Halloween 2010

These pictures are from last night when we went to our church's fall social. There was trunk-or-treating (don't get Brian started), a spooky tunnel and good soups, breads, salads and desserts.

This year Colleen dressed up as a fairy - with an attitude. I made the ruffly skirt and she wore her hair poof to bed and then today to church.
We had to wake Kate up from her nap to go to the activity - and I was lazy - so she just got some cute freckles (her first time with pigtails). She and Brian were farmers -and she screamed if I tried to hold her.
Emily reaching out to grab the snitch. People asked if she was Hermione Granger. She responded, "no, I 'm a quidditch player." Really people, those are obviously not school robes and Hermione did not play quidditch. Total Harry Potter wanna-be's. :)
Aleah had multiple costumes drawn from the dress up box this year. Last week we went to a Halloween activity at Reiman Gardens in Ames and she dressed up as a black cat (black leotard, skirt and ears). For her class party at school she was a witch (change out the ears for a hat). Last night she was a cat again using the puppy costume from two years ago with the ears. Tonight while she handed out candy and went to a few neighbors' houses she was a witch again but wore Emily's Queen Lucy costume with a hat. I love reusing costumes, although she was disappointed she didn't get something new made for her. C'est la vie.

My First Wonky Quilts

I got to go to the Houston Quilt Festival twice while we were living in Texas. Take a moment to be nostalgic...Sigh... I would love to be there this year, but my local AQS Quilt Show and the Blogger's Quilt Festival will be as close as I get. Thanks for hosting it again Amy!

Last year I quilted along with the Old Red Barn Co. and Quilt Dad John. John wrote a wonderful series of posts on piecing wonky blocks. Can you believe I had never heard the term "wonky" used to describe quilting before? I love learning from everyone on the web! Anyway, I made these two quilts for a coworker of my husband's who was having twins. It was so fun. I love how freeing the wonky piecing is.

I tried out some flower free motion quilting and made a scrappy binding. I hope the girls have as much fun snuggling with them as I did making them.

Thanks for stopping by. Check out all the other great quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

You Know It's Bad When...

Colleen Renee decides

Katherine Alma is doing something wrong

And says, "Kate Renee!!!"

What I Did Instead of Cleaning...

Dilema

There is sooo much fabric I want to buy but I have enough fabric to make several quilts already. My husband may roll his eyes, but I really try to keep my fabric buying in check and I usually only buy things for specific projects for specific people...but...fabric goes out of print. I think, "I'll buy that when I have something specific to make out of it." But in a year it is gone and almost impossible to find. Right now I would like to find charm packs of all of the American Jane lines. Impossible. If I bought from multiple vendors I could probably come up with most of the fat quarters, but that is more fabric, money and shipping than I really need.

I know more amazing fabric comes out every year so there will never be a lack of fabric to covet...I mean to love and buy but...

So this is what I have decided. Charm packs are the answer. I will buy a charm pack of all future American Jane fabrics (or whatever catches my eye) - small amounts that I will not feel bad about stashing.

How do you choose what fabric to buy?

I'm Not Really That Fond Of...

• Poop - in all its forms - blowouts, not flushed and dog just to name a few
• Dark Carpets that show all the lint and crumbs
• Pseudo-News Groups that talk a lot and have little to no investigative journalism (cough. Fox News and now CNN). The only decent news available seems to be NPR and BBC. No Glen, I won't be bragging that you are LDS anytime soon.
• Folding Laundry - esp. whites
• Mopping Floors - Brian used to get grossed out sooner than I did and mopped, but recently I have been doing the mopping. Am I getting soft or is Brian getting hardened?
• Whining, not saying, "Please" and "Thank you," tantrums, not liking dinner and general sassy-ness.
• People wandering around and around and around looking for shoes, socks, backpack, hairbrush, toothbrush and coats in the morning
• Crusty Runny Noses and Waxy Ears - they will be cleaned
• Reading Stories Out Loud - it's true, I'll do it but it's not my favorite. That is why Brian is our official Bedtime Story Guy
• Walmart and McDonalds
• Walking up and down stairs to get stuff.
• Calling people on the phone. I don't know why. Some sort of anxiety thing? I like talking on the phone though. Weird, huh?
• This weird frantic clinging thing one of the girls has been doing recently.
• Cooked greens, PB&J, shellfish, pickled stuff that isn't dill pickles
• Talking to Customer "Service"
• Wiping Counters - I would rather sweep
• Calculus
• Washing Pots and Pans (Brian usually washes them for me - ie. they pile up until he washes them - good man)
• Running - ugh, I'd rather mop

