Dear future Lea

Dear 29-year-old Lea,
As you prepare for a monumental birthday, perhaps you will look through your baby book and ask me why there is a zip lock bag of hair shoved in it. Well let me explain that it is because seven-and-a-half-year-old you ran up to me with a fist full of hair when you got your hair cut today. Not knowing what to do with it I shoved it in my pocket and decided to save it for posterity. I probably should have included this note with the actual bag of hair, but I thought I'd leave you a challenge to find this on our blog. You are beautiful every day, but now with your "pouffy hair" cut (a little bob by Charlotte) you're very fancy. Not every seven-year-old has their own stylist.

Here is Lea getting her hair washed. Nothing feels as good, look at that blissful look.

Here is Lea's hair cut along with my awesome Mother's Day flowers that were almost as tall as Lea! I told Dan "A forest was delivered to my office." and Dan replied "Well then I'm upset because I ordered a forest and a half!" Ha!

And so we're sure that we're not too vain, here's a goofy photo. Lea got stick on mustaches at Chuck E. Cheese and I stuck them on the mirror so we could "wear them" without the annoying stickiness. 

Student of the month!

Sure its been a while since I posted, but I thought I'd come back with a bit of bragging. Lea was student of the month in her class so she got a certificate and a free meal at Applebees. It was fun to cheer. So here is video and some pics.  

What's that you ask? Is she missing a tooth? Why yes! They are coming out slow. This is only her second lost tooth and she's almost 8! Hope that means healthy teeth for the rest of her life. The toothfairy was scared off at night because of her cough and me getting up to give her medicine in the middle of the night, so she snuck in mid morning and left cash for the tooth! That toothfiary is tricky!

May crowning of Mother Mary

A busy spring

 Its been a wild and busy Spring already! We started with Dan's birthday and dinner out. Then the weekend before my birthday we took an old fashioned steam train from one little town to Ft.Worth (about 45 minute trip). It was very touristy, but very fun. Unfortunately we had rainy weather so the viewing car was not open. We had lunch with a friend and ate too much candy at the candy shop. 

Lea in Dan's adventure hat.

The Neals with a local in front of a Grapevine store filled with overpriced doll clothes and silly signs.

Lea and her balloon hat from a roaming clown on the only horse we saw in the stockyards. This was right after lunch at bbq with Teddy.

The perfect train photo! The way home. Did I mention it was raining?

But a little rain never stopped us Neal girls!

The next weekend was St. Pat's so we went to the parade (the bill was footed by our basketball owner [Mark Cuban] since the city said they couldn't pay for it!). We had a bar-b-q in the backyard afterward with some friends over as a big birthday bash for both Dan and I. Though not a lot of folks came, we still had had dad and sister and one couple that I've known since college. One of Lea's school mates came with her dad so she had a blast. The dad was a captive audience so he was forced to hear all our stories that everyone else already knew (ha!). 

Lea found a lady bug while waiting for the parade.

The Ladybug goes for a walk.

Dan and Lea waiting for the parade. Lea and I actually spent most of the time in line for the bathroom. Because the city cut the budget there were no port-a-potties so there was a gas station with ONE potty. Us girls actually missed the beginning of the parade and the end of the parade waiting in a very long line for the ONE potty.

We were of course accompanied by our trusty side kick Uncle Scumfy (Michael Hopens)

Happy Family at the parade

The boys never give up trying to catch something good. Another year without a rubber chicken.

Lea had a little rest in the middle.

The next weekend Dan and I got to go to Houston for a work convention. A few hours of class, a few awards, free dinner and free hotel. Oh and I won a Kindle Fire! That was really exciting. Unfortunately the hotel was so far north (by the airport) that there wasn't much sight seeing to do, but I've seen most of Houston so we just enjoyed the free cable and air conditioning! Its already getting crazy hot here! It was a tough time getting there! We had a blow out and Dan had to change the driver's side tire on the busy freeway.

Here's an angry Dan after 2 hours and getting a new tire. We made it at 4:30 to the place that closed at 5pm.

That brings us to last weekend which was perhaps the most packed. I knew all of March had been filled with plans, but the 30-31 slipped by me so I kept saying "sure we can do something that weekend, we're free!"... well then we ended up with every day crammed full from sun up to sun down.

Friday Lea's school had an African Dance troop at 9am, a tree planting ceremony at 1pm  in their school garden and Lea sang with the choir, then at 6pm (with me as PTA chairperson) we had a free movie night and showed HOP. Dan made popcorn from 4:30 to 7:30! We had a blast even though the air conditioning was out and it was over 80 degrees! The parents pitched in and brought fans and it was fine by the time the sun went down.

Then Saturday I hosted an Easter party for Lea's friends. They all dressed up from the dress up box, made up fancy names (Lea was Ms. Easter, we had Ella Pretty Sunshine, Ms. Elegant, Miss Sugarfairy and I was Penelope Pipsworth and Dan was Lord Chattsworth) and they had mint tea. Then we hid plastic filled eggs around the backyard and the girls all raced to find them. And finally we set up egg dye and paint in the backyard. Like years past I filled eggs with plaster so I didn't have to worry about broken boiled egg mess and smell. Some of the girls got very artistic and creative, but Lea still just likes to dip them from dye cup to dye cup until they're a greyish brown.

Lea pouring for her fancy friends.

The girls search for treat filled eggs.

