Halloween is Everywhere!!!!

Saturday Rick made this Shrimp Primavera for himself and his buddies when they were going to watch UFC at our house.



The kids and I were out doing some shopping. When we got home I looked in the bowl and found this:




Savannah was super excited when I showed it to her! :-D Happy Halloween everyone!

Biking

I think this was the girls' favorite part of the summer. Biking at the campground. Too bad this is the last weekend to do it. We'll have to bike around the block for the rest of the nice weather here.

Roasting Marshmallows

So lately I joined Pinterest and of course have spent a lot of time on there like most others that join. It has helped me to find a lot of new ideas for crafts, crochet and things to do with the children.

So far this is their favorite thing we have found on there. It's a play campfire. "Roasting" marshmallows on skewers was so much fun! If the flames look a little funny to you it's because we didn't have red, yellow and orange tissue paper, so had to settle on red, green and blue! The best part was listening to the older two tell the two year old the fire was hot so he wouldn't knock it down by touching it. The grey paper at the bottom is newspaper rocks. I didn't want to risk using real rock in the house with young children. They loved helping to make the whole thing.

Thinking Disney!

The Disney Store at our mall moved downstairs to a bigger location. This past weekend they had a reopening ceremony that I was able to take the kids to. They got to participate in the "Hot Dog Dance," a parade, and calling Tinkerbell to save the store from the villains! They each got a foam microphone for doing the dance and a character mask for the parade.

Then, the highlight of the day for them was meeting Goofy. He and Mickey Mouse flew all the way up here from Disneyland on a Disney plane. For real! There was a Disney staff member there with them that I was able to talk to while we waited.

This is Savannah talking to Goofy after the rest of us went to the side to let the next people have their turn.

She just stayed and stared at Goofy. So he patted her on the head and gave her a kiss!!!! She was so excited about that. It took me a minute to get her away. She thinks all the Disney characters are her personal friends. I guess that is what happens when you visit them every year.

Of course, she and Daddy have been discussing visiting the Princesses again. I won't argue with that! :D

5 Going on Cute!

Yesterday night Daddy stayed at a hotel again without us for work. Something he has been doing a lot of this summer with his new job. Savannah thinks he is having holidays without us. What else would you be doing at at hotel?

Last night I took the kids for a scooter ride to 7-11 to get treats for bedtime snack. Really I just wanted a Slurpee, but needed to give them some kind of motivation to get all the way there and back.

On the way there, Savannah discovered a toy phone she had put in the pouch on the front of her scooter. She is much faster than L on hers. So while waiting for us on a corner, she decided to get out her "cell phone" and call Daddy. Just as we came up to the corner I heard her saying "Hello Daddy, I love you!" She had a huge grin on her face the whole time.

Then tonight after she was asleep I went to check on her and discovered she had snuck into our room and taken Daddy's fuzzy wolf blanket off our bed and covered herself with it in her own bed. What a stinker, but at least she wasn't sleeping on Daddy's side of our bed this time! :D

During her prayers she thanked Heavenly Father for the fun holiday we had scootering to 7-11! Guess I will have to take them on more scooter rides before the snow flies. We saw and heard the first crunchy leaves on the sidewalk last night.

On the weekend we went to a scrapbook store with Flower Gramma. Gramma was still waiting in the checkout line to pay when I took the kids out to get them in the car. She overheard another lady say to her friend, "Did you see how cute that little girl in the blue skirt is?" I think Daddy is going to have his work cut out for him when she reaches dating age!

What cute things have your children or others around you been doing lately?




Sleeping in a hotel after Auntie Chelle's wedding this summer.

When it's lost, check the speaker!

This is one of our surround sound speakers. It sits just behind to the side of the TV. See the large hole in it? It is a magnet to young children.





Over the years I have found lots of missing things inside of it. Last night we caught J with his hand in the hole. I've noticed lately that the toy car selection seemed much smaller than normal. So today I took the back off and this is what I found!



