Elly has been taking dance since last August. She had her recital last night and one this afternoon. It was a busy week...tech rehearsal on Wednesday night, and 3 hour dress rehearsal on Friday night, then a Saturday evening recital, and one on Sunday afternoon. Whew! We are all beat! Uncle Ryan came last night and went with me to the first recital. (Maddy bridged to Junior Girl Scouts on Sat. night so Kevin went with her. More on that to come soon...) Afterwards, we took Elly to Dairy Queen because every little girl deserves some ice cream! We met up with daddy, too.
Elly ate all of her sundae and then conned Uncle Ryan into sharing his chocolate shake.
On Sunday, Grandma Vicki & Aunt Cindy came down to watch her dance. Daddy & Maddy also came. 
Mommy & Elly. I don't normally hop in the pictures, but I am flying to Chicago on Friday and if anything happens...well, my family might need some pictures of me.
Grandma Vicki & Elly.
But, isn't it freezing?
We washed the girls clothes/coats in tea tree oil with no fabric softener. We used the Circle of Friends Lice shampoo to prevent the Lice/Nits/Eggs from attaching to the girls hair and sprayed their hair/neck with the Leave-In conditioner as a further deterrant. Then, we used the Lice Ice as a preventative gel that left their hair "crispy" and pulled the hair up and into bun-buns. Once they were all dressed and ready to go...I sprayed them with a concoction of 1/2 cup water with approx. 14 drops of tea tree oil. I went a little overboard. I even got their hair cut short! I told the girls no hugging friends, no sleepovers/playdates and I kept their coats in my classroom so they weren't "exposed." Every night, I washed & dried their coats and clothes. Turns out, I don't know which is worse...getting head lice first or being one of the last. After so many weeks of this, I was worn out. I told the girls one Friday night in mid-November that I needed a break. They were having a sleepover at the girls' school (which I told them "no" b/c of the lice) and I told the girls' they could have a camp-out in our living room with special snacks and pizza. I gave the girls one final head check and since they were clear...I announced, "No head checks for the rest of the weekend!" There were lots of squeals! It was a fantastic weekend! Then, Sunday night came. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I had let the girls stay up a little later than normal and I gave them a shower about 8:30pm. I told them that I really should check their heads before we went back to school on Monday. Guess what I found...Maddy had 2 live louse. I think they must have crawled onto her clothes on Friday...and by Sunday, they had found her hair. I was devastated. The girls cried. Of course, Kevin had an FCA event and didn't get home til about 10:30pm. So...by the time, I gave them a treatment, changed their sheets, vacumned their beds/room, and bagged up all soft items, it was after 11pm. They were exhausted. After they went to bed, Kevin returned and the fun started. We were up til 3am bagging stuff/vacumning/etc... Kevin made a Midnight run to Walgreens and got trash bags & more Lice Ice, and he even took both cars and vacumned them out. It was a nightmare. I slept for one hour and then got up at 4am. I felt like I had things crawling on me. Maddy had a very mild case. I think all of the preventative measures helped. It was still awful. We didn't go back to see our families for Thanksgiving. Even though, Maddy was fine...only having a few unattached nits and Elly & I never got it. Thank goodness. I was a fanatic until Christmas break. I made the girls undress in the garage and go straight to the showers upon returning home after school. We did treatments every Friday night. Kevin thought I was INSANE. I had hoped after the 16 day break (essentially 2 life cycles for Lice) that all of the Lice in our Lower Elementary would be gone. The classroom that had it from the first day of school in September STILL had it after Christmas break. I was so mad! I knew it would just be a matter of time before it had spread to every classroom again. Ugh. Maddy's two friends had it again in February. We did a modified prevention plan. But...I hadn't heard any rumblings whatsoever since February. Yesterday...I saw Maddy itch her head at the grocery store. I had an errant thought... I checked her last night after her shower. Guess what I found? 3 live louse. Here we go again... Good thing we were planning on staying here for Easter... :(
The girls got hair cuts today b/c we have pictures at school on Wednesday. They love to get hair cuts b/c Ms. Kris does cool braids & ponies. :) 
Dutch Braids... 
Our teeny tiny Downtown has a new cupcake bakery. I took the girls today to get a cupcake for them... 
Maddy chose the Cookie Dough Cupcake...so Elly chose that as well. Poor Maddy. Elly worships her. :) 
I got 2 for the Wade Guy in our house. He is umpiring a college baseball game today so I got 2 for the # of sore feet we will have in our house tonight. :( Poor guy...what he does for us. 
They are his favorite...Red Velvet! :)