Another 30th

Last week we celebrated another wonderful Craft-Nighter's 30th birthday with a garden/baking themed party.

Check out that monogrammed watering can Jennifer whipped up on her Cricut machine.  

She's a marvel.

And see that dirt cake with little rows of carrots growing?

So cute.

A lovely time was had by all!

Easter Shoes

If you will remember, my number one piece of advice about making shoes is - Don't!

But I actually did have a bit of fun making Eleonora's Easter shoes, 

but the process was also a great exercise in patience.

To begin, I found a tutorial with a design and configuration that was pleasing to me, 

but it came with no printable pattern.

So I drafted my own.

These shoes have an outer layer and an inner layer.

(The soles are made from a hand-me-down skirt from Lou.)

Shh!  Don't tell!

This double layering made for a step in the process that included pulling the entire inside-out shoe through a tiny gap in the heel of the lining layer.

Drafting my own pattern led to a pair of shoes a wee bit too small for my darling daughter.

But they ought to be just right for Anna Kate.

Because of this size issue, the picture above is Eleonora modeling her (second attempt) shoes on the evening of Good Friday.

 Embellishing with felt flowers was the quick and easy part.

I borrowed a few pearls from this old necklace.

(Perhaps another hand-me-down, Jenny?)

 Ta-daa!

You can tell that Eleonora is descended from a long line of foot models.

Actually, that would just be her Poppa.

But she is a natural, nonetheless.

If you do dare to try to stitch a pair of shoes, I hope that you have a jolly good time!

Happy Easter!

Hello, everyone!

We have come to the end of a lovely Spring Break and Easter weekend over here.

 Thanks to my mom and Aunt Terry for some cah-ute Easter clothes!

 I have been doing piano lessons with the boys for the last few weeks.

Well, Mr. Hoffman and I have been giving them piano lessons.

I'll tell you all about it soon.

Anyways, I have had the most wonderful time with Josiah while we practice together.

He cracks me up and he is good!

 Caleb seems to be showing off his adorable baby teeth here.

He got a little misty-eyed, when I was laying with him tonight, at the thought of returning to school tomorrow.

He learned how to say his 'th' sound at school and he is so cute how he carefully works them into conversation now.

 Eleonora is a hoot.

She is crazy about her big brothers and they are crazy about her.

 I decided to make her Easter shoes this year.

I will tell you more about that later this week as well.

My number one piece of advice on the subject is as follows:

If you are thinking of making a pair of shoes - don't!

 My annual Easter dessert.

It came together much more quickly than my multi-layer-cake-in-the-toaster-oven marathon baking experience of Shady Nook days.

 Hmm.  Not frame-worthy.

But we sure do love each other!

 And last, but not least, my kids and Heather's Easter bunny, Thumper!

Easter Egg Hunt

On Friday, the kindergarten celebrated the last day of school with an Easter egg hunt. I helped some other mothers hide the eggs. 

We were running out of hiding places for those approximately 800 eggs.

And they're off!

There's Caleb at the back in the orange. 

Look at that happy hunting face. Ha!

Eleonora and I enjoyed a trip to the walking track and Lowes with our friends on Friday, too. Our last day before 10 days of Spring Break with the boys!

We are halfway through it now, and we are having the most fabulous time!

In Which We Are Floored (By Our Floor)

 On Wednesday I was lamenting the state of the carpet in the butler's pantry.

The house came with the teal, 

and we added the tan strip (left over from my parents' house) for beauty's sake.  Ha!

Both were rather stained and sad.

 Replacing it comes pretty far down on our list of projects, 

but I had a thought.

What was underneath the carpet?

This dangerously exposed socket gave me just the spot to take a peak.

And what do you know?

Wood floor that matched the rest of the house!

Or at least, so I hoped!

 Thursday morning, Eleonora and I set to work.

First we ripped out the old carpet.

 That left us with padding and tack strips.

So far, so good.

 Next, we pulled out all the staples that had held down the padding.

 We loved what we saw - a great looking wood floor!

Finally we were at the hardest stage.

Ripping up the tack strips.

Eleonora worked away with her 4 oz. hammer and a butter knife as her pry bar.

(Let's be honest, those are the tools that I started with.

Then I visited the log cabin for a tool upgrade.)

 And here is the final result.

Beautiful!

And a reminder of where we started.

A good morning's work!

Now that I know what to look for, it looks like most of the wood floors in our house were covered in carpet at one time.

I'm grateful that this was the only room that they left for me to uncover!

Make Your Bed!

 This year the boys have gotten quite good at making their beds before school each morning as a matter of course.

They aren't the tidiest bed-makers in the world, and my main rule is that I don't want any of the eyes of the characters on their sheets looking at us when they are finished.

They were doing a great job at keeping the eye-balls covered, 

but I was still tired of how sloppy it was looking with the quilts dragging on the floor, 

so I came up with a plan.

First, I cut strips out of  the two sides of each quilt and then stitched them back together so that the ends would just cover the bed rails on each side of the bed.

 Then I folded the bottom two corners of each quilt into triangles and made a quick row of stitches.

This created a little pocket so that the ends of the bed can't come un-tucked

 and will always keep the mattress covered.

 Also, when I stitched the quilts back together after I took the strips out of the sides, I made the seams right on the edges of the mattress so it will be easy to see if they're straight.

 So hopefully those few hours I spent thinking and cutting and stitching will make it super easy for the boys to keep their room nice and tidy.

The End.

Josiah

Josiah thought that the Downton Abbey party needed some decorations, so he made these of LEGOs, snapped the pictures, and edited them to be black and white. 

And here he is 8 years ago helping brush his Daddy's teeth. 

Josiah is a jolly good fellow!

Chalk Drawing

Caleb Goes to School

Caleb has had a couple of fun projects due in kindergarten lately. 

The first was about an arctic animal. 

He got the killer whale. We used the trusty Cricut machine. I know it looks like he wasn't super-involved on the layout of this poster, but this kid is an artist, I tell ya.  

And here is his Easter egg assignment. That green band is the letters of his name  stamped over and over, and everyone in our family (plus Charlie Brown) is featured in a portrait on the yellow stripe. 

And here's Sparky (a firefly character from AWANA) that he made in Sunday School out of play dough. 

Perhaps I've showed this one before, but he built and painted this birdhouse with his Poppa when he was home on a sick day. 

We heart Caleb. 

February Review, Part 2

We had some beautiful, spring-like days to play outside. 

Chris and the kids have been rocking the drums. 

We celebrated my dad's birthday with lunch at Lupi's and a new life jacket from Cabella's. He had quite an audience during the selection process. 

Josiah's highlight had to be winning this tiger for Eleonora out of a claw machine at Lupi's. He has been yearning to play one of these machines since he watched Toy Story as a young tike. His wildest dreams finally came true when his Grandma gave him two quarters to play AND he won a toy. 

There was bubble-blowing. 

And tree-climbing. 

And seedling-tending. 

(Thank you to photographer Caleb for these two shots.)

And sewing. 

And parachute games were played with apple trees standing in as extra kids. 

Happy weekend to you!