Deva Curl Hair

I've now been following the Deva Curl method for a year now. You can read about the start of my journey here. I have recently bought the Curly_Girl_Handbook and LOVE all the tips and tricks they include. Here is what I look like now:

And because Rebekah has a constant need to be in front of the camera:

The end of swim team

It has been a long season of daily practices and meets twice a week. Emma has loved it though. She has done such a good job.

She also gets very excited in cheering her teammates on during the relays...

Thanks Auntie Heather!

Squeals of delight is what I heard when the girls opened a package from their Auntie Heather. Heather, my brother Mike, and their 2 boys have moved to Macau (near Hong Kong). Heather generously decided to bequeath her collection of pre-Mattel Disney Princess dolls to my girls. They are in heaven!!

Funny thing is just a few days before Emma was commenting on how all of Rebekah's barbie dolls have blonde (or pink) hair. None of them had brown hair like her. When this box arrived Emma quickly grabbed Meg from Hercules and told Rebekah she could have all the other dolls if she could have this one. She wears a purple dress, her favorite color. I always think she would like Belle who also has brown hair and likes to read like Emma, but no, she went for Meg.

Dance for me

I showed this video of the Triwizard_Spirit_Rally at Harry Potter World. It features a dance from the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students. I wanted to show Rebekah how to dance with her new ribbon. The girls decided they needed to put on their own show.

What happens when you leave your garden for a week?

You get HUGE zucchinis and cucumbers. Big zucchinis are only good for one thing... zucchini bread. I can make 4 loaves out of one of those. But I don't know what to do with big cucumbers (I'm not much into pickling).

More new neighbors

We arrived home safely today. It's been a couple weeks since our new_neighbors moved in. I thought I would check and see how they are doing. This is what I found.

It's hard to tell, but there are 4 baby house finches.

Trip home

Here are some funny conversations from our trip.

Clay to Rebekah: Is it possible for you to NOT destroy or break everything you play with?

R: ... no.

Clay to Heidi: Why did you give her (Rebekah) so much meat? You know she has a stomach the size of a pea!

Emma: What did you say?

Rebekah: He said I'm full of pee!!!

Emma (wielding her wand at Rebekah): I'll turn you into a unicorn

R: Ribbit

E: I'll turn you into a horse

R: Ribbit

E: I'll turn you into a frog

R: Neigh

Emma: I would say they were perfect days (seeing the dolphins and getting her wand).

Welcome to Hogwarts

We couldn't wait to spend the day at Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure to check out Harry Potter World. Emma finished the first book before we left and started on the second one, so she was excited too. The Hogwarts Castle was the Forbidden Journey ride. Emma got to go on it 4 times!!! (We did the child swap with Rebekah so Clay and I only got 2 times each). They really did a great job re-creating Hogsmeade. This is the one place that you need to check out the bathrooms! You can hear Moaning Myrtle inside.

We loved the butterbeer! I had 3 or 4 of them during the day. It tastes kind of like a cream soda with a shortbread/butterscotch froth added to the top. We went to Honeydukes and had a chocolate frog and some chocolate caramel fudge.

We loved seeing all the things from the books: the Hogwarts Express, Hagrid's hut, Buckbeak, the car that Ron and Harry flew to school one year, and the monster book!

Later in the day we went to Ollivander's wand shop. Inside they recreate the scene from the first book, choosing a kid from the audience to play the part of Harry. It was fun to watch. Afterwards, you are let into the gift shop part. They have replicas of all the different wands from the books. Then they had wands based on the Celtic calendar. Emma got the Hazel wand. Rebekah chose the Beauxbaton ribbon (in a later post). For dinner we ate at the Three Broomsticks and I had yet another butterbeer (for the record, I like the regular version better than the frozen).

The girls also enjoyed visiting Seuss Land. However, Rebekah said her favorite ride was Spider-man.

Orlando Temple

After church on Sunday we drove to the Orlando Temple to walk around. We met another family who flew out for the launch from California. They had the same idea.


I remember when I was in college there were some girls in my dorm from Florida. They were so excited to be finally getting a temple. At the time they had to drive to Washington DC to go to the temple. I never understood how far that was, but now that I live out here --It's a 14 hour drive at least! I feel so blessed that I have always lived close to a temple and can enjoy the peace and blessings that comes from visiting it often.

Cocoa Beach and Jetty Park

I have missed the beach so much. It is so calming. We planned extra days to our vacation in case the shuttle launch got delayed. It launched right on time so now we have the time to enjoy the other things about Florida. We bought one of those sun shade umbrellas -it was great! Allowed us to stay on the beach all day without getting to hot or burned. The first thing the girls wanted to do was build a sandcastle.

Rebekah makes friends wherever she goes. First she wanted to bury herself (I turned her and her friend into mermaids). Later she played tag with the waves and this other little boy.

Emma helped with the sandcastle, but mostly she just wanted to use her kick board and catch some waves (she in the center).

Here is your proof that I went in the water. I love just standing in one spot gazing at the water and letting the waves lap against my legs, slowly dragging the sand from under my feet out to the ocean. We spotted this cute little sand crab as he came out of this hole.

That afternoon we drove out to Jetty Park. We saw so much wildlife!! Tons of sea turtles, a half dozen spotted rays, flocks of pelicans, and a few dolphins (lower right of 4th picture). There was also a manatee that came up right below us. While we were watching all this a cruise ship set out to sea (that counts as wildlife too, doesn't it?).

We had to literally DRAG Emma away from watching the dolphins. On our walk back to the car she said, "I am full of joy ..." That pretty much sums up a perfect day.