You can’t imagine the pure state of happiness that Pippi was in, when I let her put some of Navy’s new hair glitter on for ballet. When we got to ballet, I pushed my button to open her sliding door. But before she got out, she spread her arms out, and announced to nobody in particular, “The queen has arrived”!
As the queen’s chauffeur, I quickly nudged her royal highness into the class she was almost late for.
I love finding these little gems from time to time. This was the License Plate game marking sheet between Micah and me. I am pretty sure I was dominating this contest, but according to this score sheet, we are in a dead tie. My guess….he found this and marked it up in his favor…because the last License Plate game, that spanned a few years and came down to one state each left, had me as the big winner. I guarantee he couldn’t take two losses.
While we were at Scout and Navy’s tennis lesson, Coach Warren asked how old PIppi was. When I told him 4, he asked for a few minutes with her after class to see how close she is to lessons. I was thrilled because they are gnarly about not starting them too young, and she was thrilled that she got to be a tennis player!
Her initial stance was hilarious!
Hand on hip, and barely enough strength to hold the racket!
Warren tossed her several balls, but she just couldn’t make contact.
And then after he went over to physically show her how to make that contact…she hit the next one…and the next! They were soft taps, but she was excited, I was excited, and Coach Warren was excited to tell us that it will be a while before she will be able to start lessons.
Wah Wah Wah.
This little mini reader is so darling. When he gets his nose stuck in a book, you can hear him slightly say the words, and there is no distracting him…because he is GLUED! I love seeing my kids with a book in their hands. I especially love seeing my kindergartner with a book in his hands! He is by far my best reader…and according to his teacher — he is the best reader in his class! Not bad, for a class of children under the rule of tiger moms!
Just a friendly game of Memory between a Sansei and his unknown protege.
Navy was the master at makeup when she was little. I am talking from 2 years old. She applied mascara without messing up, like a pro! Well, Pippi hasn’t been gifted with the same steady hand. So with lash primer (white) she has been practicing and practicing. I told her that she might graduate to black, but she has to get better than Navy was. So basically, I am telling her — you are never getting to black — without her knowing it.
I guess it is obvious that you live in paradise, when in the dead of “winter”, you can grab your kids, their surfboards, and head to Doheny for a surf day.
Seth and Cade joined in, and I didn’t see Scout, Seth or Navy the whole time. They were literally in the water the entire time, but Cade was my little helper. He played ball with Dash, and made sand castles with Pippi.
Dash finally excused himself from Cade, and headed down to the water to “surf”! He is so stinking cute. He spends a few minutes getting into a good spot, then another few minutes trying to stand on his board. When he gets there, he waits for waves to roll underneath him. Then he smiles ear to ear, because he “totally just surfed”! Repeat seven times…
And the best part….when he walks in with his surfboard, he gives me a play by play of every wave he caught!
I’ve never been a beach girl, but these days are unbeatable.
All of my kids are in heaven, while I sit in the shade and enjoy their enjoyment….which puts me in heaven too.
With a recent birthday that turned her nine…I am losing my little girl, and getting a big girl. On our way to the beach today (because she is a surfer now!), she was waiting for me. She was geared up in her wet suit, and her long hair was down. When I turned to talk to her, and saw how beautiful, I said, “FREEZE!” She looked at me like I was crazy. But I made her stay in that position, so I could take a picture to show her how beautiful she is.
Scout walked in to see what we were doing, and I showed him the picture.
I asked him if all of his friends had crushes. He said, “Are you kidding me? She beats them all up!”
Beautiful and tough!
That’s a deadly combination.
You can’t imagine the gasp that came out of my mouth, when Scout brought me this handful of hair, while yelling, “Pippi cut her own hair!”
Of course she would.
I didn’t know exactly how to react, because Pippi thinks she is big enough to do anything, and thinks she knows all things style. I was pretty sure she would disregard all of my “you are too little” attempts, because her inflated sense of herself. I also knew that “you aren’t supposed to use scissors” attempts would fall on deaf ears. So I went with the best approach I knew for her.
I just kept saying, “It is so ugly”!
She just kept giggling and giggling.
But in the end, she said, “Yeah, I hate it too.”
Thank goodness, or we might have had an unwanted family barber on our hands.
Good thing I am an aspiring hair dresser….because I was very proud of the new bangs I cut from the mess she made.
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(And a little caveat… if one of my kids was going to cut their hair — I would have taken this exact scenario. She made almost a perfect cut, in the front, on a head of hair where I have thought about bangs throughout the years. I don’t want to tell you now…but when you read this in the future…Nice work Pippi. You just may have a good career in your future!)
I’m pretty sure these kids will be friends for life.
I guess, sort of like their moms.
They have the best time…but when I walked into a game of “Pinky Circle”, I second guessed my thoughts about the future.
“Pinky Circle” is played with a “master” in charge. The master gets the best spot to watch someone else playing video games, the master gets a head and foot massage, and the master gets a servant to do whatever the master wants. There is no doubt in my mind, about who invented this game. And then I asked who gets to be the “Master” most often. I didn’t need an answer after I heard Master Scout say, “A bit too much on my heel…I need you to go up on the ball of my foot.”
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