Hair Colors

 Penelope and I took had fun taking selfies after using her hair colors she got for Christmas.  I felt like My Little Pony.  I love spending one on one time with the kids and I know they like it to.  It is always one of those things that I always forget to do or never seem to have enough time for.  It never has to be fancy or some big outing.  Even ten minutes of just me an that child talking, playing or doing something they want to do can do wonders for their attitude.  It helps grow our bond and it also shows them that I care about them aside from when we are doing school or when they are in trouble.

Looking back at these pictures has been a great reminder of that for me.  I'm going to try to work harder at it.  In the past we've done individual date nights with the kids.  Those work great but can be hard to work in.  Instead I'm going to assign each child a weekday.  I have five kids so it works out great, and remind myself to take a little time out for one specific child that day.    It isn't much, but without even that little bit of effort I know it won't get done.

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.

Watch What I'm Wearing

Someone told me I look like a princess on Sunday and I thought it was so sweet.  This skirt is exactly the princess type thing my daughters like to wear and I love it too.

This braid is my new favorite hairstyle by the way.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hair Cut

My hair has been long for a while now.   It was to the point where I usually a just put it up so I decided to cut it.  The ends were pretty damaged and they always fell weird so I was ready to just chop it off.  Here are the before pictures.

I don't like how I look in these pictures.  I really don't like my small point and shoot camera.

I also got the usual highlights.

Then after much debate between my sister and I we decided on a long a-line bob.  Well, it is what I wanted all along but I guess there are different kinds of ways to do it and sometimes it can be hard for me to explain what I want.

Here is a picture of me and my sister.  I love going and getting my hair done.  She does a great job and it is fun to catch up.  Plus I usually don't bring the kids so it is a nice break.  She owns a hair salon that is just over an hour away, I only wish it was closer!

So far I love it.  I'll post better pictures of it on Sunday.  But it feels so good to not have that long hair on my back and in my way all the time.  Plus I didn't go very short so I can still pull it up into a pony tail.

Frozen's Elsa Braid Tutorial

At first I felt a little silly doing a tutorial on a french braid but my girls are always asking for "Frozen hair,"  so I thought why not?  Elsa's braid from the movie frozen it basically just a loose french braid with lots of teasing on top.  The day I did my hair like this for the tutorial I went to my sons first grade class and several of the girls commented that I had hair like Elsa.  It's funny to me because a year ago everyone just called it a french braid.  Anyway, below is the tutorial and step by step instructions.

Watch the video to see how I did it.

1) Tease your hair!  And use hair spray. Elsa's hair is huge on top, so this is a must.

2) Use bump its to keep it looking big throughout the day.

3) Start a loose french braid just above the ears.

4) Once all your hair is added pull it over your shoulder to the front and continue the braid.  Use Hair spray to give your hair texture.

5) Put a rubber band on it.

6) Gently pull on the braid to make it look thicker.

Hair Fix

We took the girls to my sister so they could get their hair re-cut.  I won't say fixed because I don't think it will actually be fixed until it grows a couple inches.  But she did a good job at evening things out.  This way when it does grow it will look nice and not like a big mess.

Scarlett did a great job holding still.  I could tell she was concentrating on not moving.  This being her first official haircut I wasn't sure how it would go.  But she did really good.

Tada!  It does look kinda cute!

Penelope got about 6 inches cut off to match the big chunk she cut out of her hair.

Neither of them are very upset about the whole ordeal.  I just hope they never do it again!

Surprise First Hair Cut

Penelope's first hair cut was fun.  We made an appointment at my sister's salon, took pictures, and made a really big deal about it.  I even saved some of her hair.  Scarlett's was a completely different story.  I went to get the girls up from naps and this is what I found.

Yes, she is naked.  Why? They were standing in the shower for some reason and I'm guessing she thought you don't wear clothes in the shower.  And wait it gets worse.  Penelope went and cut all her curls off.  So her hair was actually weighted down by the curls and straight on top, once I wet it again it shrunk right up to just below her ear.

I showed Scarlett in the mirror and of course she was thrilled about it.  I on the other hand was not so happy.

I tried to even it out, but I still need to do something to fix it. Too bad it isn't long enough for a pony tail anymore.  Below is the pic after it shrunk up and I trimmed it.  Her bangs just look ridiculous!  How fast does hair grow again?  Her hair was half way down her back when it was straight and a few inches down when curly.  I figure both girls got about six inches cut.  Go here to see what it looked like before the hair cut.

