Photos of Luna's haircut!

She's been asking for me to cut her hair like a boy for a while now. Luna finds it crazy empowering. With it short Monk can brush, wash & condition her hair by herself. It takes less than 5 mins to have it looking good except in cases of extreme bedhead. Mike thinks she's going to get giant neck muscles from tossing her bangs back with a flip of her head. lol.

I think it looks darling. Missing the flutter of blonde locks, tho. I don't think I've cut hair this straight without a pair of clippers in my hand in 20 years. The next time we're going to a salon.
Monk needs to get used to people other than Mommy doing things like this.

Another birthday. Yay!

We've been talking to lil kid about how she's a "big girl" now. More than one hand old! We're taking Luna and her cousin Natalie to Disney for her birthday, but we'll be going on Mike's actual birthday. It's a mess, but we're cool with it. Heh.


We made cupcakes to take to school. It was the day before her birthday because they were going on a field trip to a puppet show. Didn't want to sugar the kids up for an outing. lol.


Mom got her a funky cowboy/sun hat. She wore Oupa's cowboy boots pops to school.


Rather than a cake, since we do SO much baking here, Luna and Daddy decided on gigantic frosting coated cookie sandwiches. It took Luna 4 days to eat that cookie monster with others helping. :)

Saturday was pretty epic for a little kid. Gonna have to be a whole new post.

Megacon and Millinery skills

Ok, so we thought it would be cool to dress Luna in a character outfit for her first Con experience. After much debate over how many lumpy dudes in spiderman costumes there might be at a given time, Mike and I decided on Dr. Facilier (The Shadowman) from Princess and the frog. Luna loves him and wants to dress that way for the coming Halloween.

Since I got the hat constructed, it's been hard to keep it off her head! It's really cool how much she loves this whole thing.

I'm uberthrifty, so we explored all sorts of options before getting this one solid. I found a guy on Ebay selling old kid tux parts for crazy cheap. That solved, the next step was the hat. They cost more than I want to spend to purchase unless you've got an affinity for shoddy plastic crap, then there's loads in my price range and time availability! Googled how to make a top hat. Ok, doesn't take super human skills or a serger, so it started to look possible. But how to make it as crazy inexpensive as possible?

Let's break it down:
Giant purple feather = $2.50 ebay
Red Ribbon = $1
Black posterboard = .50c
Black bias tape = $1.99
Black puff paint = $1
Glue sticks = Had em (mostly)
Glue gun & etc = Had em
Black satin & netting = Thanx Jenny's mom!
Crown and rim = Thanx Lucky Charms box!
White Skull = Cut from the bag the jacket came in.
Big black jewel = Busted necklace part
Foam edging to size the hat = feather shipping tube

And half that expense is what would be used for a purchased hat! Whee!

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

Luna fell asleep last night in the middle of a cookie baking spree. When she got up this morning, we decided that cookies and milk made a decent enough brekkie for her as long as cartoons were involved. Yes, she is using her sleeping Daddy's waist divot as a plate. Teehee.


Daddy and Luna went outside for a little bit and did some MUCH needed yardwork. She found a caterpillar and played with it for a while before putting him back in the honeysuckle arbor.

March Madness

Well, after over 2 years, Luna ended up in hospital again. Still not sure if it was backlash from a cold she got at school or the freakishly high pollen count. However, they said it was pneumonia and boom into the hosp she goes. They had to send her to Orlando, since Deland doesn't have a pediatric unit. She was in for 4 days, then came home with a pile of meds and breathing treatment stuff.

She's doing much better and we're all really glad it didn't happen later in the month. She's going to MegaCon with Daddy and Uncle Claude on the 26th. Yay! It did cause her to miss a weekend at Grandma's with Natty, tho. Both girls were very upset about it, but we're sure they'll get a chance again soon.

Our garden

Luna got a spongebob watering can from Ouma for xmas. Lil kid was so jazzed about using it, that I got us some dirt and strawberry plants so she can water her little heart out. We've also planted avocados and this is the year I start the real garden.

I've got a small allowance for this, and I set it up in tiers in case I just totally suck at growing vegetables. I'm starting with peppers and tomatoes. My end goal is to have a diverse garden and makes lots of canned peppers for Mike and Pops. I've chosen about 6 different tomato varieties and a good 10 peppers. Both are getting very expensive at the grocery, so why not? I only want to plant fruits and veggies that are consistently expensive to buy or things we don't buy due to price.

Next thing is the little peat pods for germination, my seeds are on their way. I'm pretty sure Luna is going to have lots of fun with this project. I'm putting the seeds in the laundry room. They can get light from the windows and heat from the dryer. We'll transfer the seedlings to raised beds as the soil here is not very good for growing stuff. Luna and I are going to paint markers for the veggies once the seedlings are ready to move.

