Mathew turns 9

Mathew was my only child to actually wake up moments before it was time to do the streamer run, which made the whole thing fell infinitely less silly.

We went to Chuck-e-Cheese, as we are prone to do, for the occasion. I failed to take pictures, so please close your eyes now and picture us standing at the prize counter making the tough decision between a Chuck-e tattoo and a plastic slinky. Got it?

Mathew chose his favorite spaghetti dinner with fresh strawberries and a double order of garlic bread. He also made a specific request for corn that is frozen instead of out of a can...because it just "tastes different."

Are you starting to recognize these candles? They are the same candles I have used on the last two cakes. They are so massive and they just refuse to be thrown out. I always intend on buying new candles and I always forget and luckily there are those same candles in their ziploc baggie, just waiting for another chance to fulfill their destiny.

Here he is blowing out the candles....oh! Hey! My house actually looks clean in this picture!

Mathew is a techno-boy. He is drawn to all things that have lights and circuits and moving parts. So he was pretty excited to get an Electronics Snap-Kit.

I love this boy. Happy ninth, Mathew!

It's time for a haircut.

The girls get short haircuts every summer.

They think it's a great idea until they watch 'Tangled' and then they give me dirty looks and act like I betrayed them and their dreams of having hair that inexplicably has magical powers to heal and assist in fighting battles.

And they are right. It is totally my idea. Because they won't scream at me for 4 or 5 beautiful months when it takes about 2 seconds to wash/dry/brush/style their hair.  It is worth the scorn.

So they went on in to Greatclips and we rolled the dice like one always does when one goes to great clips.

Cute.

And then we came back home and I remembered about the baby.

Turns out she's a girl too... and her hair has developed a few "issues".

So I figured if the Greatclips ladies can do it....so can I.

And if it turns out I can't, Anna is way to small to actually hate me yet.

So we set to work on the rat's nest that had taken up residence on the back of her head.

And soon we had:

I'm a total sucker for the behind-the-ear-swoosh.

And for what it's worth, I think it totally solved the problem.

Don't you?