Driving home today I was hungry and thought...

...if I could make the perfect fast food place it would be like Wendy's - but let's call it Leila's - with the good salads, fries, nuggets, frosties and baked potatoes (and we would bring back those yummy sandwiches) but we would get rid of their hamburgers and have Whoppers instead (minus mayo plus mustard, please). I would also add Sonics' ice (don't you love it?), drinks and corn dogs (for the kids). Add and assortment of DQ desserts (or just mint oreo blizzards with extra oreo) and DQ onion rings and I would be set. Why can't all the good fast food be at one place? And why can't that fast food place be on my way home when I am hungry?

Halloween - Getting Started

Aleah has been telling me for months that she wanted to be a pioneer girl for Halloween but I had forgotten Emily wanted to be a Quidditch player (crimson and gold, please) until last week. On Wednesday we made part 1 of her costume.

After gathering all of the straight sticks we could find I hot glued them around a tree branch. Not too bad.

Not quite a Firebolt but it will do. We decided to call it a Clean Sweep 7. (I can't believe how grown up she looks!)

Mysterious Pox

Wednesday and Thursday Kate was super grumpy. No fever, no teeth. By Friday she was feeling better but coming down with some baby acne. Then Saturday she broke out in this rash on her face, hands and feet. Two weeks ago she had the same raised dots when I went to the Dr. for my sore throat. The Dr. looked at Kate too and said it didn't look like chicken pox or anything else she could think of. It went away after a few days and I didn't worry about it. When it showed up again on Saturday I thought, "Maybe she had some sort of allergic reaction?"

Today when we went to church everyone over 45 said, "Oh, chicken pox, eh?" or "Looks like German measles to me." To avoid possibility infecting anyone, Brian took her on a walk during Sunday School. Brian checked out all the pox diseases online and it doesn't really seem like any of them. The best I can guess is she got a light case of one of the pox with no fever. The bumps start out skin toned and then turn red and they are hard under the surface. They started on her face and hands and face and today she added a few on her back and belly.

So do I take her to the Dr.? Anything she has is beyond the contagious phase and the bumps don't seem to be bothering her. What do you think it might be?

Update:

I took Kate to the Dr. She grimaced at the blisters at the back of Kate's throat, oh-ed over the 3 teeth Kate cut this weekend and wow-ed at Kate's very red infected ear. I can't believe Kate wasn't more grouchy. I'm glad I took her in so we could catch the ear infection and grateful the hand-foot-and-mouth isn't contagious anymore. Brian insists on calling it hoof-and-mouth and says we should have kept her away from all those sheep. He thinks he is pretty funny.

Best-Mom-Ever Paints With 15 Month Old

When I told Brian that I was going to have a (very short) series of "Best-Mom-Ever" posts he gave me this look that said, "A little pretentious perhaps?" Of course it is pretentious! That's why it is so funny.

One moment happened last week. Colleen wanted to watercolor and I decided to get Kate in on the action (OK, I really just wanted to distract them for awhile). Anyway, I gave Kate a little cup of water (1/4 inch), a paintbrush and construction paper and let her at it.

I was surprised at how well she dipped the paintbrush and how well the water showed up on the paper. I started to think that I should have just given her some paints too until she put her paintbrush in her mouth.

I guess we will wait on paints. Isn't she so cute?

