Super H!

Hewy has been invited to a birthday party. This may be the first non-family birthday party he has been invited to... and it's a super hero party. They asked that the kids dress up as Super Heroes. I just can't wait to see all these three and four year olds dressed up! How fun!

So what a perfect time to make Hewy a cape.
He is always running through the house saying "Super H!" as he has one arm raised to fly like Superman.
I haven't gotten any pictures of him wearing it yet, but I will, I promise.

No, I didn't make two capes, it's reversible!

I used this blog, Puking Pastilles, as my inspiration
click here to go there now.

"The Dirt"

The Dirt on our family was literally dirt this week.
We had 13 yards of dirt delivered to spread over our grass.

It took us two days to get it all moved where it needed to be, by days, I mean evenings after Alec got home from work. Tuesday my parents were there, and Dell came to help and then our hometeachers came. That was nice.
Tuesday it was just our family.



This was day one and the first pile of dirt, or about half.

Noble was a real helper. He did everything from load the wheelbarrow to push and deliver to raking it out. What a great helper he was.

And honestly what more could a little boy dream of, a huge pile of dirt in his front yard. It kept him happy for hours.

Liam loved it too. Loved the idea of messing around in it, not the fact of working, and as soon as he was done "working" (read: goofing off) he wanted to shower. Once he was clean, he would come back to "work" some more. I don't know how many showers he took over the two days.

I shoveled about half the dirt total and raked a good portion of it too. I got lots of comments, are you sure you should be doing that if you are 4 months pregnant? Obviously these people had never met my Grandma and don't have a clue that I come from Nebraska Farmer Stock. :)

what I did this weekend

I made these for a couple December birthdays, I don't know if they read my blog or not. If they do, sorry to ruin the surprise.
We are trying as a family to do a more "homemade" holiday this year.


This one is very light and vintage feeling.
Here is a close up of the fabrics.

This one is more vibrate and has an almost French Country feel.
And the close up of the fabrics.

Nov 6 - fall and friends

I am grateful for fall. I love fall in places that have seasons. It is just starting to feel fall-ish here in Texas. The weather is cooler and the lawn is starting to go dormant. But... it isn't pretty. We don't have the pretty fall colors. And the oak trees in my yard won't lose their leaves until February but they will already be budding again... so there is not real fall around here.
I do love fall and am grateful for this time of year. The time of year that we should be slowing down and reaping our harvest. The time of year that we stop and say I have so much and I am so thankful. Maybe that is what I like so much, the thankful part. I try diligently to be thankful each and everyday and it seems like the world joins me in the fall in celebrating thanks.


This is my mantle for November.

And I am also thankful for friends that hold my hands and help me with projects that intimidate and scare me on so many levels! This is one of my kitchen chairs. I love my table and chairs. Love love love them. BUT the fabric on my favorite kitchen chairs was not only light, but textured. It held and showed food, stains and everything. We used to make Hewy always sit on the same chair and it was way stained and gross. He looked at it a few weeks ago and said "eew yuck." and moved his booster seat to a different chair.
I had the idea to cover the chairs in a leather-like material. I can wipe them off a damp cloth and they are perfect for our family now. However, I was intimidated because the last time I recovered chairs, it was only an okay experience, I wasn't thrilled with the results. And the staple gun... freaks me out.
Thankfully I have a good friend, Kemille, that was willing to hold my hand and help me bite the bullet and do it. I am happy with how they turned out. And the staple gun wasn't so scary after the first few chairs. And I wiped the chairs off after dinner and wow - what a difference.

what did you do today?

I made scripture-holder-carrier-case-thingies.


Why?
Because I am always finding Noble's scriptures in the strangest places and they are always this way and that way. Sir William will be eight soon which means he will be getting his own scriptures too. So I decided on my co-op off day (no kids for THREE hours) to do this. (see picture above)
Yes, I did make my own pattern, thank you for asking.
I'm proud of myself again can you tell?
They are lined and have a thick interfacing so they "stand" on their own without anything in them. I also put a cute little pocket inside. I put their names on them too, just to try out the alphabet tool on my machine. Blue is always Noble and Red is always William, so I didn't need to put their names on them, but it was fun anyway.

It's like watching paint dry!

The boys wanted to learn to sew. We picked PJ pants as I mentioned in a previous post. Noble's first choice would have been a ruffled-collared-long-sleeved-3-musketeer-type costume. He was devastated when I said, Um lets not do this first - I'm not saying you can't do it ever, just not as a start off project. He cried. Right there in the fabric store he cried and the Mommy in me wanted to give in but I knew, I knew full well that I would end up doing it because well, it wasn't' a starter project. PJ pants are a starter project.

enter starter project.
Knowing my boys I knew they needed results and fast.
What do you mean we have to cut out the pattern?
And we have to cut out the fabric too?
Now is it time to sew?
Good.
Look what I did while you were upstairs helping Hewy - oh, if I sew there it makes it a skirt not pants, whoops.
Enter the seam-ripper.
Mom can I have a play date - two play dates today.
Sure.
Now it's dinner time.
But I wanted to finish my PJ pants to wear tonight.
Are you kidding me, you had better be kidding me.
Nope not kidding.
Help them to feel successful.
Deep breaths


Liam was very good. He was slow. I went in the study one time and told Alec, it's like watching paint dry. I could finish them in a few minutes - but it took him an hour and half to do the waistband alone. But being slow, he was also careful. Very careful and very slow. I don't think he unpicked a stitch.

Noble on the other hand just wanted them done. He was not careful. He was not slow. He did unpick about half of everything he sewed. He spent about the same amount of time from start to finish on the pants that Liam did, but half of that was unpicking. He doesn't love sewing right now. He is grateful he did not pick the hard project to start because he is glad to be done right now and he is not asking what he can sew next.

the finished pants. You can't tell how soft these pants are. But they are super soft. And comfy.

This is what Alec and Hewy did last night as I helped the boys sew.
Hewy chess.