Sister Sister (but better than Tia and Tamera!)

Back in March my sister Megan came to visit me for two and a half weeks. Usually my mom takes Gwendolyn to school in the morning, and watches her (and gets her snacks, does homework, takes her to swim etc) every afternoon for me. My parents also babysit Gwendolyn at night a lot when I am not home. They are basically a godsend. However, after my mom had her last of three aunties who all lived together pass away in Belize she and my dad needed to go down there and sort out the will, house, funeral etc. Que babysitting freak out.

The first day they were gone, my sister hadn't arrived yet and I had to take Gwen to school in the morning (aka go to work late), take the world's longest lunch to go get her from school and then she had to sit at my office from 2:30-5:30 pm. Let's just say there isn't enough coloring, cupcakes, iPad games in the world to have made that go any smoother. So, after a quick dinner with the Englishman that evening...

I love my G1 and G2, or G and lowercase g, or my G babies, G loves... and the least goes on and on. And yes, this is a boring reuse of an insta-ed photo. Don't follow me on insta? You should. Then you would have seen this gem months ago!

I was SUPER glad to see my sister arrive in time to be our new "nanny" for the rest of the two weeks while my parents were slacking off from babysitting working down in Belize! Can you imagine my schlepping Gwen back and forth that whole time? OR her dying in my office every afternoon?

My sister has FIVE kids (who are all adorable and funny and amazingballs) yes, I said FIVE... mind blowing I know... and you haven't even seen them all running different directions yet. But as the older three are all in school she only came to visit with the "babies" - her two year old Gavin, and her five year old JD.

As soon as they came in Gavin, who is extremely anti his paparazzi Aunt B hid behind his Spongebob pillow. No photos please. Despite my best efforts over the next two weeks, Gavin still remains, at best, wary of me. I adore him and constantly try and lure him into my arms with candy, treats, promises of lovies and hugs and he just always asks me to "stop. please". :(

I wonder where he gets his anti paparaziness from? My sister and I cannot possibly be related. I like nothing more than to have my picture taken and yet she uses innocent children to avoid photos!

I am not even really sure why I am blogging about Megan's trip. I can never adequately explain just how hilarious she is, or how much fun we have together, or how completely bat shit crazy I think she is in awe of her lifestyle I am (she only uses cloth diapers and no epidurals- AGAIN she has had five kids!! Cooks everything from scratch, is a vegetarian/vegan etc, only uses hair/skin etc products that she basically makes herself from honey, clay, coconut oil etc, and the list of her crazy awesomeness goes on and on). Megan is the coolest sister, best photographer, partner in crime etc in my life. I have previously failed at blogging about her here (old blog) and she got me back here. There is no way I can even begin to describe the ridiculous convos, laughs and excitement we had making shopping runs, watching Downtown Abbey till 3 am, and trying to scare the Englishman off by making him go to restaurants with us and the three kids... again Megan has three more at home... this was nothing! Here are just a few of the highlights I was able to stop laughing for long enough to snap pictures of!

We took wild children to get ice cream:

Gavin still ignoring my attempts to capture his cute face with my camera

We ate and ate. Such an odd mix of food... Megan only eats all natural, healthy, homemade, locally grown, hormone free, psychologically stable, hand massaged, lovingly raised and prepared vegetables and quinoa etc. I am kissing a pizza box below and brought home cupcakes on numerous occasions. Bipolar menu anyone?

Bribing with cupcakes almost worked for a photo...

Nothing in the world is sadder than when cupcakes get hurt in transit. Nothing.

Speaking of bribing... I felt like I was ignoring the Englishman a bit, because well, because I was. I had a shinny, new Megan toy and her babies to play with (plus, she was watching Gwen everyday for moi) and so he and I saw each other far less than usual so I could devote all of my non working hours to MEGANTIME. Seriously, I didn't even sleep when she was here. I was either at work, being a hot mess with her, or watching Downton Abbey (and begging her to snuggle me) with her. Just now noting he didn't seem to complain about the fact that I hardly saw him!! :( In any case, I bribed him one day with cupcakes and Lululemon too. I still like you, I'd just rather play with Megan right now...

Gavin continued his epic avoidance of my photo taking annoyances:

We went to Build A Bear:

Ate some more:

We shopped more in those two weeks than I think my sister or her kids have ever shopped in their whole lives. Megan even got some Lululemon!! And I bought something from Free People. See how our cultures rubbed off on each other?!?!?

