Lemonade

Well I seem to have fallen behind... So let me recap the weekend. 

On Saturday morning, Avery went upstairs with Josh because she likes to play with the exercise ball. He had her birthday present up there, which was a big basketball hoop. It was still in the box, but he hadn't covered up the box or taken any extra measures to conceal it.  So when she went up the stairs, she saw it. 

I told Josh that she could just look at the pictures of kids on the box, she didn't have to know what was actually in there. But he felt bad for her, so he set it up. 

Her excitement lasted about 10 minutes. But Josh's excitement still hasn't worn off.

I think I know who this gift was actually for...

Later in the morning, Avery (surprisingly) let me dress her for dance class (with the exception of princess shoes in place of ballet slippers, of course).

She practiced her moves before we left..

Passe:

Tendu:

Arabesque:

Plie:

Chausse:

After Avery was asleep last night, I started steaming our clothes and prepping for our family photo shoot (for Avery's 2 year pictures and our family Christmas card photo), which was today. Just to emphasize the importance of this day, let me interject here that I booked this photo shoot a year ago. A YEAR ago. 

So naturally, here's where things started to fall apart. 

I had misread the calendar when scheduling my hair appointment prior to the pictures.  So my hair appointment is NEXT Saturday. By the time I realized I had scheduled it a week later than I wanted it, it was too late to change it, as Julie was not working this weekend.  So she suggested that I just get some blond dye at the store to touch up my roots before the pictures, and then she would take care of the highlights next week. 

I don't know if I just got the wrong color, or if I just didn't apply it correctly, but my hair turned out bright orange. ORANGE. Not an exaggeration. I looked pretty much like a Golden Tamarin. I completely freaked out, and assumed I didn't allow the bleach enough processing time, so I decided to go for a second round.  This of course made my hair even lighter with patches of yellowish white mixed in with the orange, so then I looked like a 50/50 bar.  (This is why I usually leave my hair to a professional).

By the time I was done with the second round of dye and my second tearful phone call to Julie, I gave up and went to bed, with the depressing plan to buy a hat in the morning to cover my head for the pictures (and for the workweek).

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up, wishing it was all a nightmare as I stared at my Carrot Top reflection in the mirror. Then Avery woke up with a pimple on her cheek. Yes, a pimple. (!?!?)

I zoomed out of the house at 11:00 (when I knew the clothing store near our house would be open) and came home with one hat and a couple of headbands. I was pretty happy about one of the headbands, which seemed to cover the worst spot on my head, but Josh hated it and told me it looked like I was wearing a dead bird. (He really has a way with words).  Well, between drunken-clown-orange and dead bird, I chose dead bird.

Let me add in here that Avery wouldn't nap, so Josh somehow managed to get her to crash out for 40 minutes in her highchair because she wouldn't go in her bed.  So she had purple circles under her eyes, which was adding to my stress. Every time I try to orchestrate things perfectly and construct a plan around her schedule, she manages to completely botch it.

But despite the various debacles, the lemons found their way into lemonade, so to speak.  Avery miraculously went on the big girl potty for the first time in the middle of all this chaos. The forecast said rain, but the sky cleared this morning and we had beautiful sunny skies for our pictures.  And somehow, some way, with my orange head and Avery's pimple and dark circles, (and one talented photographer), we managed to pull it together.

[Disclaimer: this is the only photo I have seen. So there is still a chance that this is the only decent one out of all the hundreds we took.  But I'm hoping for lemonade!]