Bee's window sill

Bee cracks me up. She has started displaying nick knacks on her window sill. I can't help but straighten up the kids room when they are in the tub. She has asked me to please not pick up her window sill, that she wanted these things out.

I asked where she got the idea and she said she saw it in a book. I asked her to please show me and she immediately went and grabbed a book from her closet called, Wish Come True Cat.



Sure enough, there was the window sill full of stuff in the little girls room. I guess I can't argue with that. I just want to clean it all up, but the stuff will stay.

Shop news and a grown up pirate

I have decided to remove capes from my shop, at least through Christmas. I really don't like making them in mass quantities and I have decided that if I'm going to continue enjoying having a shop, it is silly to have to sew things that I don't like sewing. That's also the reason I do not have my lunch bags listed. I will continue to make both items for special gifts, etc, and may list them again when things slow down in etsy-land, which is after Christmas.

I mailed out several orders today. I was not busy like this last year at this time. Perhaps more people are interested in handmade costumes this year to save money? Two orders are ones I am hoping to see pictures of for sure. I sent out an adult sized Diego bag and Dora Backpack for a couples costume! I also sent out a adult sized pirate hat an eye patch and those went to my dad. I will get a picture of that for sure, I can count on my sister.

We made these little ghost footprints to include in my dads package. Bee is getting so fast at writing. Preschool is helping with this I think.



I made the elastic pretty long. Id it's too short (Dad), just cinch it up a little and knot it in the back. I think the hat should be big enough, but if it isn't, just cut right along the current hole, just the tiniest bit at a time. Use Jill's nice scissors, they're are probably hidden from you.

funny kids and Bee's scandal

During Bee's second week of school-

me: I saw you holding hands with a little girl on the playground today, what is her name?
Bee: Her name is Ella and she is nice. She does whatever I tell her to do. She's going to be a good friend

While playing grocery store with Bee and Lou- (I don't know where she got this idea! We are very tame folk and lead fairly conservative lives...)

me (the cashier): Hi, how are you two today?
B: We're good. This is my baby (pointing to her baby doll) and this (pointing to Lou) is the baby's daddy. He's not my husband, just my boyfriend. He has a baby too (pointing to Lou's baby doll) but I am not her mommy. They live next door to me. I live with my husband. We're all friends.
me: SCANDAL, huh?

unrelated photos: my Bee during a recent fishing trip

10 years ago

10 years ago today hubby and I were married. We look so young in the pictures, but it's only because we really were young. We got married in college over fall break. I think we had two days off of school plus the weekend and then I returned on Monday with a different last name. I can't believe my mom said yes when my sweetie asked permission to propose. She did make him promise that I would finish my degree and we wouldn't have kids until that was done. Good enough.

I was pretty pleased at the time with the photography. If this was happening today, I'd be excepting a whole lot more. This was a tidbit before people used digital. I remember the photographer telling us how the whole digital photography thing was never going to come into play with professional photographers because film is SO much better. He may be out of business now. My mom had a digital camera at the time that she borrowed from work (it was so large!), but I remember we didn't take but a few pictures on it. What would you do with images on your computer? The whole idea seemed silly. You really couldn't even really print them out nicely... why bother.

I loved my dress and only could afford it because I got in a minor fender bender that summer. I received a check for the slight damage to my car and bought a wedding dress. I had taken it to an overpriced repair shop to purposely get a larger estimate. I remember going into the dress shop and saying I have exactly ___ (I don't even remember anymore), the amount on the check. I do believe my total came out exactly. I don't fit into that dress anymore. I was pretty sure at the time that I always would. Oh to have a waist again (and be so young and naive!). I tried it on several months ago and laughed a little when I could not budge the zipper a single inch. Then I tried it on Bee and it was all kinds of big and baggy. She thought it was just great. I don't hold out any hopes that she will want to wear it on her wedding day. I have thought seriously about just consigning it before it is laughably out of fashion. I think it will stay in it's box wrapped in a cabbage patch bed sheet until another day.

fall math games

There are so many great resources out there for parents of little ones who want to provide some fun and educational opportunities. ABC 123 is chalked full of great educational ideas. Here are a few recent idea we got there and tried this weekend. This egg carton counting game and apple/acorn counting tree idea came from Pre-K pages, which was featured on ABC 123.



I found a clipart image of a tree outline on google and printed it up a few times on the computer. I wrote a number on the trunk and the kids used Q-tips to paint on either acorns (brown paint)or apples (red paint). We ended up turning them into a little book.

These math grids are from Teach Mama and they have been so much fun. Lou is counting "8, 9, 10" and "1,2,4,6" I think he's getting close to getting it right. All we do when we play is to roll the large dice and place that many markers on our grids. We play until everyone fills their board. I laminated ours so they will last all season. This simple game is a favorite!

my pirate

Lou's costume is done and it was made completely from my stash of fabric and scrap box. Most is made with fleece or felt so there was little hemming or finished edges to worry about. That makes for some easy sewing!

The blue belt was made from a scrap of fabric my Grandma gave me that was cut off a skirt when she had it shortened.

The blouse (and I hope that this is the only time I am required to sew my son a puffy sleeve blouse) was brought over by a friend just days before. She asked, "Is there anything you could do with this funny striped fabric?"

His favorite part is the money bag full of pirate gold! Bee's outfit is next. Since we didn't spend anything on Lou's, I did agree to buy some shimmery fabric for Bee's outfit. She's going to sparkle!

fall tree cratf

This craft we did at the library was a perfect toddler fall craft. It is easy, colorful, not much skill involved, and uses a glue stick. We were handed a piece of construction paper with a few lines drawn on for the tree. The kids simply glued on squares of fall leaf colored tissue paper. Each child's art looked so different. The papers done by the parents did look better, but ours are completed "All by self."