Eggs - At Last

Our hens finally decided to lay some eggs - almost a month after their sister hatch-lings we sold off started laying. Ours must have known they were this close to getting the ax because we are now getting 3 or 4 eggs a day. They range in color from cream to brown and we have some green ones too. All the eggs are significantly smaller than Large so when it calls for two eggs in a recipe we use three.

We have not had any problems with raccoons but one of the neighborhood dogs gets out every once in awhile at night and checks out the chickens. He scratched up the side of the coop and pulled a small hole in the chicken wire. Once when Brian was taking him home, the dog kept circling back to the coop and would make these excited noises and moves as if to say, "Guess what? There are chickens in there! Really, chickens. Roosting right up there where I am scratching! Cool, cool, come check it out!" It was kind of funny. Especially since he didn't get in.

Brian did some math and if the chickens keep laying at this rate and don't eat anymore feed (humm) they will pay off their investment in about a year. That movable coop was a major investment. Also, no mater what those websites say chickens can make a mess of your grass in just one day. One of the chickens insists on scratching herself a hole in the ground everyday in the corner of the coop.

Worth it? I think so. I think.

Bee-Improvisational Quilt Blocks

These are the quilt blocks I made for a the Bee-Improvisational Quilt Bee I am in. Every month someone sends out fabric and instructions for the blocks they want made and then you send them back. It has been a lot of fun playing with different fabrics and layouts. The group's theme is improvisation so I have gotten to experiment/make up/try out new things.

The tree blocks are the ones I sent out and got back. Aren't they great?!? I made some of them up into a baby blanket for my new nephew and am in the process of making another lap sized quilt out of the rest.

Does anyone out there want to form a bee?

Summer Swimming

This summer Aleah and Emily took two sessions of swimming lessons. They had a blast.

Aleah's Level 1 teacher was so sweet, funny and energetic. Aleah passed Level 1 and went onto Level 2. She can float on her front and back (while 6 inches underwater) and is not scared of the water at all. She tried all of the strokes in Level 2 but didn't master them so she will be taking Level 2 again next year. During the second session the Cooks were visiting and Ellie was in her class.

Emily made a lot of progress and passed Level 2 and 3. She went from not being able to swim very far at all to being able to do many different stokes all the way across the pool. She loved her goggles and didn't lose them until the very last day of Level 2 lessons.

Colleen insisted on going to swimming lessons too. She would get into her swimsuit and play on the ledge by the shallow end. Colleen would play in the water for awhile and then go lay on her towel like a sunbathing teenager.

During the second session Kate got in on the action and played in the pool too.

I have posted a lot today - keep reading!

Reusable Wreath

This is the first of my Reduce, Reuse, Recycle posts.

Almost two years ago I bought this wreath at JoAnn's at their after Thanksgiving sale for $4.28. What a steal. I like the idea of decorating for the different seasons but don't like having tons of stuff stored in the basement. (Brian is rolling his eyes and thinking, "what about all that stuff in we do have in the basement?" "It could be more. It could be more.")

Anyway, instead of having four different wreaths for the different seasons I just change out the decorations on this basic one.

For spring I added some white bud like flowers. I think next summer I will buy some faux geraniums but this year the white flowers stayed all summer.

Saturday I finally admitted it was fall and changed out the white flowers for some fall leaves. Subtle but classy.

I loved the wreath last Christmas. I love red! I took off the bow in January but left the berry pics in all winter.

Reducing and Reusing is not just about tin cans. We can also reduce the amount of stuff we use and store around our house.

Magpie or Bellwether?

"A bellwether's a sheep."

"A special breed?"

"Nope. Same breed. Same sheep, only it's got something that makes the rest of the flock follow it. Usually it's an old ewe... A teacher of mine said they're born with some kind of leadership ability...I think a bellwether's the same as any other sheep, only more so. A little hungrier, a little faster, a little greedier. It wants to get to the feed first, to shelter, to mate, so it is always out there in the front...Not a lot. If it was a long way in front, the flock would have to strike out on their own to follow, and that'd mean thinking for themselves. Just a little bit, so they don't even know they are being led. And the bellwether doesn't know it's leading."

