in the past 30 days: birthday celebrations

Our girlie turned 8 this month, and we had lots of fun celebration! It started the week before her birthday, with a trip to the "American Girl" store to have her doll, Molly's ears pierced. We surprised K. by letting her get her own ears pierced that day too!

Then on her actual birthday, we had dinner with both sets of grandparents, with cake, ice-cream and presents:

 And finally, about a week later, we had three of her best friends over for a sleep-over party!

 These are sun-catchers we made from melting pony beads, a great craft for the morning after the sleep-over!

I think everyone would agree it was a good birthday!

as we approached Christmas

This will be the first in a few Christmas posts, just to break up the enormous number of photos that have been taken over the past week or two, and especially the past day or two. As we approached Christmas, we got busy with all the normal preparations, visiting Santa while at the BSO Holiday concert...

 baking cookies...

 making birdseed ornaments for teachers, bus driver, extended family and friends...

 and making our annual gingerbread houses (we use the Wilton kits, they make it so easy!).

 Presents were bought, wrapped and ribboned. Church services were attended and we worshiped our Saviour, come once to earth for us, and coming again. Christmas pajamas were opened and put on. Stockings were hung by the stairway (lacking a chimney) with care. And we admired the tree, and put ourselves to bed, awaiting Santa's arrival.

summer wrap-up, part 2

 After we got back from the lake it has been one thing and another, crossing activities off our summer bucket list one by one. On the 16th, the kids and I took a day-trip to Cunningham Falls State Park. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, so it was a "new" experience for all of us. We took the fairly easy 1 mile round-trip hike to the falls and back, including toes dipped in chilly water, and followed by a picnic lunch:

 This is my kids striking their "rock star" poses on the big rock. Pretty funny if you are 4. Or 7. Or 37. Rock. Star. Ha!

chilly toes...

 After lunch, we drove to Larriland Farms, a pick-your-own farm that is about halfway from the park to home. We picked blackberries...

 And peaches...

 ...and even some Gala apples. Here's all our bounty:

The next few days were full of baking (peach cake and blackberry cobbler), freezing (peach slices and premixed pie-filling), and of ice-cream making (blackberry). The apples are in the refrigerator, for munching, and I'm sure we will go pick more soon!

blackberry frozen yogurt (with chocolate sauce!)

We've also been painting, and swimming, and playing outside. And making homemade pizza as a family, for the very first (but definitely not last!) time.

 And then on the 22nd, we crossed off of the list "have a breakfast picnic at a park/beach" by picking up doughnuts and heading for one of our county parks (which also has a little beach...bonus!).

 We even spotted some raccoon tracks:

 And did some "treasure hunting":

There has been a lot going on around here! I have one more post's worth of activities, so stay tuned...

create:: kindle fire cover

A few months ago I joined the modern age with a Kindle Fire. The first weekend I had it, I whipped up a little felt envelope to keep it protected in my purse; not pretty, just functional. But the more I had it, the more I wanted something...more. And so I perused the web, I scanned ideas on Pinterest, I pondered and dug through my fabric stash. And I found a pattern that would work for me at Clover and Violet, with just a few modifications. I pulled out some linen scraps, and some fat quarters that were waiting for just the perfect thing, and a few hours later, I had this!

 I am a list maker and a stuff-keeper, so adding  lots of pockets were essential!

 See? Perfect for index cards, lists, etc. I can even put my earbuds in the big pocket for when I'm travelling.

 I love the snap closure, and the colors make me smile every time I pull it out. Which is a lot. I may be addicted to my little Kindle Fire. Maybe.

create:: the everything bag

I've been loving this new book by Tanya Whelan, Sew what you Love!  There's nothing more fun than a new sewing project and even better, a whole book of them! Tanya's projects are well written, not too complicated for beginners, and with details that are interesting enough for those who have been sewing a while. The designs are classic with a modern flair, and great for showing off wonderful patterned fabric.

