Had some problems w/the lower tension and got that straightened out - this a.m. have been ripping out the messed up seam and getting ready to re-sew it....here's a sneak peek....
Stay tuned....after I put the elastic in, the skirt will have to hang for 24 hours for the bias to set and then I'll hem it and see how it looks.....
I've had the "craft bug" the past week or so - just wanting to make something and have found much inspiration on the multitude of blogs out there.
A few that I've visited a lot lately are:
Crafty Daisies
and
Laughing Daisies especially this cute post with a stamped onesie - now to figure out how to do this properly and keep a stock on hand for friends' baby showers!
along with
The Apronista
If you're feeling crafty, stop by and visit these gals - they have a lot of cute ideas!
I worked on my skirt for awhile today (yes, this one that I started off on the wrong foot with), but this fabric is not like what I usually work with for the girls' dresses (cotton blend) - the fabric I'm using is a slippery polyester blend of some sort and is a royal pain - the next time I shop for a skirt I might not be so upset at the price tag because whoever has to work w/this stuff on a regular basis deserves what they're getting paid (and more!).
Ok, gotta run - have a great weekend everyone!
Well, what do you know....
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65585
Maybe I'll have another tuna sandwich after all..... ;)
Since we school throughout the year, it's nice to be able to take a break when we need and/or want to. We did just that when my parents were here a few weeks ago.
While they were here I got to go shopping - hooray - with Mom, which was a nice treat for me (and I hope she enjoyed herself!) and it wasn't at Wal-mart or Target - yay!
The children also had a lot of good one on one time w/their grandparents. One of my favorite things that the girls did was to have a tea party w/Grandma - I was their "server" and did my best English accent which transformed the girls to giggles immediately -
Miss A helped me make some strawberry scones to go with the tea and it was served in all its splendor. Afterward, Miss E asked if we could get some proper tea things for next time....so I'm enlisting your help - where is a good place to look for a nice tea set? Yes, we need a creamer and sugar bowl too, I suppose :)
Ok, now for some pics....
Grandpa made sure Grandma's "tea hat" was on just right....
Here is the girls' play tea set that we got on a trip to Gatlinburg earlier this year...
Miss E really enjoyed the scones that Miss A made...
Miss A taking a break from her tea...
The whole setup....sigh...we improvised since we were w/o certain necessities...but it all worked out and everyone had fun....
Ok, looking forward to hearing from y'all about the best places to obtain some "proper tea things" - let me know!
I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day yesterday. In years past we have visited a state park for a picnic, but this year we decided to stay home and grill instead. We started the day with a quick trip down to Krispy Kreme for a sugar-laden breakfast - the children were thrilled w/their red/white/blue sprinkle donuts :)
We spent the rest of the day relaxing around the house, playing outside and enjoying some yummy grilled hot dogs for lunch.
Here's our traditional family pic complete w/our flag shirts for this year (we went with the ones from Wal-mart this year instead of the Old Navy flag shirts for a couple of reasons - 1. Last time I drove past Old Navy they didn't have them yet and I couldn't wait forever and 2. Wal-mart beat them on price in a major way - instead of $5 a pop at Old Navy (total of $30 for our family of 6), we got all the shirts for $16 (children's were $2.50 and adult shirts were $3 - nice).
Anyway, Happy Memorial Day!
(can you tell it was a bright, sunshiney day?)
Well, I don't know that I'll be visiting there again....which is a shame since their tuna sandwiches were something I could stomach when pregnant with Miss E a few years back.
Have you heard about their contest? They specifically say that homeschoolers are not wanted - isn't that nice? They even manage to misspell a few words in their contest rules/announcement - how quaint.... (they've since made some corrections to their website)
Here's the deal:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=65217
While we wait for my parents to arrive tonight (Yes, back so soon due to a death in the family - my mom's uncle, my great-uncle - the next to last of 13 siblings to pass on..) I thought I'd take a few moments to share some of Mr. A's Birthday Party Pics.
Mom and Dad were with us so we celebrated Miss A and Mr. A's birthdays, but the cake was for Mr. A since we'd already had one for Miss A.
Got all that?
Anyway, here goes:
Drumroll please...................
The cake!
Triple Chocolate Fudge with Chocolate Fudge frosting - YUM! (now, why on earth I made the little tied off part of the balloon in the "string" color frosting instead of the color of the balloons, I do not know, I am not perfect, ok?! )
Mr. Baby likes balloons...a lot! I was so glad to find these cute little candles before his bday....I didn't count on him thinking they looked like lollipops though - after we took them off the cake, he took a lick - it only took one for him to realize they weren't the real deal!
Blowing out the candles.....
And, of course, chocolate ice cream to go with chocolate cake!
