett's hair was getting pretty long and tangly.  She never liked combing her hair and it was always such a mess.  I posed the idea of cutting her hair to her even though I wasn't 100% sure and she loved the idea.  I thought I would miss her long hair and all the fun braids I like to do.  But I finally decided that it looks pretty messy most of the time so we would go for it. 

We had plenty of time on New Years Eve to cut it.

Don't mind the messy bathroom.  Why don't we have any drawers or cabinets?

I did not do the greatest job, but it turned out ok.  I'm sure it is uneven but you can't really tell.

Scarlett loves it.  Cutting it was definitly the right choice.  Now it looks fairly decent most of the time and she doesn't have to worry so much about tangles.  And it will be easier for everyone to tell her and Penelope apart.

Scarlett's 5th Year Movie

I put together a birthday video of Scarlett's life this past year.

Last Day of School

Monday was Penelope and Scarlett's last day of school.  Tucker officially ended school last week.  Wohoo I'm so happy it is summer!  I'm pretty sure everyone in my family was really excited for school to end.  The kids had a great year, I'm just ready for a schedule break.

I wanted to get some pictures of their last walk to school... kind of.  We actually are planning on walking to the school a lot this summer to use their playground/library/free lunches.  But this felt different.  We usually drove to school in the mornings but it was nice out so I wanted to walk them on their last day.  I always walk to pick them up after school, rain or shine.

Over all it is a pretty nice break to get out of the house every day and get some fresh air.  I wanted to get a picture of my walking buddies.  Tucker usually comes too.

The girls both really liked their teacher.  Scarlett had Mrs. Chinnock, who was a lot of fun.  Scarlett said she was going to miss her.

Penelope had Mrs. Sherry who she really liked.  Mrs. Sherry was a little more strict but I could tell she cared a lot about her class.  She is actually going to China to teach a bilingual class for the next two years.

I'm grateful for all the school teachers!  That has got to be one hard job!

School Fun

The end of the school year has been lots of fun for the kids.  Penelope's first grade class went on an all day field trip to the Seattle Art Museum.  I even had to drop her off at school and hour early and pick her up two hours after school regularly gets out.  She said she had sooo much fun.  I could tell that she was worn out.

They also had a whole week of dress up days.  The first picture is of job day.  Both girls just picked something they wanted to dress up as and made it clear to me that they probably don't actually want to be that when they grow up.  Penelope is a dancer and Scarlett a teacher.

Hawaiian day was fun.  Penelope first wanted to wear a grass skirt too but she changed her mind.

I was excited for twin day because they get asked constantly if they are twins anyway.

And lastly crazy hair day.  Penelope did not want to participate.

On crazy hair day Scarlett's class went on a field trip to the park.  The boys and I decided to meet her class there and hang out with them for a bit.