A Few Projects

One of my favorite things to do is sew, especially clothes for the kids. Right before I left Austin I made a whole slew of these baby pants. I just couldn't resist - the pattern is so awesome (the Quick Change Trousers from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings), they're reversible, and there are so many great fabrics out there!

It all started with these awesome pants, which I made for my friend Cassie's new baby. I loved those pants. (This picture is showing the back, by the way. The front doesn't have that swatch of contrasting fabric at the top.)

Then I made these pants for Elinor. We call them the fiesta pants.

Jake wears them occasionally.

Then I made these "Republican" pants for my friend Reianna's baby.

And these Chinese dragon pants for Jacob, which he still wears pretty regularly. Doesn't he look like some sort of Polynesian warrior here?

And these "artsy" pants for my friend Jessie's baby. I love, love, love the print on these pants. The only problem is, they're pretty gender neutral, which is not great for a tiny baby.

 Around this same time I made a pair of super-duper girly pants with a metallic pink polka-dot fabric and a grey/pink bicycle fabric for my friend Kristine's baby. I should probably ask her for a picture of those, since I loved them so much!

Since we've come to Boulder I've done a teensy bit of sewing too. I made Emily and Elinor some matching cat shorts out of some wild Japanese import fabric. The cool thing about that is that I was the one that imported it! I dragged my mom and sister to a fabric store while we were in Japan and spent some time perusing.

The pictures are pretty horrible, but the girls are in bed now and I don't have better ones. These shorts are a Favorite Little Things pattern called Little Smarty Pants and it's great. The pattern has sizes 1-14, can be for boys or girls, and has a capri option as well. I've had some trouble finding shorts that are a good length and easy to pull on and off for the kids (the girls especially), and these are the perfect solution. Em currently has three different pairs of these in her drawer.
The girls love the shorts, and love that they can match each other when they wear them!

 I also made a couple more Playdate Dresses (by Oliver+S). Goodness, I love that pattern!

I love the soft colors of this one.

I did try to take pictures of Elinor wearing the thing, but she was obviously not cooperating.

The buttons might be my favorite thing. Aren't they awesome? Also notice the happy bees on the yoke!

Elinor was, for some reason, much more willing to model this dress. Actually, I did have to chase her around the playground a bit to get a shot, but at least you can see the dress!

The floral fabric was designed by an Austin-ite named Nancy Mims and it is one of my favorites ever. I also used it on Em's treasure bag.

Just one more shot of that silly girl!

Here's a skirt I made for Emily. It's another Favorite Little Things pattern and this is one of Emily's favorite things to wear. I'm sad that the fabric doesn't hold pleats as well as I wanted it to, but Emily doesn't seem to mind.

And finally, a ruffle skirt I made for Em over a couple of evenings this week. I used a tutorial off danamadeit.com and it worked out wonderfully!

I have a few more projects I'm itching to get started on. First up: something for the boys! Jake will also need his baby quilt eventually. And you know, I wish that Elinor didn't have so many dresses because I'm pretty sure a three-year-old girl is just about the funnest thing ever to make clothes for!

And here are a few crazy pictures of the kids, just to round out the post.

Elinor making herself comfortable at Joseph's advisor's house this evening (wearing her cat shorts!).

Mario Superman army cadet Caleb. And, just so you know, we were going through a closet at the time this picture was taken. Don't judge!

Today.

Beautiful Boulder. We're going to miss this place.

Today the kids and I were able to go on a leisurely morning hike and it was wonderful. The weather was perfect, we weren't in any kind of hurry, and everyone was in a good mood.

Jake spent a lot of time hefting the biggest rocks he could manage and throwing them as far as he could (usually a foot or two).

Bel was very much into enjoying the flowers and observing the insect life.

Emi discovered some cairns left by other hikers and decided to contribute.

This was her most ambitious project.

Em was the official carrier of the CamelBak, since I had Jake on my back for most of the time, and it worked out so well!

Caleb ran around assisting where he was needed, and warning us of monsters and other dangers that we could possibly encounter.

Discussing the intricacies of mountain trails and hiking.

Below are some pictures of the trail I ran a couple of months ago.

I took this picture because I was astounded by the flood damage that occurred here. I know it was much worse in other places, but just imagining the volume of water that must have run through here just blows my mind.

