Whoa, Nellie!

A couple of weeks ago, Chloe played Nellie Bly in her third grade program about American Heroes.  It was the biggest speaking part in the whole show, so . . . she's kind of a big deal.  They don't sell Nellie Bly costumes at the store, so this was the best we could do.  (Don't bother looking her up.  We totally nailed it.)  It was a homemade shirt I bought at a thrift store, and the buttons kept coming undone, so Chloe was messing with it the whole time.

Chloe's already the tallest in her grade.  Put her in heels and game over.

She was the one and only child who didn't yell her lines into the microphone, which played well in the room, but makes her hard to hear on the video.

Her music teacher cracks me up.  She absolutely adores Chloe, though, so that's cool.

Not a great angle, but I was trying to get both Nellie's in the picture.  We're so proud of our little actress!

Birthday Sparkles

Our little Chloe Belle turned nine on Saturday.  This year was a party year for her (we do friend parties every other year), so she invited a few friends to Girly Girlz (Which, believe it or not, is NOT a strip club.) to have some fun in the Diva Day Spa.

Can you believe this place?  Totally out of control, but totally perfect for a group of giggly girls.  Each girl got to choose a hairstyle from their book of styles.

Chloe and her friend Andi chose the "hula" style.  They sprayed their hair, and then dumped some glitter on it.

The girls got their nails painted and then covered in glitter.

Mari liked the decor.

Valeria chose the "cowgirl" hairstyle.  I love that her shirt says "Glitter is my favorite color."  (In this picture, she's trying to wipe all the glitter off of her hands.)

Mari chose the "princess" hairstyle. 

Since we had a little time after they got their glitter lip gloss and glitter eye shadow, I let them get glitter tattoos.  Andi said she didn't want one until she learned that it would wash off.  (Ha!  What if I let them get real tattoos?!)

I was surprised there was any glitter left in the world after that.  

Sasha came a little late because she had a soccer game.  The women turned her into a princess in record time.

While they waited for Sasha, the other girls got up on stage with Ross Lynch and some guy from One Direction while they sang Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."  Mari knew all the words to every single Swifty song they played.  Could they BE more nine?

I think they liked it.

After Girly Girlz, we went back to our house and had cake and ice cream and presents in the backyard.  That was pretty exciting for Chloe, because it's not usually 85 degrees on her birthday.

Can you guess who the ten year old is in this picture?  Chloe's hoping her friends catch up to her height soon.  These sweet girls have taken Chloe in as a best friend from the moment they met.  I'm so grateful for their kindness.  It's made moving a lot easier for Chloe.  Being nine can be hard, unless you have friends and glitter.

Halloweenie

We had a wonderful Halloweek and the candy is still flowing like rain.  Hooray!

Miles decided to be Batman this year, which is perfect because I love buying things on Amazon.  This boy LOVED suiting up and even slept in his costume a few times.  My favorite thing is walking into a room and seeing Batman watching cartoons or eating cereal.  Crazy cute.

I wanted to get some pictures of him running through dark alleys ("Mom of the Year!" quoth Jeff.), but it turns out our town doesn't have a seedy underbelly.  I had to settle for the police station.

Superhero life is rough.

"You wanna get nuts?  Come on!  Let's get nuts!"

He's got this.

I thought it would be hilarious if Harrison was Robin, but Harrison said, "Mom!  Do you know what Robin wears?!"  No, I did not.  (Green briefs with no pants.  What the?!)  I found this lazy women's costume and thought that would also be funny, but it turned out to be more "Motherboy" than funny.  Miles said we looked cool together, so whatevs.

Chloe decided she wanted to be Princess Anna from "Frozen".  Yes, I know.  Super original.  But I was secretly excited that she didn't feel like she was too old to dress up like a Disney princess.  She's getting way too grown up for me.

I made her that necklace and watched some tutorials to get her hair looking fancypants.  A little girl at the park where we took these pictures thought that Chloe was the real Anna.  Nailed it.

This girl and her costumed friends asked if they could get a picture with Chloe.  Nervous laughter ensued.  She said she was going to be Elsa for Halloween.  I asked how many Halloween costumes one needed and her friend replied, "We're cosplayers!  Every day is Halloween!"  So that's fun.

I bought Chloe an Anna dress from eBay and it shipped from China.  It was the perfect size for an American five year old.  Chloe fell in love with the dress, even though it was clearly way too small.  Chloe is very tall for her age, and they don't make this dress in her size.  I ended  up buying another dress (also too small) and pinning it to the leotard she wore underneath it.

For the first time in forever I got to dress her up like a princess.  

Harrison's at a rough age for Halloween.  He still wants candy, but he doesn't want to dress like a superhero to get it.  After oh so much thought, he decided to recycle last year's banana costume and go as a rotten banana.

I thought it was a really clever idea and I always love an excuse to use spray paint.  We did some sickly makeup when he wore it for the church trunk or treat.  Then he left his costume at school on Halloween.  He skipped trick-or-treating and stayed home to pass out candy.  

My little boy is one big banana.