Yes, I said both girls.  Penelope cut her own as well.  Luckily her damage wasn't as bad.

I was really upset with her.  Hence the sad face.

I felt like her hair was finally getting long again.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to cut it all to match or try to just make it blend in.  It does blend ok because the braided part didn't get cut much.  In the next picture you can see the nice chops she did on both sides.

Looking at this next picture just makes me sad :-(

Yesterday was not really the best day for me.

Double Heart Braid Tutorial

Penelope had her preschool valentine party yesterday so I tried out a new heart hair do.  This Valentines Hairstyle might be my favorite one yet.  It was pretty easy and it looks fancy.  Perfect for a little girl or even an adult.  I would totally wear my hair like this.  I'll let the pictures do the explaining.

1. Take a heart shape section of hair on the top of her head and put a rubber band on it.
2. Do a topsie tail but make sure the hair comes out the top by making a gap in the hair before the rubber band then send the ends of the hair through the gap starting down and going up.
3. Split the hair in half and make two braids.  Then curve them into a heart shape and use a rubber band to connect them.
4.  Pull the rest of the hair into a side ponytail and add the braid ends to it.  Then braid all the hair!

For more hairstyle ideas check out my ebook!

Valentines Day Hair

It's almost Valentines day!  Do you have plans?  Bob is planning a date for us but I want to get a few things together for the kids.  They seem to be the ones who get the most excited for holidays anyway.  We are making fun Twinkie/minion valentines for Tucker's and Penelope's classes.  They are pretty easy and say "Your One in a Minion!"  There are lots of tutorials for that on pinterest if you are interested.  We need to make about 30 so I should get busy with that.  I got my husband a present but then I remembered that I got him something he already has.  So I guess I'm just going to give it to him anyway and he will have two.  I also want to put together some fun valentine food for the kids.  Time for me to get on pinterest!

Anyway, I want to repost a couple heart hair styles for you or your little girls.

First are these cute heart pigtails.  Go here for the tutorial and video.

This next one is definitely harder but also cute.  Go here for the french braid heart hair tutorial.

I might do one of these for Penelope this year... or maybe I'll try to come up with something new.

The Girls Hairstyle Guide Giveaway!

Once Penelope's hair started getting longer I started to love to do her hair.  I have to admit I like it more than she does.  But sometimes she does get into the different styles.  After just a little while we got kind of stuck in doing the same thing every day (granted this is before Leon was born and I had more time to do her hair).  So I started putting together different styles and everyday we took a picture.  I put together  index of over 40 hairstyles we did and now when I want to do her hair I just quickly pull it up and let her pick one. I even organized the pictures in order of how much time they take me.  So when we are pressed for time I make sure she picks one of the easy ones.  It worked out perfectly for us.

I told a few friends what we were doing and they all wanted a copy.  So I put together a ebook for everyone!  Each hairstyle has a front and back picture and a short description of what I did.  After I finished it I was surprised by how much I actually use it.  I keep it on our computer desktop so I can pull it up quickly when I need to get it.  Sometimes Penelope actually gets upset when I tell her we don't have time to do her hair.  She really likes the control this gives her.  It is a way for her to make one small decision about her life.  And I'm all about giving children as much control over their own lives as possible.

Because I use it so much I wanted to make it available to everyone else (especially my readers) so I sell this little booklet for everyone for only $1.99 on amazon.  It is called The Girls Hairstyle Guide, so go check it out!  

I'm going to give away 5 to the winners so be sure to enter!

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The Long Pony Tail Tutorial

It has been a while since I've done a hair tutorial.  I instantly fell in love with this type of pony tail I knew I had to share how its done.  Doing your hair this way makes your pony tail look very long.  It adds about 4 inches to the length of a normal pony tail.  And it is so easy!

My normal middle of the head pony tail ends about at my shoulders.  But check out the picture below.

I wanted this one to be extra fancy so I teased my hair and added a bump its.  I then did a small braid in the front and curled the ends under.  You do not need to do this I just felt like it.

Next I pulled the top half of my hair up into a high pony tail.

Here is the back.  Sorry the wind was blowing and I took these outside.

Lastly take the remaining hair and put it into a low pony tail.  Thats it!  You now have a really long looking pony tail without having crazy long hair.