A Hairy Situation - Hairdo's Week 3

Day 21

Piggytails with combo braid/twist between.

This is a fast, easy way to spice up regular piggytails. I pulled her hair into two piggytails. Then I braided small piece of hair from the left piggy tail and pulled it across into the right piggytail. Then I took an even smaller piece of hair from the right piggy tail, twisted it, and twisted it around the braid and secured it in the left piggy tail. Curl the ends and you're done!

Day 20

"French" fishtail braid.

I've done fishtail braids before, and I really like the way they look, but I've always done the fishtail from a ponytail. Today I experimented with the 'french braid' look, using the fishtail. I kinda made it up as I went, but I really like how it turned out!

Day 19

Three knots into corkscrew buns.

First, I started by putting three knots on the top center of Katelee's head. Then I pulled all the hair two piggytails. I was going to leave it like that, but Katelee wanted me to put corkscrew braids in each piggytail. Then she wanted me to 'knot' them, too, so I tied each one in a knot. This created a bun look with a little tail that we curled. We added ribbons and viola! A fun new hairstyle! Tutorial for knots found here.

Day 18

Headband french braid into side braid.

I parted off a section on top of Katelee's head and french braided it to the side, leaving a little side braid. I just curled her naturally wavy hair under and left the rest down - beautiful! Someday soon I've got to try this headband french braid into a rosette found here.

Day 17

"Star Bun"

We have nicknamed this hairstyle the 'star bun,' because it does kinda make her head look like a star. Pull the hair into a ponytail, leaving about 1 1/2" of hair out all the way around the head. Section off the hair that was left out and secure into little ponytails. Taking half of the hair from one ponytail, and half from the other, do corkscrew braids all the way around the head and secure into the ponytail in the middle. Twist the ponytail hair into a bun.

Day 16

Looped Braid Piggytails

This is fast and easy, but might be one of my very favorite hairstyles ever! Part the hair (I did a zigzag part) and pull up into two piggy tails. Braid each piggy tail. Take the end of the braid and tuck into the piggy tail elastic. Curl the ends. Add bows. Cute!

Day 15

Barbie Bangs with Twists

The website we found this hairdo on called it Barbie bangs - ha ha ha! Katelee loves the name. I just sectioned off a large piece of the front of her hair and smoothed down. Part on the side and secure the ends underneath the hair with a small pony in the back. I kept a small part of each side out and twisted it into little curlicues and also secured these in the back underneath the rest of the hair. I added a little gel and scuinched Katelee's hair up to make it wavy/curly.

Katelee has been really enjoying our month ' hair.

Almost everyday she does her doll's hair in a new style (or begs me to do it) and then takes pictures. Here are the pictures from this morning's photo shoot. Katelee is so fun!

Fancy Nancy Party

I love our library here. They do such fun, wonderful (and free!) things for the kiddos.

Recently we signed up to attend a Fancy Nancy party. (If you've never read a Fancy Nancy book, you are missing out. :)

We had a good time getting Katelee all 'fancified' for the party.

Creating her crown.

And her tissue paper flower.

Then each girl chose a dainty cookie and cup of water to enjoy while listening to Fancy Nancy stories.

They also sang fancy songs with actions.

And then the girls had a 'fashion parade' - throughout the entire library! I thought the librarians were very brave (and maybe a little crazy) but the girls LOVED it!

On parade...

What a fancy and fun party!

Don't Play With Your Food

We got a little creative with our lunch today.

Katelee's lunch, created by Katelee and Jenn.

Gerald wanted to join the fun as well.

Katie-isms

Katelee is famous! We attended an adorable Fancy Nancy party at our local library. (More about that later.) A woman was there taking pictures for the newspaper, and took several of Katelee. She kept talking about how adorable Katelee was. :) She ended up using one of Katelee's pictues in her article. The link for the online article is here. Katelee's picture is the third one.

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Today Katelee asked for toast. She rarely eats toast, so I asked her how she would like it made. She looked at me with an exasperated expression and exclaimed, "Just the usual, mom!" I tried not to smile as I asked her to clarify what "the usual" was, exactly. She replied, "Cooked, with jam, and just a smidge of butter."