And a few goodies for our BIG boy :)
Along the way we've lost most of the pieces to our Mr. Potato Head that a friend gave Mr. E a few years (and a few moves) ago. So, we found this great set and thought Mr. A would like to have a chance at making some fun faces with all the pieces (at least for the first day when all the pieces are still around, that is!)
Mr. A tried on the glasses (funny b/c Miss E did the same thing w/the ones we had from the original Potato Head set! If I run across the pic I have of her w/those on, I'll post it later)
We have some old happy meal toys of Buzz and Woody and Mr. A really likes to play with those so we got him a new Woody of his very own to go with the Buzz he got awhile back. Here he is showing it to his big brother...
Here's Grandpa ready to capture some Kodak moments....
And a present for Miss A from Grandma and Grandpa...
Here's the whole crew....
Ok, time to go for now - drive safely Grandpa and Grandma! We're so glad you were able to be here for the birthday celebration last week and look forward to seeing you tonight!
We recently discussed the scripture below with the children, so the comic this morning was a tad on the amusing side - you just never know what children will come up with and the cartoonist must have some experience with children in order to come up with this one!
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1
My great-uncle passed away yesterday. I'd like to ask for your prayers especially for my great-aunt Mildred. There were 13 children in the family and she is now the only one living. I can only imagine how difficult it has been for her to see all of her brothers and sisters pass on over the years. Please pray for the Lord to give her strength this Friday as she comes to the funeral service. Please also remember his family that remain here. Also, for traveling mercies for all who will come from great and small distances to be with the family.
Well, I thought I'd shake things up a bit and go to an actual grocery store today for my weekly grocery shopping trip (I usually go on Mondays, but we had the zoo day planned so....).
Anyway, it was nice being in a grocery store for a change, but there were some items that I just couldn't find there that I'm used to getting over at Wallyworld, so I'm torn. I was in and out of there in under an hour (which never happens fighting my way through Wal-mart), but I didn't get everything I was looking for. So, instead of going back to my usual Wal-mart, I'm going to drive a tad farther next week and try out Albertson's. It was frustrating in Kroger because I had to really look for everything, whereas I know where all the usual stuff is in Wal-mart, but that was to be expected. And, who could discount the cool "car" shopping cart complete with 2 steering wheels that kept my little guys busy as I shopped (probably the reason I was able to get in and out of there in under an hour - noone walking along beside me).
Speaking of those little guys...I'm innocently looking at something on the shelf when Mr. E belts out "Mama, there's a half naked lady over there!" and as I look up in horror, I see the lady down at the end of the aisle pushing her own car cart, mind you, and yes, from Mr. E's standpoint, she's half naked. Sigh. After shushing him and hoping the woman didn't hear him, I quickly told him we'd talk about it later, but to not yell something like that out so loudly. The woman was wearing a very immodest top, strapless, much skin revealed and not something I would ever dream of wearing, nor would I allow my girls to wear. Sigh. Do people own mirrors? Yes. Do they look into them? Yes. Do they care? I don't think so.
As if that wasn't horror enough for the day, I came home to read and watch the following (see below) - what is the world coming to?
Anyone ever heard that song? Not the one that goes something like "we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo" (I've never heard that one, but ran across it a LOT in my searching for the song I remember), but the one I'm trying to find goes something like this:
We're going to the zoo today
We're going to the zoo
la la la la la la la la (there are supposed to be words here)
explore the zoo with you.
I want to see the lion
And hear his great big roar
We're going to the zoo todayyyyyyyyyyy!
We're going to the zoo.
Ok, so the clock is ticking - this is a challenge - will you help me?
Oh yes, and today we're heading off to the zoo to redeem our reissued tickets from the Homeschool Day fiasco when it rained, snowed and sleeted back in March! We have to use them by Friday, and after a quick call to the zoo this past Friday to ask what day is the "lightest", we decided Monday would be best. Incidentally, this past Friday they were expecting 108 school buses and over 6,000 visitors - yikes!!! Not my idea of a relaxing day at the zoo!
So, Monday is "supposed" to be their lightest day of the week - therefore, we are going to go today. Hoping for the best! We leave momentarily!
Now, start your searching, googling, whatever and see if you can help me out w/that song please!
One tip - I found someone's blog where they quoted the first line or so and said they remembered it from when they were little and that it was on a Gymboree video - I don't know if that's true or not - I remember it from hearing it every Friday night when I was about 13 and babysitting the same children each week - apparently it is burned into my memory, in parts, forever!
While it's fresh in my mind from our shopping excursion today, the children are happily engrossed in a game w/CKB and my stomach is nice and full after grilling hamburgers and hot dogs tonight, I'd like to share with you why I'd rather stick toothpicks under my fingernails than go into a store on the weekend, namely Saturday.