I took this picture because I just felt so lucky to be running on this trail. Yes, it was insanely muddy and a little flood-ravaged, but it was so breathtakingly beautiful! I love dirt single tracks through the mountains. I sure hope I can find a few trails like this in California.

Speaking of running, the other day I was out on the Creek Trail and I had a scary experience. I was headed back home around 7 am, and just getting onto a dirt trail that runs along the creek when a biker headed in the other direction called, "Careful, ma'am!" I didn't know what he was talking about and continued on my way, but after a few more steps decided to heed his warning and so I hopped back onto the sidewalk, off my dirt trail. The path turned a corner, and literally 25 feet ahead of where I had been running was a homeless man brawl. They were standing squarely on the trail and I would have run headlong into it all if I hadn't changed the path I was running on. I was pretty shaken even running past it on the other path! Makes me grateful for friendly early-morning exercisers!


Oh, and one more thing, really quickly before I end. Today Emily and I got to talk about the heart! I was useless when we were talking about deserts, and I know next to nothing about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but I do know a lot about anatomy and physiology. I may have gone into a little more detail than the book wanted me to, but Emily was excited to learn it and I was excited to share something I cared about. BUT, after our reading and discussion, I came back into the school room to find her crying in the corner. She had started a diagram of the heart and just couldn't get it right. So we started from scratch, and I drew the outline for her, but she added all the blood vessels and chambers and I think it turned out great! She was very much opposed to using arrows to indicate the direction of blood flow because that doesn't look real.

Ah, my little scholars. It is so wonderful to be a part of the learning that goes on here. I love hearing Caleb read and knowing that all of that is a result of the work that we've done together. This has been a fun time.

Two Little Monkeys

Jake enjoying a piece of my mothers' day cookie.

Part of Caleb's math program is a series called Life of Fred. It's pretty silly and one of the questions the other day was, "What is the first thing you think of when you hear 'ice cream'?"
Caleb answered, "Yay!"
Fred's answer was, "Where?"
So I decided to ask Elinor the question, just to gain some insight into the way her brain works.
Elinor's answer was, "Hotdog!"

The workings of her mind may remain a mystery to me forever.

Mothers' Day!

Today was such a fun, crazy mothers' day! First of all, we woke up to snow. It was not that cold outside, and the snow was very wet, but it was definitely snowing big heavy flakes, and enough to stick to the ground. It was nice for the kids to get one last good romp in the snow in before we head to a warmer climate.

This girl was working the whole time on making mini snowmen which later turned into towers when Jake pushed everything over and she had to rebuild.

Em made regular-sized snowmen. She was pretty serious about the whole business.

Two little cuties. Jake's face almost didn't fit inside his hood!

One of Em's creations.

Caleb was there too.

Even before all this though, my day was filled with big events. The kids spent most of the day yesterday making cards and planning an epic mother's day party. After church today Emily came up to me and said, "okay, count to ten and then come to our bedroom." So Joseph, Jacob, and I counted, then went down the hall to their closed bedroom door. When we opened it, the three older kids jumped out from where they'd been hiding and yelled, "Surprise!!" They then ushered me into a chair they'd dragged in for the purpose and proceeded to present me with many, many mothers' day cards. I think Jake made 3, El made 4, Caleb made 6, and Em made 4. All taped shut very, very securely (to ensure no peeking before card-opening time).
 Here is a sampling of their work:

Jake's are on the left, El's on the right. It would probably be worth your time to click in and look at El's close up - that girl on top is pretty awesome. And each of those sequins on the bottom card? Painstakingly taped on one at a time. The flip side of the page looks very similar, as did her other two cards. Lots of sequins (which she calls 'squeakens'), lots of tape.

Caleb's on the left, Emily's on the right. Caleb draws a lot, but doesn't seem interesting in advancing his technique at all. He doesn't bother with silly things like switching marker colors either. Em is always sweet and thoughtful in her pictures for me. The two that I didn't show are drawn entirely in orange and yellow because she knows I like those colors. In fact, one is a drawing of "orange-yellow land," which of course, was created in my honor.

While I was looking at the cards Emily led all the kids in singing a couple of mothers' day songs (and also a song from Tangled for some reason). It had been awesome to hear them all practicing in a coordinated, organized manner this morning, and I loved seeing Emily look so proud and in charge with her carefully written list of songs as everyone followed her lead.