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I love the logic of a tired five-year-old. Katelee came to me crying the other day. This is what she said, "I can't eat my oatmeal because I'm hungry but then I'll be too full for my treat and because my toe hurts so BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!"

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Since school ended, we've instituted daily afternoon naps around here once again - hallelujah! One day recently I decided not to put Katelee down for her nap. She was acting cheerful and I chose not to take the time. About halfway through my piano lessons, she climbed into my lap and fell asleep! I laid my big girl on the couch about 2 feet away and proceeded to teach three more piano lessons before I had to wake her up. I thought it was pretty funny! I guess she really does need her daily nap.

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Katelee really loves to give her toys away. She's doing it (or trying to) all the time. I try to let her, because I'm glad she has such a generous heart, but sometimes I have opinions about what she should be allowed to give away. :) Tonight we were visiting with some friends. Katelee had three Barbies and the dad figurine from her play house. As we were leaving, she was SOOOOOO excited to tell us that she had decided to make a trade with her friends! She gave them four things (the above mentioned toys) for four new things: a blade of grass, a leaf, a stick and a two-inch tall doll from a happy meal. Gerald and I made jokes on the way home about needing to teach her better bartering skills! But the truth is, she is thrilled with her new items and equally thrilled to have made her friends happy. So maybe we are the ones who need to reevaluate the worth of these items.

Month o' Hair, Week #2

Katelee and I are still having lots of fun continuing on our quest of coming up with different hairstyles for each day of this month! We had fun this week trying new styles. Most of them turned out really cute. I've continued to get inspiration from the blogs mentioned previously, as well as a new blog recommended to me called Babes in Hairland. Happy hairstyling!

Day 14

Today was the first time I really experimented with 'corkscrew' braids. They are so easy to do, but I think they look really cool. I parted her hair down the middle on top and did one corkscrew braid on each side going back into a pony tail. I split the ponytail hair in half and did two separate corkscrew braids (one with each half) and then twisted the two braids around each other and secured at the end. I wrapped the two side braids from above around the ponytail and secured in the rubberband. I really loved how this hairstyle turned out. Tutorial here.

Day 13

Three braids into one big braid. Part the hair on the side. On the larger side, split the hair into two pieces and french braid each piece down the side of her head. Do the same, with only one braid, on the smaller side of the part. Bring all three braids back on the side, so that one braid wraps around the head, and braid the three braids together and fasten off. I like the waves still left over from yesterday's "crimped" hair, too.

Day 12

Braids into "crimped" hair.

Katelee chose this hairstyle. She likes her crazy crimped hair when I take it out of the hairstyles each night. So we decided to do it for real! After her shower, while her hair was still wet, we braided it into a bunch of little bitty braids that she slept on. The next morning, we carefully took out each braid, curled the ends, and added a headband. Ta da!

The night before:

Day 11

Vertical twists into double messy bun.

I split Katelee's hair into five parts going back from her forehead all the way down to her neck. I twisted each section of hair back halfway and then secured the bottom half (untwisted) to the top (twisted) half with a rubberband. I gathered all the ponytails into a big double messy bun.

Day 10

Crisscross ponytails

This was the first day of our vacation, and I knew I needed something that would withstand the zoo and swimming. I like this hairstyle because it's fast and easy, but gets lots of compliments. Part the hair in the middle and secure on top with two ponytails. Continue down to make another ponytail in the middle, only take a section of each ponytail and cross it over into the other side's rubberband, etc. Cute!

Day 9

Flower Bun

This is the bun where you separate the hair into five sections and roll each section up and secure with a bobbypin. I think Katelee looks DARLING with this hairstyle. Tutorial here.

Day 8

Waterfall braids

I've seen waterfall braids on a lot of blogs, and think they look gorgeous! They are HARD to do, though, harder than they look. Not that the technique is that tricky, but I can't figure out how to keep them in place. It's such a loose hairstyle. This is definitely not a hairdo for a busy day. (When do we NOT have a busy day?) Luckily, they stayed in Katelee's hair during her preschool program, though they were completely destroyed by about 11 a.m. :) Tutorial here.