The only “downside” to this particular activity is that unless your children are 10+ years of age, they’ll most likely need some supervision and guidance, especially when it comes to wrapping the rubber bands around the clothing, and choosing the dyes to use with one another. I wanted to window shop for wedding shower invitations (for a friend who wanted my input – I’m already married, remember?), but during this particular activity that just wasn’t a possibility. Oh well – Alyssa and Ryan had a blast picking out the colors they wanted on their shirts and painstakingly applying the dye everywhere, and I had a lot of fun helping them.

This morning Alyssa was semi-interested in pigtails, then perked up when I offered to braid her pigtails. The finishing touch was a sprinkling of hot pink glitter all over her hair (I sprayed her hair with hair spray first to not only prevent flyaways and wispiness, but to also help the glitter “stick”).

As much as Alyssa liked her hair this morning, I won’t be surprised if she comes home with it hanging free again, because that’s just how my child rolls.

Last year my mother and I took all four kids (Alyssa, Ryan, and my two brothers), but we went during the daytime a few days after Christmas, so obviously we didn’t get to see the lights lit up, and the excitement of Christmas was pretty much over. This year, since we went at night a good five weeks before Christmas, the lights were on and the Christmas music was more than enough to get me excited for the holiday.

Just like last year, Alyssa and Ryan had a fabulous time, and I really enjoyed seeing their excitement and enjoyment. ♥

Pictures (slideshow):

First we met with Ryan’s teachers, where they sung their praises on his academic abilities (how many five year olds do you know that can correctly and without-a-beat spell S-P-A-G-H-E-T-T-I-O-S?) and reading, and did confirm that he is having some minor issues with changes in routine and frustration. But overall, Ryan is doing wonderfully. Yay!

Then we went next door to meet with Alyssa’s first grade teacher. Just looking around the room I was able to get a feel for all of the school art supplies available, which is great since Alyssa is so damn artistic and always loves to draw and color and make things. She is doing great academically, particularly with math. Yay! We have a reader and a mathematician in the making. ♥

Unfortunately we had to postpone her birthday party, which was scheduled for October 29th at 2:00pm. It’s now rescheduled for this coming Saturday, November 5th, at 2:00pm. I’m hoping the weather is nice enough that we can have it at an outdoor pavilion, as originally planned. But if not, we’ll just hold it here at our house, though things will certainly be a little cramped.

As of today Alyssa has six blue bands on her teeth and strict instructions on things she can’t eat, including gummi bears, gum, hard tacos, chips, and Twix. Great – just in time for Halloween. I almost want to call the orthodontist and ask why they couldn’t have waited until next week to slap the bands on her.

Alyssa, thankfully, doesn’t seem to mind the bands or the concept of metal spacers, brackets, a retainer (hot pink and glittery, of course), and god knows what else. She’s bummed about the food/candy restrictions, but I assured her that we’ll have plenty of yummy alternatives on hand for her.

So Alyssa has been asking for pink hair for quite some time now. I put a little bit of pink dye over her natural hair last week, but seeing as how her natural hair color is dark brown, obviously the pink didn’t really “show”, other than giving her hair an interesting raspberry tint in certain lighting. So after talking it over with Dan (yes, I did that outdated thing where I played the wife who asks the husband for permission! I figured I might as well, seeing as how Alyssa is half his and all that.), I went ahead and gave Alyssa two thin streaks on either side of her face. Well, maybe not thin, as each streak is about half an inch in width. But hey, that beats doing her whole head, which she wanted but I was adamant against doing (I’ll trash my own hair, but I’m not about to trash my kid’s!).

Ignore the scowling and pissy looks she’s giving the ground in two of those photos. She was mad at me for not letting her invite half the neighborhood into her bedroom, but trust me, she LOVES her hair (she even has an entirely hot pink complementary outfit picked out for tomorrow – that’s my girl!)

And Ryan is an Angry Bird! We just need to add more pillows to make him round, heh:

So cute! *squee*

We’re having a birthday for Alyssa, an outdoor party at a local park pavilion, on Saturday the 29th, but with all we have going on this month, I haven’t done anything for party planning beyond reserving the pavilion and sending out party invitations. I need to step up my game and get decorations purchased, and then figure out food!