Merry Christmas

I made a few different versions of the card this year, and only sent out a few so if you didn't get one please don't be offended.

The Cure For Exploding Eyes

On Wednesday nights Savannah has a 2 hour dance class that is about 20 minutes away from home.  Lincoln and I usually use this time for running errands.  Yesterday we went to Costco, then returned a few things at Ross, then went to Target.  As we were leaving Target the following conversation occured:

Lincoln: If we go to one more store my eyes will explode!
Me: (we had about half an hour left and no more errands)  Well then where do you want to go?
Linc: To a toystore.
Me:  I don't think that's a good idea, I don't want your eyes to explode.
Linc: I think its Ok.  I'll put some water in them.

30 Hairdos: Day 31- "Twist Together Braids."

Surprise we did 31 days!  Why?  Because Savannah came to me the morning after day 30 with a picture that she had drawn. Unfortunately I can't find the picture, otherwise I would add it here.  She had come up with a hairdo that she wanted me to try!  And she specifically asked me to post it here.  So here is Savannah's creation- "Twist Together Braids."

Its pretty self-explanatory, but just in case anyone needs a tutorial... Its pretty much the same as "Dorothy Braids" except that when you get to the end you twist the 2 braids together and secure with an elastic at the end.

30 Hairdos: Day 30!!!!- "Woven Braids"

This is another hairdo that we've been doing for a LONG time.  I think Savannah was 3 the first time we tried this.  Start by doing 6 small braids along the front of her head, then pull the remaining hair into 2 pig tails like so:

Savannah's hair is pretty thin in the front, so her braids are skinny.  My dream is that someday the front of her hair will be as thick as the back.  I'm not sure its ever going to happen.  The next step is to pull all 3 braids from one side across to the opposite pigtail and add them to the ponytail (I usually just add a second elastic).  Then starting with the closest braid on the opposite side take it over, under, and over adding it to the pig tail on the opposite side.

Do the same thing with the last 2 braids, making sure they are the opposite of the one next to it.  Then add a second elastic to that side securing the braids to the pigtail.  Normally I would finish this off with some sort of bun, but Savannah wanted her hair at least somewhat down that day, so we left it as is.

Oh, I did remove the elastics from the braids and unbraided them up to the pigtail elastic, but I guess I didn't take a picture of that last part.

30 Hairdos: Day 29- "Upside-down French Braid"

This is a good "fancy" do for church, a wedding, a Fancy Nancy party, etc.  And as a bonus its no harder than a basic French braid!  Its the same thing, just upside down.  I find that its easiest to braid upside down if I am sitting in a chair and I have Savannah kneel down in front of me with her face laying on my knees.  Then just start at the nape of her neck and braid upwards until you reach the crown of her  head.  Put an elastic around the braid, then pull the front of the hair back to join it with the elastic that you already have.  You'll want to do some sort of bun so that the extra hair doesn't hang down and cover your braid.  I did a messy bun because its the kind I'm fastest at but you could do a tight "ballerina" bun, a braided bun, a "monkey-ear" bun or whatever you want!

30 Hairdos: Day 28- "S" Braid

I'm a slacker!  I've had these done for more than a week, I've just been really bad about posting.  This is one of Savannah's favorites- the "S" braid.  You know, S for Savannah.  Its pretty self-explanatory. Just start in the front right corner, braid across the front, turn, braid across the middle, turn and braid across the bottom,  Sometimes we leave the end down, and sometimes we do a bun. Turning is definitely the hardest part.

That's kind of a crappy picture because I realized as she was getting out of the car at school that I forgot to take a picture.  If you aren't great at French braiding, or simply don't want to deal with the turns you can also do the "S" braid by starting with 6 ponytails like we did with criss-cross braids

Then starting at the front right ponytail braid until it is just long enough to attach with the front left.  Then braid down to the middle left, across to the middle right, down to the bottom right, and across to the bottom left.  That one is super easy and looks impressive (but unfortunately I don't have a picture of that one.)

30 Hairdos: Day 27- "Pumpkin Head"

Today is October 1, and you know what that means?  It means I can do my favorite hairdo of the entire year, the pumpkin head!  This is one of only a few hairdos that I can say I made up entirely 100% on my own.  It was not copied from another blog, or inspired by another hairdo I saw, or even an impersonation of something I found in a magazine.  You see, 2 years ago Savannah went through a phase where she would ask me to make random shapes, etc in her hair.  If they were simple enough I figured it out (pumpkin, S, star, etc)  On Halloween she asked me to do a pumpkin.  I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it and decided I could do a pumpkin hairdo.  It has evolved each year to what I did today.  This is NOT a fast hairdo.  It took me about half an hour today.  But I think its worth it.

First, put the hair in 6 elastics.  1 in the front, 1 in the back, and 2 on each side.  You don't need to be really particular about how straight your parts are, you won't be able to see them anyway.  I try to put the elastics as close to her hairline as I can to make the pumpkin as big as possible.

Now, take 2 orange ribbons and loop them through the bottom elastic, pulling them halfway through.

Split the hair in that bottom elastic in half, and put one half down or pin it out of the way.  With the remaining half, divide it into 3 sections, and add ribbons to 2 of the 3 sections.  So you have 3 sections, one is just hair and 2 are hair and ribbon.  Braid it until it is just long enough to reach the next ponytail and use an elastic to join your braid to the next ponytail.  Add the hair from that ponytail and divide it again so you have 3 sections; 1 with just hair and 2 with hair and ribbon, then braid to the next elastic.  Do this until you get to the top ribbon.  When you get to the top attach your braid to the top elastic then leave it and go back to the bottom and repeat with the other side.  When you are finished you will have a circle of ribbon braids around her head and a mess of leftover ribbon and hair almost on her forehead.  I probably should have taken several pictures to explain all of that, but we were at a football game and I just didn't think about it.  Sorry!

Now with your mess at the top, separate the ribbons from the hair.  Take one ribbon, pull it back down to the bottom elastic, tuck it under the hair on one side of the elastic, around the elastic, and back up the other side.  (this is easiest if you are sitting and have your daughter kneel down facing you and put her head down on your lap)



Do the same thing with 2 of your other ribbons and the bottom 2 side elastics, this fills your pumpkin in with orange.  Now the best thing to do at this step is to secure all ribbons back to the top with an elastic and cut them off, but I want to be able to reuse the ribbons and can't guarantee I will need the exact same size again, so I just left them all and added them to the "stump."  There are several ways to do the stump depending on how long your "leftover" hair is.  The first year we did this Savannah's hair was fairly short, so we just curled them and left it.  The second year I did a braid then folded it in half for a long stump.  This year her hair is really long, so I braided it, made a bun and secured it with bobbypins.  Whatever you do, tie a green ribbon around the "stump" and you are done, voila...  Pumpkin head!

PS- its a good thing I still have 3 days left because I realized this morning that I have not done any of my other 3 favorite hairdos!