Let's see. Today started as many Saturdays do in our household, sleepy parents, early rising children and a few semi-decent cartoons to choose from. As the children enjoyed a couple of episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I cooked up some oatmeal (which they all wolfed down - strange children - I can't stand the stuff) and poured a few glasses of milk. As on most Saturdays, CKB and I talked about what we wanted to do that day. After taking care of a few things around the house and a few hours sailing by, we decided to just "get out of the house" for awhile. Where to? Well, it was lunchtime so we headed off to pick up some lunch and maybe stop in the pet store to look around for a bit. Mistake #1.
Well, Sonic was crowded, but we got our order pretty quickly and after finishing up a chili cheese coney and tots, I drove on over to Petco. Mind you, just getting across the shopping center parking lot is taking your life in your hands, but we made it and parked the car. Mistake #2 was thinking we'd actually get to walk around together looking at the animals in the store. We went inside, CKB had the cart w/Mr. A and Miss E walking alongside. Mr. E and Miss A were with me. After ooing and aaahing about how cute the ferrets, gerbils, bunnies, etc. were for about 5 seconds before getting looks from other people that seemed to say "you're taking too long, we need to look", we headed back to the fish and attempted to take a look. As usually happens though, if it's semi-crowded and you're pushing a cart you might as well just forget it. So, CKB and Mr. A cruised some of the other aisles while I walked along w/the older 3 children. Exciting event of the day there was to see some new guppies being born! Neat!
We circled around to see where CKB and Mr. A had walked to and saw some turtles - it appeared less crowded over by the fish so we decided to head back over so Mr. A could get a glimpse of the "fishies"....Mistake #3 was thinking there really weren't a bunch of folks over there that were shorter than the not very tall aisle dividers....we got back over to fishland only to see that there was a shorter lady and her child right at the entrance which we hadn't seen over the top of the aisle, and they weren't budging, so we decided to go look at the birds instead.
Now, why on earth can't other people be considerate when we're looking at things and not get right up next to us or push past or walk right in front of us...?????? I don't know. They're rude? And it's not just children! Are we the only people who still value a little personal space? I couldn't tell you the number of times someone has come right up beside me and the children and just stood there getting closer and closer - it's like being tailgated in a store - I guess they figure the closer they get, the more likely I'll move away. They're right, I have to confess. I have no interest in being so close to a stranger that I can feel their breath on my neck - yes, it's happened - ugh. Almost as bad are the folks who look at you like you're insane for bringing your children to the store in the first place, even if they are behaving very nicely....or the ones who try to zip past you and/or "huff" loudly because you stopped for a moment to, dare I say it, get something off the shelf and put it into your basket! But I digress...I think I was reliving some Wal-mart moments.....
Well, after looking at the parakeets and discussing how cute they are, what they were doing, etc. with the children, I looked up to see what CKB was looking at. He was standing between the bird cage and the endcap of the aisle next to it. There might have been a foot between him and the endcap display where he was standing in the aisle. Yep, you guessed it - a child maybe 9/10 years old just barged between CKB and the endcap without the slightest acknowledgment or "excuse me" - nothing - just squeezed by....his mother was right behind him and said nothing - she was too busy looking around on her own I guess.
It was about then that I told the children it was time to go. We walked out of the store and I don't plan to return except maybe on a weekday morning.....maybe. In my insanity, we went into another store while CKB went into Best Buy for a moment (we could've just waited in the car while he was looking around - Best Buy is SOOOOO loud that I don't really like to go in there, but we didn't). And would you believe it, the people in there were no different! Shocking. It's like everyone thinks they are the only people around, that the store is there for them and them alone, that they don't need to watch out for anyone, but to just barge on along without any consideration for others. Common courtesy is all I'm looking for....is it gone forever?
(upside - found two dress shirts for CKB for $3 a piece on clearance - whoo hoo).
Don't get me started on our shopping excursion the other day when a woman in such a hurry trying to get past us ran into Miss E and just kept on going. ARGH.
When I am in a store w/the children, I do not let them run loose pushing past people, getting in front of people, being just plain rude. The whole time we are out is a learning experience as we try to stay to one side of the aisle, watch out for the other guy (because they are NOT looking out for us!) and to say "excuse me" when we need to walk past someone on the aisle and they're stopped looking at something.
Am I the only one?
Am I the only one who still thinks you should be quiet in a library? I have seen some amazing things in the local library during "storytime" in the mornings - 50+ children running, yelling, etc. all over the children's area while the moms gab away in the plush chairs - ack! I shouldn't have to call to find out when story time is so I can avoid the library like the plague....should I? Is it too much to ask for the library to still be the quiet refuge it was in my youth? I want my children to have that same experience - to learn to be quiet and choose some books to take home, not to run like banshees and disturb the other folks in there....wait, those people are all deaf anyway b/c of the story time brigades that were in there previously - nothing to worry about I guess....
