two projects (#199-- the big one's not far away!)

Last night it was Bible character night at Cubbies. Aubie wanted to be Mary. I was trying to gently encourage her to change her opinion and be someone like Esther who would be fun to costume. Nope! Mary is her favorite, so it had to be Mary.
Ma had gotten several extra-large turtlenecks a while back, and asked if we might be able to use them. (I've been wanting to make myself a tunic or something out of one, but I haven't yet.) So I pulled out this blue one, pinned the shoulder seam up to the neck seam on the shoulders, and cut the cuff off of the sleeves. Then I used an old white pillowcase to make the vest, and used a piece of fabric for her head wrap. Had I not surged the edge of the fabric for her head, it would have been a completely No-Sew outfit!



Another shirt dress. This one was made from an extra-large Eddie Bauer shirt I got at Goodwill. It was one of those shirts without a collar so I didn't have to worry about doing anything with that. The fabric just looked so fall-y to me, I had to make something with it!

fair pictures

Hey, no time to explain each picture--gotta leave for Vida Nueva in like 10 minutes. Just thought I'd finally post them since we went to the fair like 3 weeks ago today.

Friday, we went to the pumpkin patch. As you'll see, it was a lot of fun ; ) (#197)

One year later...

The first picture, Aubie is scared to death to hold this tiny baby. The second, she is holding on for dear life so that Mommy can get a good picture. I didn't even intend for them to look so similar, it just worked out that way.



I love this Joe D. stance.
(for those of you who don't know, Joe D. was my PaPa)



Finding the perfect pumpkin...



Look at the following pictures in order. It makes me laugh every single time. (sorry about Daniel's goth pumpkin in the second picture. my camera likes to play tricks like that.)










Aubie had a very funny story to tell about this game. I wish I could remember her exact words, but the gist of it is that Daniel was sticking his head through the holes like the ones you take your picture in, and Aubie hit him in the face with the bean bag because obviously, its a game not a picture thing. He yelled at her for hitting her in the face. See? not funny in my words, but when Aubie told it, I cracked up.



Getting her face painted.



These two are my attempt at getting a good picture of Aubie and Matthan in the pumpkins. He is obviously much too busy for that.

October sky!
We went to BK afterward. I wanted to post this picture to commemorate Wendy and Matthan now being able to play on the playground. This is actually their second trip to the playground, but I didn't bring my camera the first time.

every part of the buffalo (#196)

Last night at Cubbies was Hawaii night. Aubie has nothing Hawaiian. Well, at least, she didn't. So I asked Eda if Aubie could have this Hawaiian shirt. Ma had gotten it on clearance for very cheap--she has an awesome knack for finding bargains!--and had given it to Leah the week before.
I had seen an idea similar to this dress online, but that style was a bit more complicated than I wanted to attempt, at least for my first try at this anyway. So, I put the shirt on Aubie, told her to hold her arms up and got to work. Oh, how I hate pinning! But this project only took about 10 pins so I was happy. I cut the collar off, Fray Check-ed the edges, rickrack-ed it (with some perfectly matching rickrack that Renee had given me for my birthday!), etc. Over all, the dress took about 2 hours. Washing and drying a load of laundry takes longer than that sometimes! Next time my child has nothing to wear, I may go raid mine and David's closets ;)
(since this picture, I added a line of rickrack across the seam where that green leaf gets cut in half)

On the making of the "The Incredibles" Brad Bird says, "Use every part of the buffalo". Well, that line came to my head when I was trying to figure out how I needed to make the strap for the purse. I really didn't want to have to cut straight strips out of the leftover fabric, or try to find some ribbon to match. Then I remembered the collar I had cut off. Perfect. I turned it inside out and sewed the cut edges back together , then flipped it back (through the small hole I left) and sewed down the side. I used the two sleeves one inside out inside the other so that the purse would have a lining. And of course it's accented with the same rickrack as the dress. There's actually a bit of fabric left--enough to add panels to a pair of shorts for Matthan next summer (this is a men's shirt, by the way). That way and Aubie can match, without being matchy-matchy.

tired of the same old thing (#195)

"It just seemed like the thing to do at the time."

"Everyone else is doing it."

So, you're asking, "If Heather, Leah, Lyndsay, and Josh all jumped off a bridge, would you?"

By the looks of it, I would.

Happy Birthday! (#194)

Happy Birthday, Matthan!


Its hard to believe that the birthday boy was ever that little tiny radioactive glowworm (courtesy of the bili-lights). He began protesting being "held like a baby" when was 2 months old, and has rarely let anyone do so since. And now that he's one, he really is that big boy that he's wanted to be all along. Here's a few pictures of his big day.

Matthan was a bit tired from our long day, but thoroughly enjoyed his sweet potato Ma cooked him.
After supper it was present time!


Mommy excited about socks.

Matthan excited about the wagon.
One of his favorite toys is the sand castle, bucket,
and shovel from Ma that I'm opening here.


He was so happy about this terribly noisy car that I got. It plays "Y'all ready for this?" : ) I don't know that I ever will be ready for the noise, but he loves dancing to it and then pushing his car along.

Loves his car.
Loves his car.
He sees it.




His firetruck! With Aubie demonstrating how to drive it.
Thanks MarMar!





Matthan's turn! We couldn't get him to keep his hat on, so Mom held it on for this picture.



Here he is calling the fire station.


*Added note: While Matthan played with his new sand toys today--10/06/08--Aubie was playing firefighter. After seeing her have so much fun calling the station about fires, driving around to find them, etc., he wanted to play too. When he got in the car, he started shouting into the radio hollering orders. It was so funny. I think he's going to learn quickly how to pretend since he has such a great teacher.


And lastly, the cake pictures.


Matthan just picked at it to begin with--the icing was too sticky.

Obviously, that didn't last for long!