7 lego type pieces, one egg shaker, one Garfield figurine, one piece of garbage and 5 cars. Quite the haul.

Making Pepperoni

This afternoon we helped Daddy make pepperoni. Savannah was so excited to help! She is holding the "natural casing" as Rick loads it onto the sausage press.

Closer up with the pepperoni in front of her waiting to be smoked and cooked.

Funny story: Savannah wanted to do all the jobs. So when I had to leave for a bit she exclaimed, "I guess it's just us now Daddy!" She thought that meant she could crank the lever all by herself after that.

Funnies

Just a couple things from recent days out of the mouth of Savannah:

1. After a particularly short stop at at stop sign: "Mummy, Daddy didn't stop like this, One, two, three!" She held her fingers up to count to three. She doesn't know where she learned about a three second stop. She says it wasn't playschool, so who knows? I am amazed she learned it well enough to apply in a real life situation.

2. While doing my hair: "Mummy, there are still peanuts in your hair!" Me: "Peanuts? You mean knots?" S: "Yeah, knots." (I guess the rats that make rats nests in your hair we busy collecting peanuts in mine last night! Hehehe)

I'm sure there will be more of these to come in the next while. Got any funny kid stories to share?

Apparently we had a warm day or two this winter

The 17th and 18th of this month were quite warm days. The 17th Savannah and I built a pretty good sized snowman in the backyard. Unfortunately we didn't have time to finish the detail work. She convinced me the snowman at least had to have a carrot nose before we could go in for the evening.

The next afternoon when she looked out she was sure that a bunny had eaten the nose! They sang a song about that at play school earlier this year. I finally convinced her to go out and look on the ground for it. The whole snowman was a lot smaller as it had melted quite a bit that day. Pretty soon she let me know that a bunny named Savannah had eaten the carrot and handed me the stem end of it! :D

Then she tried to fix the snowman, but just ended up with a head on the ground. So then I got her some buttons for the face and helped her put the hat and scarf on.

This one kind of shows how small the head actually is.

This one shows you the surprised look on his face!

If we had made it on the 18th I'm sure he'd still be standing as a solid iceman. We are still hoping for Spring, sometime soon.

Is it Easter yet?

Someone here sure wishes it was! The minute we were done opening presents on the last day of three Christmases we had this past December she said, "Yay! Now the Easter Bunny can bring me chocolates!"

Today we had a fun day which ended with her buying some things at Build-A-Bear for her Kitty. Kitty ended up getting bunny slippers a ballet type dress and these bunny ears. The sunglasses are ones that Gramma Susan bought in Mexico last year. They are too small for Savannah now, but they fit Kitty perfectly. Tonight you get pictures of Savannah all dressed in ears and sunglasses. What a goof. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a picture of Kitty. Or maybe not, she's not as cute as this bunny!

Giant Flashy Billboard????

Does anyone else out there have children with giant flashing billboards over their heads that say "GIVE ME STUFF?" What kind of stuff, you ask? Anything and everything!!!

While delivering papers Savannah has made an elderly friend that likes to give her presents. Some for me as well! The first thing was a stuffed toy. Then at Christmas we got two bags of gifts! Now she is wanting to give her some more stuffed animals from her collection.

Also delivering papers she has been given money to buy ice cream with (more normal since tips are always appreciated!), bandaids for a scrapped knee while just a block from home. That lady is a nurse and did a great job of bandaging her up. Ugly bandaid on the bottom, Princess one over top! :D

Then while on our recent trip to Walt Disney World twice she was given big Mickey balloons. First one, then two more. Mind you, these are $20 each balloons. (We have since passed these balloons on to friends as they are not airplane friendly!) Then walking into the Magic Kingdom people gave us a stroller to have! It sure was nice. Came in very handy for the long afternoons of walking. Not that Savannah needs a stroller, but it's great for hauling around all the stuff we needed. Savannah loved it too, she always jumped on for a ride.

