mom day

i had a really nice mother's day. pat made me breakfast and took over all household duties (i only made a quiche and coconut bread for lunch with my mom). later in the afternoon, the girls suprised me with a makeover. they had put nametags on and a sign on their bedroom door and then groomed me - glitter and all. it was very relaxing and i was touched that they came up with such a great idea on their own. (for the record, my toes are still painted different colors on each foot!

hairchops X 3

grace and her best friend, kylie, have been growing their hair out to donate to charity. their birthdays are only six days apart, and so they decided to get haircuts on may 10th which was a date in between both their birthdays.
here's grace holding her ponytail after i cut it.

here are the girls with their hairdresser (who is our good friend, angela).
angela's next appointment happened to be gracie and kylie's other close friend, colleen. we measured and she had 10 inches too, so colleen decided to cut her hair at the spur of the moment.

grace and kylie had already left for friendly's before colleen arrived at angela's; so colleen surprised them there with her new haircut. mailing their hair to locks of love. (wigs for kids recently changed their website to 12 inches, so we sent it to locks for love.
kylie's mom put a great montage together. you can see it here.

birthday girls

in honor of their birthdays, i thought i would share some faves of the girls:

grace
favorite color: light blue
favorite food: ice cream and ramen noodles
favorite animal: horse
favorite music: anything by Hannah Montanna

recent saying that got a good reaction from her parents:
using lily's letter computer toy, gracie came up with family code names based on our initials. i ended up being: Ant, Kiss, Mouse, Hippo for my full name. in response, i said:
"so am i small like a mouse or huge like a hippo?"
pat just quietly smiles and i think that's the end until after some thought gracie pipes out:
"i'm going to go with huge!"
[it was said innocently enough, but i did quite emphatically try to teach her that you don't need to answer questions like that.]

lily
favorite color: yellow
favorite food: apples or applesauce, chocolate
favorite animal: horse
favorite toy: dolls, doll clothes, play doll food, doll strollers, dolls, dolls, dolls.

recent saying that melted our hearts:
lily wanted gracie to stay home instead of going to "take your child to work day."
lily: "can gracie stay home and play barbies with me?"
me: "no"
lily: "but i love her!"

so, what you'd think of the new tenor?

last weekend, pat and i and some friends went on a double date to Boston so we could hear my brother-in-law (seated in picture) perform with Boston Baroque. they performed Haydn's "The Creation" in german. the symphony played actual instruments that would have been used at the time Haydn wrote this oratorio. it was extremely well done and we were very proud of our brother-in-law, brian. you can read a review here.

overheard:

*the old ladies seated next to our friends said something like: "isn't that tenor great - he just melts in your mouth, like candy!" (this was before the ladies knew that my friends had a connection with the tenor).

*at the little reception/party after the performance, i heard a director tell some patrons how pleased they were the new tenor.

brian did well. i had the urge to go around asking people: "so, what you'd think of the new tenor?". i refrained, but it sounds like everyone was pleased since he's been asked to come back to Boston for a performance in december.

i enjoyed hearing the subject of the creation put to music. annie, i was sad that you couldn't here brian sing: "and to his breast he softly holds one of and for him formed, a woman, fair and graceful spouse. her softly smiling inoocent looks of lovely spring the mirror, bespeak him love, and joy, and bliss." but i am glad that you missed eve sing: "o thou, for whom i was made, my help, my shield, my all! thy will to me is law." (actually the audience giggled when these lines were sung.)

TYCTWD

gracie went to TYCTWD (take your child to work day) on april 24th. she was ecstatic!!! she was up and dressed by 7 am before i even had a chance to wake her (trust me - this never happens!) this was the first year that she was eligible, and she has been looking forward to it for over a year. she thought dad's meetings were boring, but loved everything else. there was even a bird show and she got to see two eagles and a snowy owl among other birds of prey. she got her pictures taken by engines and model airplanes and came home with a collection of goodies.

two down, one to go

three of my four children have birthdays within three weeks. the kickoff starts the last week in april, and ends next week with fritz's birthday.

lily turned four. can you guess which side of the cake she decorated?

lily with her new tin tea set; the perfect gift for a four year old who has gone through at least three tea sets.


pat jokingly suggested this hairstyle for school on the day of gracie's birthday. we both thought it was a good idea and she had crazy hair for the day.

grace with her hastily decorated birthday cake. she wanted a coconut cake with strawberries and chocolate. i did my best, but homemade cakes definitely are not my forte. thanks for the great recipe though, amber!

overheard

jungle book is the movie of the week here at the hinckley home. i just overheard lily speaking to "sher-kan" on the phone (he's the tiger who wants to eat mobley!!). anyhoo, i had to confirm and here is the resulting conversation:

me: "who are you talking to?"

lily: "sher-kan."

me: "from jungle book?"

lily: "yeah, he's the tiger who wants to kill the man cub."

me: "what are you telling him?"

lily: "that i'm going to the city with my mom and dad."

well, at least, she'll be safe from tigers in the city even if she likes to fraternize with them.