Am I the only one who thinks you DO need to wear shoes in Wal-mart? I'm horrified to see barefoot children - little children - walking around Wal-mart. How many people tromp through those stores every day? Yuck!
Am I the only one who thinks you should keep hold of your tiny children in a busy parking lot? It's a wonder some of these children make it to adulthood the way they run out in front of cars. Grownups are almost worse - many just stroll on out there without looking either way - I guess they figure other people will watch out for them....
I suppose I'll end this now before I think of other mind boggling activities I've witnessed of late....someone out there, tell me I'm not alone...
The next time we need to "just get out" I think we'll head for a park instead and save the shopping for weekdays...if at all.
Well, today is the day Mr. Baby was born...2 years ago....where does the time go?!
He is a bundle of energy, sweeter than pie and loved by all who know him.
He is unique and does things that none of the other children ever thought to do - they're all so different! We love him so much!
Here he is through the past 2 years....
just a few days old...
3 mos.
6 mos.
9 mos.
12 mos.
18 months...
and now he's 2 - "official 2 year old picture, coming soon!"
Heretofore, he will be referred to as Mr. A!
We've been studying contractions lately and this comic made me laugh this morning...hope you enjoy!
(If you can't read it clearly, click on the image (comic) and you should get a larger version.)
Well, we've been taking a break for the past week and a half, but things haven't slowed down around here. My parents are visiting and we've been enoying having Grandpa and Grandma with us. Alas, they will head home on Thursday, but we will look forward to seeing them here again in July when they come in town for Mom's (Grandma's) high school reunion.
I won't take time now to post about our doings since my last post - too much to do - but I will ask for your prayers for my mother-in-law. She is suffering with shingles and has been for a few weeks now. We'd hoped to see her this past Sunday, but she is still unable to come to church due to the pain. Please pray for her recovery.
I must run for now - little Mr. Baby's bday is in 2 days and we're going to celebrate w/cake and ice cream tomorrow night before Mom and Dad head home - lots to do, as ever!
- CAB
I haven't done any lapbooks w/the children as of yet, but this newest FREE offering from CurrClick might give us the perfect one to give lapbooking a try and see how we like it!
Grandfather's Wisdom Lapbook
This lapbook is called "Grandfather's Wisdom - Interviewing Series" and since we have my mom and dad visiting this week, I'm printing it out to see what it's all about and see if the children want to give it a go.
I'll let you know how it goes if we persue it!
Well, we all get those emails warning us of new email scams, phone scams, tainted products and the like. Some are true, some aren't. We are probably all familiar by now w/the snopes.com site and if you aren't...check it out sometime. This blog entry is not about scams, but about information. The information many parents probably have never even thought to ask for. Information about all those shots the doctors say our children need, have to have, must have, one even before you leave the hospital in a lot of places. Do they really? What's in those vaccines? Have you asked? Do all the doctors know? Have they ever thought to ask?
Recently I received an update from a site I became familiar with about two years ago. I debated for a little while about posting this here or not, but decided to after all.
For all of us with small children, we have no doubt been to the pediatrician along the way getting vaccine after vaccine that was 'recommended' for all children at certain ages.
Sadly, we found this information after some of the children had had certain vaccines, that in hindsight we would not have allowed.
I highly recommend reading on this site - I'd rather be informed and make decisions in the future based on what I know, than in the dark forever. I hope you take the time to read about these vaccines too. There is a table on the site that shows all of the vaccines that have ethical alternatives - you can find out from your doctor if they carry the ethical vaccines. You may be amazed at what your doctor doesn't know - I have to say I was at the obvious surprise from one pediatrician I discussed this with.
http://cogforlife.org/vaxproof.htm
Just an excerpt:
The fact that the Chickenpox, Hepatitis-A and MMR vaccines were developed using aborted fetal cell lines, MRC-5 and WI-38 has never been hidden from the public. The problem is that when parents go to their family doctors for vaccinations, who asks to see the product insert? Most parents want to know the risks and possible side effects. Like their doctors, parents are mostly concerned with the health of their children. And doctors, who have been administering the vaccines for years have never checked into the ingredients, although it has always been right at their fingertips. And what would happen if they did? They would read that the vaccine contains "residual DNA and proteins" and "components" of "MRC-5", "WI-38" (or both) "human diploid cell lines".
I have asked quite a few questions of the people at this site and always gotten a quick reply with information and proofs to back it up. I would be happy to discuss any of it w/anyone who is interested, just let me know. I would also be happy to share some of my questions/concerns and they're replies as well, just ask!
CAB
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