School Picture Day - 3 Strand Twist Out

It's hard to believe that school picture day has already arrived, but today was the day for Syd to say cheese! I removed her mini twist style last weekend (after 23 days), removing shed hair as I went. She washed her hair with a clarifying shampoo and we moisturized with Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer. I then used Darcy's Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme as I put her hair into about 40 three strand twists.

(I completely forgot to take a picture of her hair in the twists, but you can take a peek at this post about three strand twists to see what they look like.) Three strand twists seem to shrink up more and not look quite as full as two strand twists, but they make the most amazing twists outs on Syd's hair.

She wore the twists from Saturday evening until Monday morning. I helped her remove the twists this morning before school, and she had a great looking twist out for school pictures. I pinned one side back and she was ready to go. I managed to snap these few pictures just before she ran out the door.

If you take a close look at that last picture, you can see that I couldn't find Syd's black bobby pins, so she was stuck using some of mine that match my lighter hair. Oh well....c'est la vie!

I'd love to see what you all do for school picture day this year. Please feel free to share your pictures on our facebook page!

Guatemala 2012

As many of you are already aware, Syd and I went on our second missions trip to Guatemala last month. I would like to thank everyone who helped us get there, both through Huffleblossoms purchases and through direct donations. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

There are so many things I can tell you about, I don't really know where to begin! Our team had sent money down there before we went, so some local workers had already laid the block for the house we were building. When we got down there, the team put the roof on and poured the cement floor. The women on the team walked down every street in the village and stopped at every single house. We were looking to see who needed medical attention and we invited all the ladies in the village to a get-to-know-you type of meeting with all of the women from our team. We also took part in a church service, held a medical clinic, did activities with dozens of children, and so much more. After all of that, we even had a day to just be tourists in the city of Antigua (where I not-so-secretly want to live!).

Since we did such a variety of things, I had a hard time narrowing down the 500+ pictures I have of the trip. So I apologize in advance for this very photo heavy post, but hey...at least I got it down this much! :)

This is what the new house looked like when we got there

Adding the roof

What the majority of the houses in the village looked like

The village's Presbyterian Church

This guy became one of our meals, prepared by the ladies of the village

Duck Soup! It tasted AMAZING!

I fell in love with this little guy

The kids had a blast playing with Syd! Tag is just one of those games that transcends language barriers

Clean water - tear open a corner and insert a straw :)

The ladies preparing yet another delicious lunch

Organizing clothes to be given away

Helping the kids string beads to make salvation bracelets...over 70 kids made these with us!

Medical clinic

Because sometimes you just have to make faces at the camera

Syd made HUNDREDS of balloon animals for those kids!

I loved coloring with the kids

Syd and the other 12 year old on the team had a herd of little ones following them everywhere they went

Another medical clinic

Another team member and I prayed with every person who was seen in the clinic

These boys played together in that puddle for almost an hour. They were adorable!

This little girl, Mari, practically became Syd's shadow while we were there

Me and one of my new buddies

A herd of cows blocking the road is just a way of life here

Kids were literally hanging on Syd. :D

Being 12 doesn't get you out of physical labor

A playful moment between Syd and a new friend

Tearful goodbyes. It's so hard to leave!

Gas prices...lol! (it equals just over 4 US dollars per gallon)

Limonada...as fresh as it gets! :D

Heading out for a day of shopping in Antigua

Standing on the rooftop deck of a coffee shop we wandered into. Beautiful!

So there it is....a brief overview of our incredible 8 day adventure. If you have any questions or want to know more details about anything, feel free to ask here or on our facebook page!

Oh, I almost forgot one more detail. The day after we got home, I put the change from my pocket onto the counter. Syd asked if she could have it. I asked why she wanted it. Her answer? "To start our fund for the next trip." Another missions trip is definitely in our future!

Be blessed!

But We Just Did Your Hair!

You know that amazing sense of satisfaction when you finish a marathon styling session? Isn't it great?

I'm sure many of you also know that not-so-amazing feeling when you find out that your child is about to do something that could completely destroy the style that took hours to do, right? I just got to experience that feeling last week.

I spent 9 hours putting Syd's hair into the mini twist style she's currently wearing. Then, less than a week later, I heard the words "We're having a paint war at youth group!"

Yep, you read that right. A paint war. Followed by a water fight. My first thought was "That sounds like fun!" That was immediately followed by my second thought, which was "But we just did your hair!" Sigh.

Now, I would never make her miss out on a fun experience like that because of her hair, but for a minute there I was really wishing I could just tell her not to go. I mean, how on earth would we scrub paint out of her head full of twists without causing the frizz of the century? Those 200+ twists could very easily become casualties of the impending paint war.

But, as you may have expected, we did find a way for her to participate without destroying her twists. It worked like a charm and it was super easy. I'm sure most people would come up with something similar, but I wanted to show you what I did in case you find yourself in a similar situation (although I'm not sure paint wars are actually all that common...lol).

First, I used my fingers to part her twists down the center of her head and put her hair into 2 cornrows.

Then I wrapped the braids around her head and pinned them up on the sides.

