Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Coordinating Cooking


I was recently asked to make aprons for a Grandparent's gift basket that is up for bidding at a local Mother's Day Tea on...You got it, Mother's Day weekend:) I was given the fabric and given my requirements; one adult apron, and two kiddo aprons and left to create on my own. I love this kind of project! No $$ draining out of my pocket book, but full license to create:)

I designed and made a half apron for the lucky grandma. She'll match her little treasures ( I'm meaning grandchildren here) and feel a bit like a queen with the bright colors and pretty ruffles.


I pictured the green going to a little boy, and everyone knows that boys need pockets! Lots and lots of pockets! I can only image all the treasures that will find there way into this apron. The adjustable strap will come in handy for the inevitable growth spurts.


Now this little apron is for the little gal that wants to be just like grandma. A little bit of ruffle, a bunch of coverage to protect her pretty dress, and an adjustable strap to keep it usable over the years.


Ah, lovely, coordinating kitchen attire. That's my kind of project:) Now that I'm done with someone else's matching aprons, maybe I'll just whip up some of my own. I'm sure that I need another apron, the five that I have hanging in the kitchen right now surely need a rest. I'm starting another project for the good of my other aprons, I swear!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Just an average day with my monkey

My three year old boy is a monkey (for more proof of this fact, you can look here) and he was just up to his normal monkey antics the other day while I sat near by and photographed it for posterity.

Now you other mothers out there who don't have boys, don't judge me...you just wait and see what your boy would do given a pile of couch cushions and some free time:)


When I see my little man climbing up things, scaling walls or some such adventure, I just sit back and relax and let nature run it's course. I know that gravity will most likely win and that there will be bumps and bruises in our future, but man, he sure enjoys the experimentation process:)


Now you'll never find pictures of my sweet Kyla doing anything like this at this age, I was a bit more cautious (Hey now, stop that laughing) and didn't let her venture out of my comfort zone much. With my second kiddo, and a boy at that, well, life's a bit different:)


Because you just can't stop the pursuit of knowledge, that's what I tell myself. Yes, he is covered in bruises most of the time and yes, our owie ice packs wear out from the constant use, but he has an amazing concept of his body and his own physical limits. That whole figuring out gravity issue will come with time I'm sure:)


So here's to ice packs and snuggles, climbing trees and running on gravel, pokey sticks and bugs. Here's to living life to the fullest!

Monday, April 26, 2010

My Young Friend Singer

Kyla has been taking part in a singing group, Young Friend Singers, for the last couple of months and we were able to enjoy the fruits of her labor yesterday afternoon as they performed during Vespers at FriendsView Manor in Newberg. Her cousins, Hannah and Meira, are also in the group, and are the big draw for Kyla to take part:)

She did some singing...
(There have been times when she didn't:) )
She did some hand motions! (Progress Here!)
And she even smiled some...

She made some funny faces...
And so did Gavin
She even pulled up her dress a couple of times...
(this is a long formed habit that dates back to her first preschool performance,
oh the embarrassment!)
The rest of us just watched, sang along, and enjoyed the show.
Now, for your enjoyment. Drum Roll........
Presenting Young Friend Singers!

Friday, April 23, 2010

The grades are in!


Kyla just received her report card for the third quarter of first grade and we just had to celebrate her success! She's a reading champ, a super mathematician and a witty writer:) To celebrate, we used her reading certificate for a free personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. Does anyone else remember getting those and loving it? I sure do. I hope that Kyla's experience creates many good memories just as mine did when I was her age.


We are so proud of our little learner! It's been exciting to watch her love to learn and to read. What a smart kid she is...must have got that from me:)

Thursday, April 22, 2010

He Works Hard For His "Monies"

Well, we had a really long Tuesday this week, really long. Chad's car decided to throw a tantrum on his way home from work and had to be towed home. Thanks AAA:) Because of this, I ended up towing the kiddos with me as I went from one worship practice to another, one in Sheridan and one in Mac. The kids showed how amazing they are by being so very patient and quiet for two hours at a time, they are truly the best kids around:)

The next morning, Chad resolved to work from home and disembowel his car during his breaks. On one such break, Chad offhandedly told Gav that he could go to work for him if he'd like. You could see the excitement in Gavin's eyes as Chad pulled up a map on the computer to show him the way. Gav shot upstairs and was back down proudly wearing his "go to work" clothes which in truth were just random pieces of pajama sets:)


Before we knew it, he was out the door in his cowboy boots and pieced together pajamas and had hopped into Chad's car and was driving to work.


There were tears when the realization hit that he couldn't really go to work for Daddy, what a sweet heart that boy has. We did make a deal that we would take a trip to Daddy's work soon and have lunch with him. Gavin regretfully muttered, "I won't get any monies for doing that though." Cold reality hits again:)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Best Friends and Boys

My boy has a best friend and it occurred to me today that I've been remiss in arranging play time for him and his buddy. Gav and I were on a walk/bike ride this morning and he glanced at another little boy at the park and excitedly shouted that it was Truitt, his best bud. Umm, no, it wasn't. He looked at me with his big blue eyes and said, it's been so long since he's seen Wuitt (he doesn't seem capable of pronouncing beginning consonants at this time), he's forgotten what he looks like. Greatest Mom Award right there:( To be fair, we did have a play date planned for Monday, but Truitt's little brother is sick and us mommies didn't want to help the evil spread of germs.