Yesterday, while at the Toronto airport (while in a 6 hour wait for the next plane) a cleaning lady gave Savannah a bottle of orange juice, because "She is just so cute!"

I think we are in for years more of "getting stuff!" After all she IS "just so cute!"

Snorkelling!

Tonight was an exciting night at the swimming pool. Savannah is super excited that her ears don't have tubes again because that means she can put her head under the water.

We let her take her snorkel gear to the pool to practice for our next vacation. She loves swimming with goggles, so we thought she'd like this even more. We were right. For awhile Rick pulled her around the pool while she floated. After the hot tub to warm up, she and Mummy went down the water slide, our usual 5 times.

After that we were in the hot tub a short time before she wanted to go back to the big pool. She kept getting her snorkel tube under the water, so I helped her keep it out and floated her around the pool again. After going around once I noticed she was relaxing more, so I let go of one of her hands. She didn't panic, so I switched hands. Still okay. Slowly I let go with both hands without her knowing. Success!

I took her hands and floated her around the pool another time. I mostly only held one hand at a time. Then in the shallow part we tried no hands again. This time Daddy saw it! After that, she didn't want me to hold her hands anymore. She had a hard time moving anywhere, but she did manage to get around a bit. I walked beside her and made sure she kept her snorkel tube above water. Of course I had to pull her out a time or two and help her clear out the tube, but on the whole she did great!

Our little fish is growing up. Pretty soon she'll be off to her own school! :D

Mum's Christmas Quilt

Some time ago I was going through things in my craft room and found a bunch of handkerchiefs that came from my Gramma's house. I decided they were too special and pretty to just leave laying in a drawer for the rest of my life. So, after some pondering, I decided to make my Mum a quilt out of them.

First I sewed them onto squares of white sheet material.

This is a close-up of the embroidered monogram of one of my Grampa's handkerchiefs.

As there were only 10 handkerchiefs and the quilt was going to have 12 squares, I had to figure out what to put in two more squares. My Gramma LOVED Lillies, so a Lily was a natural choice. First I drew a Lily on paper using this photo of one of my own Lillies to copy from.

I cut out the petals for patterns and then used them to applique orange material pieces onto my background material. Here is the pattern after I sewed the material onto the background.

Without the paper.

This is the finished Lily after I embroidered around each petal, made a stem, leaves, pistil and stamens.

This is what I wrote in the other square.

One of the handkerchiefs.

Finished quilt laying on our bed.

The finished quilt, hung in a doorway at Mum's for this photo.

A Little Christmas Fun!

These are a few photos of Savannah's play school Christmas concert day and one of a plate of goodies we gave to friends.

More quilts

These are a couple more quilts I did last summer. One for a boy I baby sit. The other for a friend's little boy.

Getting my Quilt ON!.... Catching up, sewing problems

This post was originally written at the end of September 2010. I didn't have the time then to upload the photos, so am finally getting around to it!....

I've been quilting up a storm again. Seems like now my craft room is more organized and clean, I actually feel like being in there now. It's been nice.

This is a quilt for the birthday party of a girl that Savannah goes to Gymnastics Playschool with.

The next is for a girl in our Joy School (home Playschool) from last year.

Keep in mind these parties are on the 3rd and 4th and Daddy's party is also on the 4th! I think we are going party crazy these days!!! :D Good times, good times.

We were party crazy those days, but it sure was fun! Now my sewing machines are all broken, so I'll have to get at least one fixed. I have 4 and none of them work right now. One is an Antique treadle sewing machine. It serves as an end table and storage area. One is a denim machine. Not sure what it's problem is. Something to do with the tension I think. It keeps breaking thread no matter what I set the knobs to. My "good" sewing machine seems to have a similar problem. My old one that used to belong to my Mother-in-Law broke a plastic piece that is supposed to hold the bobbin in place. I'm sure it has tension issues too. So I'll have to take those three in someday and see what my options are.