Now her hair fit nicely up into a shower cap.

But the shower cap didn't fit very snugly. We were afraid it may not stay on all the way and some of her hair could still get covered in paint. A quick trip to the dollar store found our solution.

That shower cap wasn't going anywhere now! At first, Syd was a little self-conscious to look like this during the paint war. I mean, there were dozens of kids there, and she didn't want to be the only one wearing something on her head. To make her feel better, I picked up a few extra shower caps while we were at the dollar store. Her plan was to ask some friends to wear them with her so she wasn't the only one, but that's not exactly how things went. People ended up asking HER if they could have one to keep their hair protected! Syd was more than happy to pass them out.

And of course, she only wore the shower cap for the paint part of the evening. She removed the two layers of protection and unpinned her hair before the water fight.

I think it's safe to say we made a wise choice keeping her hair protected. Here's the "after" shot of her cap.

And at the end of the night, I had one very colorful, very wet tween (who still had paint-free hair).

The moral of this story is this: 

There have been many times I've heard about people limiting their children's activities because they don't want to destroy a hairstyle. But at the end of the day, it's only hair. There's usually a simple way to keep hair protected. There's just nothing that compares to watching children enjoy a crazy, messy childhood!

Turning Small Box Braids into Even Smaller Mini Twists

(Climbs out from under the rock I've been hiding under)

Hi there! I know it's been months since I've posted anything new. I would say I'm sorry, but....well...we've been having an absolutely amazing time just experiencing life and if I could do the last few months over again, I wouldn't change a thing! Opportunities presented themselves and we seem to always jump at the chance to step outside the box. If you've been following us for a while, you're probably aware of our recent missions trip to Guatemala. As expected, that was another life-changing trip for us. I'll make a separate post about that trip in the near future to tell you all about it!

Now....back to hair.

For the trip to Guatemala, Syd wore her hair in small box braids. I figured that was probably the easiest style for the rough conditions since there is no daily styling requirements. Just a bit of moisturizer every evening and she was done.

Syd's braids at the end of the trip

Those braids lasted a few weeks and survived some pretty harsh conditions. (If you want more details about how I do Syd's box braids, check out this post about small box braids.) The braids probably could have even lasted another week, but school was starting and every girl HAS to have a fresh style for that all-important first day of school. So we changed her box braids into mini twists. Here's how.

I wanted to do the new style on clean hair but didn't want to have a long detangling session, so Syd washed her hair while it was still in the braids. I tied most of it up out of the way, only working with a few braids at a time. I would unravel one braid, finger detangle that section to remove shed hair, added some Bee Mine Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer, and then turned the hair from that one braid into two new twists.

You could still see the part lines from the previous box braids style, but Syd's hair is so thick that those lines disappeared when we got further along in the style.

I did the back half of Syd's hair one afternoon, but we had somewhere to be that evening, so I stopped for the night. I pulled the top half of her hair back and she wore her hair half up for the night. The top half was in braids and the bottom half was in twists, but it really wasn't too noticeable.

We finished the twists the next day. It took just under 9 hours to complete the style. At first, I was shocked (and a little irritated) that it took so long, but then I remembered that I had removed over 100 braids, moisturized her hair, removed shed hair, AND created well over 200 new twists. So I suppose 9 hours isn't too bad, all things considered. (Patience, Rae....patience.) Regardless of how long it took to complete, her twists look great and she loves them.

Excuse the low photo quality here.

Syd is also back to running cross country this year, so the twists have spent a lot of time just being pulled back into a ponytail. But she did decide to style them for the first day of school. She french braided the front of one side along her hairline, and then pulled all of her hair into a low side ponytail. It's simple but cute...a perfect style for a 12 year old to do on herself!

I've missed you all.....it feels good to be back! Be blessed! =)

No Ponytails For Mom

I always take the time to make sure Syd's hair is properly cared for and styled nicely. She rarely walks out of the house with her hair just thrown up into a quick ponytail. Me, on the other hand? A messy, just-get-it-out-of-my-face ponytail has actually become my normal style. Sad, huh?

Well, things are going to change. I decided that I need to put as much love into my own hair as I put into Syd's. Working at home is no excuse for me to put no effort into my appearance. So for the next 3 weeks, I have decided to put an end to my ponytail habit.

From now until Mother's day, I will not allow myself to wear my hair in a ponytail. The only exception to this rule will be when I am working out. Running with my hair down just doesn't sound like a good idea.

To give you an idea of what I'm working with, here is a picture of my hair in its completely natural state. I washed it, combed it, and left it alone until it had completely air dried on its own (about 4 hours). It's very thick, very coarse, and can get pretty frizzy at times, despite being almost completely straight. (There goes the theory that frizz only attacks curly heads!)

Since I don't want to use a flat iron every day, I'm going to have to get creative. I have a feeling bobby pins are going to become some of my very good friends. I'll post pics every day or two on my facebook page in case other ponytail addicted moms want to see what I come up with. Check out that page at https://www.facebook.com/TweenyHairCommunity and feel free to post pictures of any styles you've done that might help me out!

Anyone else want to abandon ponytails with me???