JD went to the right mother. He could not be anymore bored shopping with Aunt B. I think if it had been socially acceptable Megan would have flopped on the couch after the third or fourth store too. Who are you people?

Almost caught both of you two photo avoiders in one pic! Success! Miracle!

There were major cousin sleepovers. Gwendolyn learned she doesn't want brothers, or siblings at all for that matter. And the boys learned that they missed their sisters who actually know how to share.

Megan and I both took a temporary leave of absence from our sanity and thought our crafting/hairstyling skills were far more superior than they were and decided that I should be trusted to dye our hair. Megan has wanted tye dye hair for years... way before anyone else was doing colored hair, or tye dye tips or any of that nonsense. See proof here (blog from two years ago when we tried to dye Megan's hair and [SMARTLY SO] decided we didn't know what we were doing)... we have tried and been paralyzed by lack of confidence before. This time we were not going to be deterred  I wanted ombre tips and Megan wanted colored ones. I have never done hair before, nor do I even like when pros do my hair. I also can't draw, sculpt, paint etc to save my life but we somehow powered through and both MIRACULOUSLY liked the results. I should quit my day job. 

Plain hair before. Only color deviation from root to tip is split ends. Classy. One quick root painting of a shade darker, and three rounds of carefully and lightly bleaching the tips INDIVIDUALLY until I got a mix I was happy with of some lighter  and darker shades and....

Voila. Dark brown, chocolate, caramel  and then some varying shades of blonde tips. It is like I am a chemical hair voodoo magician.

Megan's hair was a bit more scary. We couldn't just cut the tips off if we hated it (aka if I BOTCHED IT ALL UP), and it was her hair so she could be mad at someone other than herself if it was awful. She was incredibly brave though sitting in that chair watching me just randomly apply bleach to streaks around her head, and then the bottom half of her hair to "make highlights" and "prepare the bottom pieces of color". Step one of becoming a hairdresser in my world was talking like you know what you are doing. We also waited until 10 pm to start these five hour processes. Late night insanity equals confidence.

Megan's hair after round one of random hair streak lightening and color applying on tips.

Megan during phase two. More lightening and more color application. We bought white out bleach and color tubes from Hot Topic. I basically just bleached her tips, bleached (for various lengths of time to give different shades of blonde) strands through her head and then applied the color to the tips. On some pieces I did all one color just darker at the tip and faded it lighter going up. As I realized it wasn't awful I got brave and mixed some colors... pink fading to purple, green into blue etc. We did about three rounds of color application to get the right amount and darkness. It was the scariest and most fun thing ever. Megan was advised to let the color sit as long as possible. To ensure it was dark and took to her hair well we wrapped each tip in foil and then covered her head in a towel after I painted the desired shade. She then watched hours of Downton Abbey with me and we slept on the couch. She is going to die that I put this panda shot up. Beauty is pain though!

Megan's hair after. Totally doesn't capture how awesome it is. Mom of five, rocker of the tye dye hair. Love it.

We also cleaned out the old shiz from my closets, and re organized everything. Without Megan sitting on the floor dying over how much stuff I have shoved in random closets, and keeping me laughing I would never have gotten through the closet overhaul. THANK YOU!

She eliminated a whole haning rack taking up space in my room by suggesting that sweaters, work out gear, and scarves didn't need to be hung up.. merely folded and put in cubbies! Genius!

Megan also took some pictures of Gwen and I that make us both look far more beautiful than we could ever dream of being... see them here. Add photoshop and magic to her list of amazing qualities!

Like I said... I can never fully do our time together justice. You are the best sister ever. And if you would just move here already I would eat so much healthier, laugh so much more, spend less time annoying the Englishman and have way better closets and hair! I wish I had gotten pictures of how often we looked like hot messes at church with all the wild kids, us making easter eggs in the car, talking awkwardly to everyone because we bring out the awkward in each other, trying to fix the garbage disposal, and certainly pictures of you trying to capture Justin Fluffy Bieber (Gwen's hamster) when he escaped. I did however, capture these two shots... which means, in the epic battle of wills and sneaky photography...between me and Gavin... I WON!

Almost directly head on! And no frown!

Looking right at me/camera and a half smile?!?!? There is a god!

Come back soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon Megan (and kiddos)!