Thursday, February 25, 2010

the cattle whisperer




I caught this one out singing to the cows the other day (i guess technically she was looking at the cows and singing, but i like to think of it as singing to the cows). I love it when they do wonderful random things like this, it really makes me love being a parent. It feels so special, like your part of a secret or something. I also love spring... i always thought that fall was my favorite season.. but now... living here... spring is hands down the best. It feels like everything is suddenly becoming so alive, and you can't help but feel excited. Flowers blooming, birds chirping, days growing longer and warmer.... so nice.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

cookies anyone?

I recently made some of these chocolate chip cookies and i thought i'd share how i made them (i was inspired by this blog).


The dark brown ones are made with felt and the light brown ones are made out of flannel. The felt ones are really easy you just cut out some felt circles and sew two together, i used a scallop stitch, and then you sew on some buttons. I sewed the buttons on last but i would actually recommend sewing the buttons on before you sew the two pieces of fabric together.


The flannel ones are made with a method called super circles, also easy. First you cut out a circle from some cardboard (i used a glass to trace my circle). Second you use the cardboard piece to cut out the flannel circles. You want to leave like an inch, inch 1/2 around the outside of the circle and the best part is you don't have to cut it perfect you can just kinda eyeball it (see above).


Third you lay the fabric on a piece of aluminum foil with the cardboard circle centered on the fabric. Then you fold up the aluminum around the cardboard and smooth out any bumps in the fabric, and you iron it.... let it cool... unwrap the foil... remove the cardboard... and you end up with something like this....



To make the cookie, i sandwiched two of these super circles together and machine stitched them. Then i added buttons, but like i said above you should sew the buttons on first then stitch the fabric together.




Then you bake them in your pretend oven and have a tea party :) happy sewing!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

and she's back!


it's so nice to have our bee back to normal! after missing over a week of school with fevers, earaches, coughs, sniffles, and even a case of the runs :( she finally returned to school last tuesday...

equipped with glitter shoes...

and her turtle backpack, you know the important stuff :)

she was soooo excited to get out of the house!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

the childrens festival and my birthday


the childrens festival was hosted by layla's school and we originally planned to go together as a family.... but when we woke up that saturday morning, feb.6, everyone was really sick except me and maiko. matt was signed up to help out at the wood working booth too.... so.... i pumped and matt watched the girls.... then me and maiko went to the festival (to see if i had to cover matt's booth). we had a lot of fun, it's been so long since me and maiko were able to do something just us! it was a really nice change, it was also really nice for me to get away from the sick, demanding girls. they didn't need my help at the woodworking booth either, so me and maiko just enjoyed the festival and the time together.


maiko got to ride this horse and was so excited about it :) he got the choice to ride a sweet little pony or the big horse (which was also very sweet), i must say i was actually surprised about his pick.


when we made our visit to the woodworking booth they let maiko make a truck.
didn't he do a great job? he made the whole thing himself, i just helped him find the guide holes and held it still while he hammered.

little bee was pretty upset that she didn't get to go, but daddy made her a special treat and me and maiko picked out a cute little purple skirt for her when we stopped at the store. she was happy.

and in all the busy bustle i turned twenty five.... getting older goes so fast these days. i'm really enjoying twenty five though, it feels like a good age to be with three very active children :) i'm also really happy with my life in general right now. it's so nice when you get to this point were you really know who you are and what is important to you and life just makes sense.

what a lucky girl i am :)

here's to twenty five! and another twenty five right around the corner!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

a little of what we've been up to...

well, the cold bug has got us and isn't letting go very easily... we have all been taking our turns being the sick one... i think that we've done pretty good this year though, last year it started before the holidays, we don't have very long to go until spring.
we've been reading lots and lots of these little paper books... maiko is doing so good, and layla is really interested in reading too.
and i'm waiting patiently for, and constantly daydreaming about, spring :) i have an idea for the garden... right now it's huge and a little overwhelming... mainly because the soil is in bad shape and needs lots of work... so, i'm going to do the shady half of the garden all in flowers (that half is outside my bedroom window) and i'm going to do the sunnier half in vegetables, that way it will be a lot less work improving the soil. so far we are planning to add chicken manure, lime, peat moss, and sand (very clay soil) and any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

this calls for chicken noodle soup...


or rooster noodle as we call it, aka: a dead rooster. it jumped on layla and maiko today, after the second offense and getting maiko so close to the eye i ran upstairs screaming "matt get your gun! that rooster has to die now!!!!" so he shot it like a good daddy and now my kids can play in the yard again without fear, and have a delicious chicken noodle soup tonight. now, i know you may be thinking "did she really grab the camera and take a picture of that poor child?" and i assure you i hugged on him first for a long time and i also asked his permission to take the picture. :)