The other thing I love: I am a bag-a-holic. I cannot resist a wonderful totebag. In my opinion, you cannot own too many wonderful bags. Great for shopping, lugging things to work, and of course, for project bags for knitting and other creative work!  And this book has not one but lots of fabulous bag patterns.

So the first project I tackled from this book was her Amelie bag, a present for a friend who just might need a big bag to carry things around in! I used a wonderful patterned fabric that I got on clearance last year and some remnant fabric, and it came together beautifully. The darts in the bottom make it great for holding books and with some interfacing, it felt quite sturdy. Plus I love the divided pocket inside, just the right size for a cell-phone and sunglasses.

I can't decide if my next project will be to make one for myself, or to try another pattern. So many choices. But I think a trip to the fabric store may be involved! Happy sewing, everyone!

how to have a Lego party!

What to do for my little buddy's fourth birthday party? After toying with ideas ranging from monsters to rockets, we landed on everyone's favorite building toy, Legos!  It helps that between my hubby's childhood Lego sets, sets that he has purchased for--yes--himself as adult, and all the kids various Legos, that we had an obscene amount  plenty of Legos to work with!

So I got busy on Pinterest, found more ideas than I could ever execute, several parties that must have cost a fortune and were way out of our league, and plenty of good, inexpensive fun that were just right for us. Here's what I did:

Favors:  Based on this idea I cut, folded and decorated yellow paper party bags to look like Mini-figure heads. I love Sharpie markers! These bags were filled with a Lego favor (a fabulous friend found batches of these on clearance at the Lego Store--hurray!) and a baby-food jar with a painted lid, filled with Lego-shaped candy.

Decorations: One giant Lego-building table, made by hubby the day before, out of a sheet of plywood, with 2x4's around the edges to create a lip, and edges covered with painter's tape to prevent splinters. Placed on top of a couple low cabinets hubby had in the garage (but cinderblocks or low tables would work well too).

I also used bright primary color streamer-red, yellow, green and blue. I strung up lots of yellow balloons (again with mini-fig faces drawn on) hung upside down from ribbons from stairways, chandeliers and anywhere else I could think of. And I drew some picture "cover-ups" for the art that is in our kitchen, so they matched the decor (just adhere to the glass with painters tape).

Food: Can you have a four-year-old's party without pizza? We couldn't. There were cupcakes with the Lego candy on top, marshmallow-pops, and mini-fig chocolates made from a silicone ice-cube tray.  The candle-holder was made by whittling a regular birthday candle to fit in a mini-figure's hand.

The mini-figure marshmallow-pops are made by putting a large marshmallow onto a lollipop stick (from your local craft store), topping it with half a small marshmallow, and dipping in yellow dipping chocolate (I used Wilton). I used an edible food-marker to make the faces, but piped chocolate might work better (the marker didn't write on the chocolate very well). They can also be made as cake pops but these are easier. Thanks to this party site for the great idea!

Activities:  The kids loved just being able to play with all the Legos! Hubby had set out many of the sets that were already built in areas like Lego City, Airport, Harbor, Space station, and Fort Legorado, on different tables and low book-shelves around the ground floor. We put some Duplo in one area away from the rest of the Legos for the littlest kids. 

And we did play games! After seeing a ton of fabulous games we pared it down and played "Pin the 4 on the mini-figure", and a Lego version of "Hot Potato" with a Lego "potato". The best part of  the Hot Potato game was that every kid got a small prize as they were eliminated from the game so that everyone was a winner (important when you are a kid!).  We had a tower building contest. And a mason-jar of the Lego-shaped candy made a great "guess how many are in the jar?" game--with the winner getting to take the whole jar of candy home.   I had also printed out the Lego Bingo cards from the link above, but found that the energy level of 13 kids aged 3-6 was insane just too high, so we nixed that idea at the last minute. I think older kids would have had a blast with that game.

Lego "Hot Potato"

Pin the "4" on the Lego Man

my "tower-builders" hard at work!

So there you have it...the Lego birthday! It was a great hit, and was fun and pretty easy to plan (thanks again to the wonder of the Internet!).  I hope you enjoyed seeing all the fun!