Star Student

Luna was chosen as the class Star Student. She got to fill out a poster about herself. It's random, but she liked it.


Grandma came with us to the Holiday performance. It was really nice to have her there. I think next year, I'm going to see if I can get my mother to come. Luna didn't really keep up with the song, even though she was singing it for 2 solid weeks in the house. Lil Kid refused to sing her song to me, but was more than happy to sing it while stuffing herself in the Clothes Nommer or skating thru the house. She was more interested in the "Big Finish" which she was very into. "Nailed it!!" Tee hee. She got her first pair of heels to go with her party dress. Clippity clop for 3 whole days before and after the event. I cut chunks off a swim noodle and made sponge rollers for her hair. She let me. I was surprised, I figured she'd hate me rolling her hair, but no. She was totally ok with the experience. Her hair came out so curly and neat. I got compliments on her curls the next day at the grocery store. When I told the lady what I'd done she was amazed and pleased. I have a feeling she might try it herself.

Gobble Gobble

This year Luna and I collected odd leaves while walking home from school. We made leaf faces.


We also made a pinecone turkey for Grandma's table. It turned out pretty darned cool. I'm thinking we'll make a few to give away next year, a few of the ladies really liked that silly thing.

First playdate...

Luna's buddy Levi was moving, so she got to go over for a playdate before he left. She had fun, he even drew pictures for her.

On their last day here, we made orange juice with this cool old citrus juicer. It was pretty neat. She misses him. It's kind of sad, she will come to me and tell me that she wants to have friends. She has two of em, really. One's in Rhode Island, now and the other is on the far far end of Orlando. We talked about taking time to make friends and that you have to be a friend to have a friend.

Levi sent Luna her first piece of personal mail. She got a christmas card from him with a drawing of the two of them holding hands on a playground. I put it in her memory folder.

Hopefully, when they're a little older they can spend time online together. We'll see...

Natalie came to play...

Luna had her first sleepover with her cousin Natalie. They had a blast. We made donuts for breakfast and had pizza for dinner. The girls had lots of fun with glowsticks at night. They had a lightsaber battle with Mike before Natty had to go home. Little kid is growing up. *sniffle*


They put new batteries in the drum machine. Whoever was holding the screwdriver had to wear the hard hat. Their idea, not mine. (Cuuuuute!)


The girls got to make some Jiffy Pop and chowed down on the livingroom floor chattering to each other about everything. It looked like a pair of teenagers in there.

So much Monkeyness...

Luna and I have been crafting and doing all sorts of things. She really enjoyed Christmas. I don't think there's one thing Luna received that she hasn't enjoyed thoroughly. Her choices for gifts this year were a remote controlled tarantula and a transformers pocket watch.

We all got sick recently. Like, the whole county. Mike ended up in the hospital over it. Whee.

She's been working on her sassy. Today while doing homework, Pops rolled in and started talking to her. Luna looked at him and said "Not now, Oupa, you're messing with my focus." Yeah, it's like that.

Grandpa got her a Paper Jamz guitar. She spent the first evening in front of the vanity practicing her metal face and her rock poses. Drama? NooOoOOo. She's super digging it and runs thru the house, playing electric guitar while yelling "I'm gonna rock this HOUSE!" Sadly, it only plays chords not notes, so I can't transcribe her fav songs or anything. She loves it, tho.

She loves busting in on me on the phone, but when she's interested in something and I want her time I get "Mommy, I'm busy right now." or "Not now, I'm working!"

Luna had an epic when I took down the Christmas stuff. Sorry, Kid. They're up for 28 days then they go away. A neighbor is moving to a condo, so she gave us her holiday decorations. This house was lit for Christmas for the first time in many, many years. We'd never lit any of the other houses we've lived in, it was more important to have clothes and presents for the kids than to raise the power bill for a month... We're really working on setting her traditions.

I took her to the library again, she loved going in there and looking at books. She's in a club, that if they read 4x a week for 2 weeks they get a free book. Yay! Lil kid likes being read to, but doing the actual reading - not so much. Unless it's something she wants. She looked at the dvr list and saw that I had recorded Tom and Jerry for her, so my darling faker can read when she wants to.

Luna is in speech class for some pronunciation issues. No big deal. Seems like a decent enough class. Other than that, she's doing well in school.

During the Holiday, Luna came to me and announced that she does not wanna be called Luna anymore, she prefers Jack. As in, Jack Skellington - The Pumpkin King. She wants to be a Pumpkin King, not a Queen and most certainly not a Princess. Our friend Jack is delighted and calls her Jack every time he sees her.