happy birthday, Micah!

Micah turned 7 today! Where have the years gone? We started the morning with donuts and presents and the fun (and junk food) continued from there.

We had a beautiful day- finally some blue skies!

There were many hours spent at this table building all sorts of creations with the new Lego's.

And of course a birthday would not be complete without cake and a trick candle.
The cake is an ice cream cake of my own creation- I used my spring form pan and layered Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream followed by a layer of crushed Oreo's (double stuffed, of course), then Cookies and Cream ice cream topped with ganache and sprinkles- yummy!

off to a birthday party

Tallulah got invited to her first Birthday party this weekend. One of her classmates from preschool is turning 4. We decided that the kitty I made before Thanksgiving would be a perfect birthday gift so today is stitched up a tutu and ballet slippers and she is ready to go! The tutu really should be a bit fuller, but I did not have any more tulle- so this will have to do. All in all, I think she is pretty cute- Hope Lulu's friend likes her too!
It is a gray, rainy day here, so sorry the picture is a bit dark!

7 weeks left

After my post yesterday, in the chaos that is my home, just when I thought the kids might drive me crazy begging to decorate the tree I decided I needed a few minutes (or hours) of quiet to straighten up the house and just breathe. So I sent the kids to the play room with instruction to watch every Christmas movie we own and I grabbed my ipod and started cleaning. Turns out we need more Christmas movies, just kidding :)

Anyway- Jen asked for a belly picture update, so while I was cleaning I grabbed my camera and took a handful of shots, here are a few- 7 weeks to go!

slow progress

I am making slow progress here with my Christmas decorating. The tree is up and has lights but no decorations (much to the children's chagrin), our advent calendars and Jesse Tree are up and I finished putting my Dollar Tree wreath together (not quite as easy as I anticipated as the hooks on these ornaments break pretty easily- I am also not sure where I will hang it- it is too deep/thick for the front door and the storm door will not close with it there!) Despite all that, I am happy with how it turned out. I love the colors and look forward to admiring it for the next month!Well, time to get back to the grind- the children are going to form a coup soon if we don't start decorating the tree! Happy First of December!

christmas tree, family and coming home

We just got back from spending the weekend with my family. We had a wonderful time, but when I went to upload my pictures I was greatly disappointed in the lack of photos I took during our time in MD. Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite from the very few photos I took.

Lulu with her flower at the Christmas tree farm.

Loaded up and ready to go, finally getting to bring home a fresh cut Christmas tree after 4 Christmases of pre-cut trees.

Lulu, unhappy that the sun is shinning in her eye's on the drive home...
and our solution to the problem.

Max's "car cave."
I am so thankful for my family and the time we got to spend with them this weekend (also for the GREAT traffic we had- and on a holiday weekend!) and am coming home with a new resolve to better document these times in photos!

happy turkey day!

We are packing up to head to Maryland tomorrow to see my family, but I thought I would drop in and post a few pictures from Max and Lulu's Thanksgiving Feast at preschool today.
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow and I'll be back next week!

saving the unsavable

A friend had a pile of old Laura Ashley dresses that her daughter had sent her, thinking that they might boost her wardrobe, most of them were unwearable- even for an 80 something grandma. She gave our crochet group the pick of the dresses in case we had some other use for them- I grabbed this one thinking it might make a cute tote or something- anything other than the jumper form that it was presently in!
I've been wanting to try out some other versions of Molly and a kitty cat was first on my list- not wanting to buy any more fabric- or more realistically not having any money to buy more fabric- I dug through my stash looking for something appropriate and I came across this dress.

While the kids were watching old episodes of Scooby Doo yesterday (last weeks library DVD find) I started cutting out pieces and stitching together my own kitty version of Molly Monkey.
Since the pattern/colors of the fabric are so bold, I decided against a the shirt and socks that Molly wears and instead made her all striped. I may make her a tutu and ballet slippers so she isn't totally naked :)
(I ran out of stuffing- so her arms and legs are a bit flat in these pictures, but I just couldn't wait to share her with you!)

Here she is with her friend Molly.
Next I am thinking of trying a lamb or a bunny :)