And then the egg dying and painting began. Again I saved eggs all year and filled them with plaster. I tried adding some tempera paint to the plaster to make colored chalk, but it didn't work perfectly. 

Some of the girls got very creative.

But Lea just loved dipping them in colors.

Then Sunday we went to another family's crawfish boil and left there with a big group of Girl Scouts to go to Disney Princesses on Ice. It was pretty cool. They basically act out the stories on Ice and when they did Rapunzel or Tangled they did acrobatics on long yellow ribbons suspended from the rafters. It was pretty cool and amazing to Lea. The grand finale brought every princess out in beautiful white and cream dresses and Mickey and Minney as King and Queen. Lea kept talking about that. It was like they were super stars! The cheers and screams from the little girls!

Disney on ice.

 Dan dropped us off at the arena and then we took the train back near home and Dan picked us up. Lea got a 7-11 Slurpee instead of a $12 princess ice treat.

Lea got to sit on her own with her friends. These girl scouts are a year older so she said they were "taking care of her." Very responsible girls!

Now we're packing to leave for California for 4 days. Hopefully this ends the crazy busy time, but I'm sure its just a lull. Dan says I manage to fill our schedule pretty full (but he secretly enjoys it!) and I do. There's just so much fun stuff to do! And of course watching the joy of Lea makes it all magical!

Lea Sews!

So one day when Lea lost TV/Computer privileges we decided to work on a project. I found this pattern for a t-shirt for Barbie that looked pretty simple and we decided to give it a try.

Our biggest challenge was tying a knot in the end of the thread. The way I do it is wind it around my finger and push it off and víola a knot. I've since been taught by our resident Yarn Bomber, KWitta how to do a quilter knot. 

We cut the pattern, and stitched the three seams. Lea's knots were a bit loose so I did make a safety row of stitches so it didn't fall apart. 

Lea then used glitter glue to make a heart on the front of her t-stirt. 

It took us some time, a bit of arguing, but I am so proud of both of us to start and finish a project. We are very proud of ourselves!

Later Barbie got a beauty pageant sash. And don't ask who Brenna Powell is. I have no idea. My mom found this box when I was in high school and I've kept sewing notions in it since. So thank you Brenna whoever you are! 

A visit from the Tooth Fairy

Lea lost her first tooth on January 12. I came home and she was excited to show me the wiggliness. I thought she would enjoy wiggling it for a day or two, but no... not our little linear thinker. As we got ready for bed she told me how much it was annoying her. I told her to enjoy wiggling it and not think about it. I went to take a shower, came out and Dan and Lea were perched in the bathroom extracting the tooth. Neither of them are very good at waiting. Dan took a piece of dental floss, wrapped it around the base of the wiggly tooth and began to tighten. He talked to Lea and I guess she didn't even notice when it popped right out. Then the blood came. That worried her for a bit, but rinsing and patting it with gauze and finally we were ready for bed.

I had our tooth pillow all set and ready. It is actually the tooth pillow I used when I was a kid and I think it matches a bedroom set I got from my great grandmother, Peggy. I love handing down special things from special people! 

In went the tooth. Asleep went the girl. Some time in the night the tooth fairy came and left Lea $1. 

She used the money to buy ice cream at lunch. I don't think the tooth fairy would approve... I know the dentist wouldn't. 

Now one of Lea's many talents is fitting a straw in between her teeth.

Christmas 2012

We started out the week with a visit to Santa. Lea has been very good this year so of course he was happy to see her well written and simple note. 

We went out to Grandmas on Wednesday and spent the week with Grampy (Lea's Great Grandpa) and Margarete. We had one beautiful day and we spent it outside. We fed the goats and donkey, we filled the bird feeders, Lea played scientist and wandered around finding things for us to examine.

We played many games of Train Dominos. 

Someone asked if Lea had a boyfriend and her response of "I'm only six, of course I don't have a boyfriend!" got a big hoot out of Grampy.

Katelyn the "Our Generation" doll (Target's version of American Girl and far more affordable) came with a skating outfit, a book and then also under the tree was a bowling outfit, a sleeping bag and tent and pus for Katelyn. That was certainly the prize present. Lea and Katelyn have been practically inseparable.

Lea also was an awesome gift giver this year. At our church's bizarre they had a "children's store." Garage store quality goods from parishioners that the kids could shop for. The church ladies helped Lea shop without us and she got a gift for me, Dan, Grandma and Grandpa Dan. Lea wrapped the gifts all by herself and left them under the tree for over a month without telling us what they were. All we knew as that we had to be careful with Grandma's because it was breakable. She did wonderful! Grandma got a glass jewelry box, I got a cute box and candle and Dan got a Norman Rockwell coffee cup with a fisher man because "I knew you liked to fish Daddy!" She was so proud and really put thought into the gifts. It is was so cute and sweet. She did awesome!

Santa brought the Playdoh Smashed Potato game which is fun for the whole family. There is a machine that crinkle cuts, chops, snips or french fries your little guy. There could be an extra smashing space on the spinner for more smashing fun, but I guess then the game would last too long. It quickly turned into a game of "restaurant and potato orders" but that was fun too. Santa also brought a Barbie pretend news camera so there was much reporting going on. And in Mommy's stocking was a new camera! Hooray no more rubber band holding her camera together!

A wonderful Christmas. We'll be back out in East Texas for a low key New Years. Thanks to all the rain the week of Christmas we should be able to have a nice fire in the fire pit and roast some marshmallows and drink some cocoa. A wonderful holiday.