First Communion Frenzy!

Our house is a flurry of activity getting ready for my daughter's First Communion this Saturday! My mother-in-law and her sister are flying in first thing Friday morning, and we are busily getting the house ready for their visit and for the celebration after church on Saturday. Let's see, the highlights of where we are in the preparation:

- Dress, check!

- Headpiece - nope... Still working on that...

- Special gift for the "girl of honor" -- we decided to get her a small memento in honor of the day (nope, haven't picked that up yet...), and then we are taking the rest of what we planned to spend on a gift and we are going to donate the money to charity in her name. We wanted to show her that this is a special day, it's not about gifts, and it's always good to help others. My friend Catherine gave me the idea -- she had her daughter pick a charity to donate to for her First Communion, as well. We gave my girl lots of options, and she picked the agency that Mommy works at -- so that was very sweet of her!

- Rehearsal, check! We went to the rehearsal tonight at church. My husband's work schedule was changed and he was unavailable to "assist" tonight, so Mommy took both girls to church for the rehearsal. Honestly, we were there for no more than 5 minutes, and my littlest girlie poops in her diaper... And "mother of the year" was not brave enough to take her pants off in church and deal with wrestling with her on a church pew (pardon the pun!) ;) to try and change her... The little girlie was chatty all through the rehearsal and kept wanting to "go get" her sister (as in, "I go get her!" no, no, you stay with Mommy!) whether her sister was in the back of church lining up for the processional, or on the altar, practicing the group's song. But, this was not my first rodeo -- at least I had the sense to change out of the high heels I wore to work, and into my sneakers!! I wanted to be prepared to sprint after her, as necessary...

- Hair cut, check! Ok, this was not actually on our list of things to do for the First Communion. In fact, my girl has prided herself on growing her hair nice and long, and frequently shows me her "bangs" which are the same length as the rest of her hair. Yeah, I don't think they're called bangs at that point... Anyway, Sunday as Daddy and Mommy were up to their eyeballs in window cleaner and vacuum bags, she comes into the room and show me a big knot in her hair -- in the front -- and it is saturated with some sort of liquid, and she is trying to get it out with a toy, Hannah Montana comb. I am holding one of my (wonderful -- LOVE them!) tilt-in windows, cleaning the outside of the window, and she shows me this knot and suggests that Daddy should cut it out of her hair. I say, no, we can easily brush that out -- give me a few minutes. "That's ok, I'll have Daddy take care of it!" Ok, off she goes. About 5 minutes later, she's back and I can tell right away that it's gone -- and so are about 8 inches of her hair in a chunk in the front! What did you DO? "I cut it out!" WHY DID YOU DO THAT? "Well, no one could help me, so I cut it out myself!" WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE WAITED FOR 5 MINUTES?? "I don't know!!" (tears...) Don't EVER take scissors to your hair AGAIN! Oh, and by the way, WHICH scissors did you use? "Those big ones of yours." WHAT? You aren't even allowed to cut PAPER with those scissors!! "Well, Grandpa let me use them once!" With supervision, I'd imagine!! "Well, yes..." Really? 8 years go by and you don't ever cut your own hair. 6 days before your First Communion, you decide it would be a good idea?

I guess it could be worse -- my husband reminded me -- his sister once shaved once of her eyebrows off, and to this day, when someone brings it up (and we always bring it up...) she still insists that it FELL OUT!

What crazy things have your kids been up to lately?