Here's the germ carrying little brother, the sweet and happy Finley. He looks harmless, but his cold is nasty:)


Now back to friendship. The boys are roughly the same age, give or take a couple of months and get along so very well. When Truitt's mom and I first started doing planned play dates back in September, we were both amazed at how well the boys got along. The boys played well together and we could actually visit without being referees:)


These two boys are classic little boys, they loves trains, planes and automobiles and anything else that has a motor:)


They can both recite all the characters in the Thomas the Train series and are expert track builders and decommissioners. And oh how they giggle together:)


I had better call Truitt's mommy and reschedule, before Gav goes around the neighborhood calling everyone Wuitt. Hmmm, maybe we should work on the letter "T" as well:)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Is there such a thing as Half-Success?

If there is, than I have attained it:) My goal for this past weekend was to get my entire Hawaii trip scrapbooked. I made it half way through our two week trip to paradise. I was much more successful at lounging around (in my new, comfy pj pants), taking walks on the beach, eating peanut butter m&m's, and laughing until my belly ached. Seven of my gal friends converged on a friends beach house at Olivia Beach and we successfully relaxed, made some memories, broke an impressive amount of things at Stacee's house, and got a bit of scrapbooking done.


We crammed all of our bodies and paraphernalia into her living room/dining room and stayed up late into the night pretending to stay focused on our craft:) Check out Stacee in her apron (on the left), I forced her to wear it all weekend:)

We took walks on the beach, in both sunny and not so sunny weather. Domonique and Stacy conquered this log and had to have their victory recorded. Yep, we had that much fun:)


There is actual proof that I did do some of my book. And here it is...


Now I'm back home and back to real life...no more peanut butter m&m's, no more staying up until 2 in the morning, and no more crazed minivan mom's backing into my car (you know who you are). Just a half done book and a heap of hilarious memories. Good times my friends, good times!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Off I go!

The Oregon Coast is calling my name and scrapbooking is my game for the weekend:) I wrestled with Costco (metaphorically) all morning to get my hundreds of pictures printed and then ended up with most of them done and a few that will just have to wait. My bags are packed, my supplies are piled by the door awaiting Chad's strong muscles to haul them to the car, and my excitement is sky high:)

My goal this weekend is to get these...
Into this...
Wish me luck!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Truth About Me

Here it is, for all the world to see (well, all of those in this big old world that read this blog, so maybe not that many people really), the truth about me. I'm a procrastinator that likes to plan. Did you get that? Yep, if that doesn't shout contradiction I'm not sure what does:) I love to plan, it's part of my genetic makeup, my need for control. Unfortunately, I seem to leave all the things planned to the last minute:)

For example...A couple times a year, a bunch of my lady friends and I pack up all our scrapbooking gear and trek to the Oregon Coast for a weekend full of scrapbooking, food, and fun. I've known about this upcoming trip for at least a month and a half, maybe even longer. I don't have my pictures to scrapbook printed yet, let alone picked out. I'm not packed, and that includes my clothing, my mountain of scrapbooking supplies, or the food that I'm to bring. We leave tomorrow. Sighhhhhh.

You know what I did instead of prepping for this long awaited trip? I sewed, I re-covered a couple of dining room chairs, and I made curtains. Now that's going to help me scrapbook all right:) To be fair, the curtains have been on the docket since Christmas time so it really was about time I got around to it:)One of the ladies that I scrapbook with has a beach house, a big, new, beautiful beach house that she is graciously allowing us to take over for a long weekend come Thursday night. As a thank you kind of gift, I whipped up a retro style apron for the fabulous cook to wear in her new and beautiful kitchen.


Does this say beach house to you?
Next on my procrastination sewing binge list was a pair of comfy pajama pants. In truth, a comfy pair of pants is vital to a pleasing scrapbook. You must be comfortable in warm, soft, stretchy pants in order for the true creative process to emerge. Yep, I needed them:) The bonus here is that they are made out of a knit sheet set I snatched up at goodwill this week. Saving the environment and making better scrapbooks, that's what these pants are all about. (snicker, snicker)


Now, before all this extra stuff, I started my living room curtains. This past November, we had new windows installed and I couldn't bear to put up my old, boring curtains to cover their beauty. I've planned, made choices, changed those choices, saved for and finally placed the order on the perfect fabric for my living room. In all this planning, I just assumed that I had enough fabric to do the lining. I didn't actually go and measure. Much to my dismay as my mom and I started sewing last Friday, we didn't have enough lining:) Luckily, in my first hunt through Goodwill this week, I found a white sheet set that will work perfectly. Needless to say, my curtains are not finished, but one set is hanging and the rest are waiting on a large chunk of free time. Here's a sneak peak.


In the process of the special ordering of fabric, there was a mix up and they ended up giving me some extra fabric to cover up a mistake that they had made. That mistake just happens to be enough upholstery fabric to re-cover my dining room chairs! We were giving this set a couple of years ago now and I've been meaning to recover the chairs when I had the time and extra money. So as it stands now, two chairs are re-upholstered and waiting to be screwed back together, with four more chairs in the wings waiting for their chance of a lovely makeover:)


And now, instead of plunging into that huge folder of digital files to pick the perfect ones to scrapbook, I'm blogging. Just one more piece of evidence towards my conviction of world's best (or worst) procrastinator. And now you know the truth about me.