After cards the three older kids and I played a rousing game of Monopoly Jr. while Jacob helped Joseph prepare some food for dinner and an awesome cake for after. I was so tired that all I wanted to do was flop down onto a couch and lay comatose until Joseph called me for dinner. But the kids were so excited to follow their party plans and make my day special that I faked some energy and enthusiasm and sat down with them to play. And you know what, it was actually really fun! Those three are old enough to actually sit down and focus and understand  what's going on. They're getting to the point where they get that it's just a game and we play it for fun and it's not the end of the world if things don't go their way. I was really grateful to have a chance to spend some happy time with them.

This was an unplanned portion of the party - the sequin shindig! Some unknown child had exploded a bag of sequins all over the schoolroom. It took a long time to clean up, but was at the same time pretty awesome. Jake kept running out to the living room with the soles of his feet caked with sequins. We had many sequin trails throughout the apartment. (But things are only made better with a bit of sparkle, right?)

So, the other day at the store we got some corn dogs and giant marshmallows. And a few other things - I promise, those items were really not my sole purpose for grocery shopping. In fact, I don't think we've ever bought either one before, ever. So the kids were really excited when we mentioned maybe using them as our after-church snack today. Emily was excited enough to tell all of her teachers and friends and random people in the hall that when she got home she'd get to eat corn dogs and giant marshmallows! Joseph said he could almost hear those people thinking, "so Daddy's cooking today, huh?"

The snack was very much enjoyed.

 

 
All in all, it was a really fun mother's day. I did feel loved by my family and I enjoyed all the special things we were able to do... even the corn dogs and giant marshmallows. :)

Catch up

I should probably mention here that Caleb and Joseph had a birthday early March. It has been so much fun to have them sharing a birthday! Here are a few pictures from that exciting morning:

Packages from Grandma are always the best!!

Joseph and Caleb got matching ties, which I adore. Jake was a little put out by all the matching going on that he was not a part of.

But he took matters into his own hands and got a turn too!

Joseph got this cool gear ring that everyone was fascinated by.

... and I'm pretty sure we had cake and stuff, but these were the only pictures I set aside from that day, so that'll do for now.

Another cool thing that happened a little more recently was a visit to the Butterfly Pavilion with my sister-in-law and her daughter, Olivia. They live in Arizona, and the last time we'd seen Mindy was right before Olivia was born, at Caleb's baby blessing. So it was a treat to see them and get to know Olivia a little bit.

Here are all the cousins (minus Keanan) gathered for a group shot. Olivia is sandwiched there between Elinor and Emily. Doesn't she fit in well? Mindy and I kept getting Elinor and Olivia mixed up because they were so alike in size and coloring.

Emi in the butterfly house; Olivia in the background. This place was cool. There were all kinds of butterflies just flitting around all over the place. We had a couple land on us and the kids were in awe. There was also a wall of chrysalises, which was really interesting. (and yes, I did just look up whether or not the plural form of 'chrysalis' is chrysali! it's not.)

Jake.

The four kids settled in for lunch. I love this picture because they are all sitting in a fairly civilized manner, and eating their food like normal, proper people. It's a little sad how rarely this happens.

And a few random pictures:

Typical dinner prep! Our kitchen is way too tiny for half the family to hang out in!

Jake used to have gorgeous curly hair.

Sometimes it wasn't gorgeous, and sometimes it got lollipops stuck in it. One morning I was out on a run and when I got back Joseph had chopped all of Jake's beautiful curls. Yes, they were getting very long, and yes, a lot of the time they were matted or rats' nest-y, but I was really, really sad about it.

Good thing there's so much to love about this baby, even without the curls!

Pajama buddies. Caleb has an obsession with Minecraft and the other kids love to watch him play.

Things have been going well for us, though the weather has taken a turn for the worse - right now we have a winter storm warning in effect, with a possible 4-9 inches of snow accumulation tomorrow! And this is mid-May? It makes me want to go back to Austin!

I have been scouring Craigslist for possible rentals out in California, and have been blown away by how expensive everything is. It is also very difficult to do things long distance. I feel so grateful that Google has offered us a couple of months in corporate housing while we search for more permanent housing once we get there. It does seem like a great place to live though, aside from housing costs. I feel confident that once we've found a place that we feel comfortable with, our time in California will be very enjoyable. I've been working to convince the kids that Disneyland and beaches will make up for not having snow... I think they're slowly coming around!