Weekend Update

Well, Bubbles was the least of our worries this weekend. On Fri night, Macie started running a fever. We took her to the Dr on Sun and she has strep throat. Poor baby. She was really miserable. AND, she missed two birthday parties and cheerleading. She is doing much better today. When she realized Bubbles was gone, she said: "Can I get a new fish today? I am really going to miss Bubbles.... sniff" Whatever.
Anyway, look what I made! It is a 96 cent clip board covered in cute scrapbook paper.... got that idea from Priscilla. And, the grocery list I adapted from one I saw online. It has a spot for meal planning at the top and then perforated shopping lists at the bottom. I LOVE IT! And, by the way, if and when we get around to repainting our kitchen, the colors in the clip board are the new colors of our kitchen. Can't wait to get started on it!!!

Bubbles

Well, it's a sad day here at our house. Ms. Bubbles our little Beta fish died today. She hadn't been loooking so great the last few days. I told Macie Thurs morning that it didn't look good and she bursted into tears. John is out burrying her right now (11pm) in a red box. So, I guess sometime tomorrow between cheerleading, two birthday parties and babysitting her friends, we will tell her. I am wondering if she will notice. We had her for over a year. Santa brought her a Beta in her stocking in 2007, but the stocking fell off the mantle and the fish didn't last long after that. So then Macie and John went and bought Bubbles a few weeks after Christmas. It really is sad. Poor Bubbles. I didn't have the heart to flush her. And, I didn't want to make a big deal out of a burial, so I think this late night affair is best.

crafties

I love Valentines Day cuz its so pretty. All that pink and red. Plus, I love any excuse to eat sweets, esp assorted chocolates. ANYWAY.... Here are some crafts Macie and I made. The cards are for her Nature School teachers. I thought the leaves looked like hearts and were appropriate for Nature School. The heart is a Valentine for the birds that she made at Nature School Open house the other night. It is a piece of bread, brushed with egg white and dipped in bird seed.

Our playgroup made those Hershey treasures candy bars covered in the mailing labels. That idea was from this link Sara had on her blog the other day. Too cute! I thought the kids could decorate their own labels too. It didn't turn out as well as I hoped. They were too busy I think. Oh, plus I forgot the markers. Ha! Macie liked the idea at home, choosing blue polka dots. We also made some yummy heart sugar cookies for the kids to decorate.

Tonite, I made some pretzels covered in almond bark with red sprinkles for John to take to work.

And, believe it or not, I'm not done yet. Maybe. I want to make some petit fours. We will see how that turns out. Plus, our friends are babysitting the girls on Sat nite while John and I have a date and they are going to do MORE Vday crafts. Aaaah.

Oh, almost forgot. The blue bird is from a kit of Martha Stewart puppets from Walmart. I haven't decided if it was worth the $ yet. Macie and I assembled them and then she did a puppet show for Maris. So, it was entertaining. They are cute and easy. Five come in a kit (bird, lion, bunny, frog, pig) for $12.

This is kinda messy and out of order, but it's late and I just wanted to get it up there.

Sewin Fool

Here are some pictures of my latest sewing projects. I still have two more to do and I am kinda losing steam. One is a flannel jumper dress which I really need to make this week, or it will be spring and she won't be able to wear it. The other project I still want to do is the one that started this whole sewing thing in the first place. It is a spiral skirt my friend at church made her girls and I have been wanting to make it since October. But, I was intimidated so I tried the other skirt first. Then, I got distracted. Just as I am now... ANYWAY, I made the skirt in these pictures from the instructions on jcarolinecreative site for the peasant skirt. It is under the "How To" tab. You measure your hips or waist and then it calculates the rectangular pieces for you to cut. The instructions were so nice and easy to follow. They are for an adult size skirt, so I just cut the length of each one in half for Macie. Clarissa... You can do this if you want to try apparel. I didn't really understand the instructions for the waist band, so I did my own thing there.

The other dress was inspired by the fabric that Macie chose on the shopping trip to pick out the fabric for the unmade spiral skirt. The picture doesn't really show it, but this lovely fabric has glittery little dots all over it. It just screamed sun dress. I found this pattern for a pillow-case style dress. It's OK, but those little glittery things itch her and its a little short. So, even in summer she will probably need leggings and a shirt under it. Oh well. If you are interested, it is McCalls #5797 and was super easy.

Stock Show

The girls and I went to the Ft Worth Stock Show this afternoon. It was fun. I love the stock show! There are REAL cowboys and cowgirls there. These people are hard core. Brushin and combin their animals. Cowboy hats, boots and fancy belt buckles walkin around everywhere. Clarissa, next year you need to visit in early Feb. Last year we met a family there that was showing a steer. They gave us some insight into that whole world. The competition is fierce, with thousands of entries for one category. Anyway... Maris was in awe over all the animals. A turkey gobbled in her face and scared her and then a big ole pig scared her a little too. Here is a sampling of some pictures:

FUNNEL CAKE!! .......on a bale of hay, with the stench of pig in the air. Can't get any better than that! I would never have let Macie eat funnel cake at 11 mos. Whatta ya know? Maris loves it.

This tractor is HUGE! Macie won this little blow up unicorn on the midway. I am such a sucker.

Poor Mama pig. I feel her pain! Ha! Look at those cute little behinds though!

OK, this is a little scary looking. Just when I think Macie is growing up and really is a big girl, she brings her blow-up unicorn, named Rainbow Sherbert, to the dinner table complete with popsicles for dinner ("because they don't eat people food, ya know"). Makes me laugh and makes me glad she is still a little 4 year old girl.

Weekend Update

This is more rambling, but here is some stuff. On Sunday, we went bike riding with Mark and Ashley. Right before Christmas we bought a bike trailer for the girls to pull behind our (John's) bike. They loved it the first time we went out, but this time Maris was pretty fussy. I think Macie was squishing her. We may have to rethink the riding situation, get Macie something else. ANYWAY..... we went riding at River Legacy park near our house and we saw 2 bobcat babies and a momma bobcat! It was SO cool! The walked under the bike path through a drainage pipe and really didn't seem to care about us at all. We have seen the bobcat two other times at the park. And, Macie and her nature school class saw one last year on their nature walk. I wish I had had my camera with me. Sadly, no picts to post.

More food stuff:
I forgot to say in my ramblings some other food we are loving right now. Thanks to my cousin Lisa, we are eating what we call waffwiches. These are 2 waffles with peanut butter and jelly, made like a sanwich. Yummy!

And, another yummy thing is chocolate, banana, strawberry smoothies. I got this from Amanda and I think she got it from Bob Greene's book. Anyway, you take 1 cup of Light Choc soy milk and about 1/2 c of frozen strawberries and one banana. Stick it in the blender and yummy! I never really measure, but this morning I made it with frozen strawberries and frozen banana. It was thick, had to eat it with a spoon. It was like eating ice cream. Again... Yummy! And the girls liked it too. It is also a great way to use up fruit that is about to get too ripe. If we have bananas or strawberries that are getting ripe, I slice them up and freeze them. Then, they can go right into the smoothie.

Oh! I almost forgot! Maris is crawling!!! So cute. She is 11 mos and finally decided to crawl. Should be walking any day now too. Macie crawled at 11 mos too. I am excited, but it is going to change some stuff around here.

Ok, will post some picts of my lastest sewing creations soon!