From Bellwether, by Connie Willis pg. 167

(one of Brian's favorite books)

For more than a year this is what Emily's wrists have looked like. I thought it would be a passing phase. Brian thought other kids might tease her because she was odd. Emily would throw a fit and cry when her "special" rubber bands would get lost or broken. I would pray for patience and understanding during said episodes.

Then this fall the rubber bracelet craze hit. Suddenly everyone was wearing rubber band like things on their wrists. The teachers at Aleah's school have asked that the bracelets not be worn because they are distracting, but Emily's school still allows them. Read an article about the bracelet craze and their banning in Wichita, Kansas here.

If Emily is a bellwether and not just a magpie the next trend will be shiny metal charms that you can hang from your necklaces. (Her collection has grown since this picture and now she has added two more bottle tops and a spring.)

Colleen = Officially Potty-Trained

Warning - this post discusses potty training, poo, pee and wiping. Read at your own risk. :)

Very early this morning I heard someone get out of bed, turn on lights go downstairs, wander, more lights on and off and then go back to bed. It was Colleen. She had woken up, gone downstairs, taken off her footy-jammies, gone potty, (probably not washed her hands), put back on her pj's and gone back to bed - without waking up Brian or I. She just took care of it herself. I'm so proud. If a child can take care of busness in the middle of the night with no help from a parent they are, in my mind, Officially Potty-Trained.

The potty training journey started in the spring. I would ask Colleen if she would like to try going in the potty. She would look at me as if I were crazy and say, "NO!" My potty training philosophy is: don't push them, or else you will make your own life miserable. So I let it go. We found an Elmo's Potty Time DVD at a garage sale and watched that but we were stalled. Brian kept on repeating his philosophy, "Shouldn't we be potty training her? Isn't she old enough? I think she is ready."

I kept on repeating, "as soon as school starts we'll go to the store and pick out panties and a more kid friendly potty as our potty training kick-off."

Brian came home with a birthday present of panties 5 days before school started. They were her favorite present and she immediately insisted, "I no wear diapers. I wear hun-ders (unders, like underwear)."

Opening Her "Unders" 8/8/10

For the first few days she focused on not having an accident. She would would go ALL DAY without going potty and then have an accident. We would put her unders on top of her diapers at night. Then after a few days she got pretty good at going pee in the potty but would had poo accidents. But after two days of poo in the unders she figured out what "the poos" felt like and has only had one poo accident since. After a week she was basically potty trained. Crazy easy.

She really didn't like wearing diapers at night. ME NO WEAR DIAPERS!!! So we started to go without. She did pretty well at first but then started to have accidents so we went back to diapers at night which led to this oft repeated phrase, "Me No Wear Diapers DAY! Kate wear diapers!" After a week of dry diapers at night we stopped diapers at night and she has only had one or two accidents since then. I am sooo proud.

But it is nothing we did. That girl has a mind of her own and a bladder of steal. Even when we were first potty training she could go hours without going. I love being able to run errands without worrying about her. She also gets very angry when I try to get her to go potty. "Me Go 'READY!" Or wash her hands. On the plus side of independent she also wipes herself and will often dump out the potty. She does a pretty good job and rarely leaves "skid marks" in her panties.

I guess the journey is not really over. Colleen still needs to make the transition to the Big Potty but I am content for now.

Emily's Hair Cut

Emily told me a few weeks ago that she wanted her hair cut like Kate's.

Humm... I was ok with that as long as the bangs would stay out of her eyes. I have always wanted to try a layered haircut. The only problem was that we couldn't find a comb.

Still not bad for my first try. As it grows out, I think I will take her into somewhere professional to get it trimmed correctly -- or maybe I'll keep on practicing on her until she rebells.