Anyone want to help Elise with something?

Elise came home from school the other day saying she wished she had a HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! I asked her why, and she started telling me excitedly about this assembly at school, and how she would get a little water bottle if she brought enough money (like probably a HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!). And she knew exactly what she would do with her little water bottle, put it on her bike and if she gets thirsty while riding her bike, she could just drink out of the bottle, and WOULDN'T THAT BE PERFECT?

Yes, Elise, that's very exciting, but what is the money for?

They give it to the people who have sick hearts, she says.

I checked her backpack and luckily the school sent home some information about this fund raiser. It's a good thing they don't rely on the 5-year-olds to pass on accurate information!

Anyway, they are having a Jump Rope for Heart event in a couple weeks, and the kids are raising money for the American Heart Association.

I helped her donate $5, which is enough to earn that little water bottle. But if she can raise a little more, she can earn a jumprope and maybe even a t-shirt. The deadline for fundraising is March 3rd.

If anyone out there feels like giving a little to a good cause, Elise would sure appreciate it.

You can donate online through Elise's Donation Page, or you can contact me if you want to send a check (made out to American Heart Association).

T-Shirt Princess Dress Tutorial

We love these t-shirt dress-ups.

They are fairly easy and cheap to make, modest, machine washable, durable, easy-on, and easy-off.

Today my sis-in-law Krista asked me to explain how I make them. It was really hard to put into words over the phone, so I decided to make one today and take pictures as I went.

First, you need to measure the little girl you're making one for. In this case the measurements (Krista's daughter's) were: shoulder (or collar) to waist=11", waist to floor=17".

Next, you need a T-shirt sized to fit your little princess. Cut off the bottom of the shirt about 1/2 inch below where you want the waist. I cut mine 11.5" down from the shoulder.

Now measure your t-shirt across the waist (mine was 12"). Double this number (24"). Divide by pi (3.14), which gave me 7.6". Don't round up! That is the radius of your waist hole.

Now, you need a rectangle of fabric big enough to make the skirt. Figure out how long you want your skirt, including the seam and hem (mine is 16"). Now add the radius of the waist hole to the skirt length (7.6+16). Round up (24") and that's the width of your rectangle. The length of the rectangle will be twice that (48"). So my rectangle in this example is 24"x48".

Here is the easiest way I discovered to cut that half-donut shape. Fold your rectangle in half to make a square. Now fold the square in half diagonally to make a triangle. Two edges of this triangle will have folds. Fold the triangle so the "fold" sides meet, making an even pointier triangle. Think about making a snowflake out of paper.

Now, you want to measure your radius from the point of this triangle, which will make the half-donut hole. I cut off 7.6" (my radius) from the point. Unfold the piece you cut off. If it is shaped like a half circle, hooray! You did it right!

Now, keep your "snowflake" folded. You're going to measure the length of your skirt (remember mine was 16"), from the edge you just cut. Measure (16") along each fold, make a mark. Cut a straight line connecting your 2 marks.

Unfold this piece. Hopefully it is the shape we were after!

Okay, so now you have a cut off t-shirt and a half-donut of skirt fabric.

You need to sew the center back seam of the skirt. I like to do a French seam so it won’t fray. Line up the 2 straight edges, WRONG sides together, and sew 1/4” from the edge. Turn the skirt inside out. Now with the RIGHT sides together, sew again 3/8” from the edge. Your 1/4” seam should be encased in the 3/8” seam.

Pin the waist of the shirt to the waist of the skirt, RIGHT sides together. I like to sew it with a straight stitch at 3/8”, and then go back and do a zigzag on the edge of my seam allowance


Finish your hem, add embellishments (like a ruffle on the sleeves and shiny rick-rack trim), and VOILA! A t-shirt dress fit for a princess.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tell me, how is it possible that Tyler is already a whole year old? Ridiculous, I tell you! He was just born like a few weeks ago, I swear.


Here is his birthday party invitation. The first time I read Where the Wild Things Are to Tyler, I just knew it had to be the theme for his first birthday party. He cracked up and wiggled excitedly through the whole book! For about a week afterward, all I had to do was begin saying a few words from the book, and I'd have him giggling. He loves when they RRRROAR their terrible ROARS! And gnash their terrible TEETH! And roll their terrible EYES! And show their terrible CLAWS!!!


I had all these great ideas about how I would decorate for this party and incorporate the theme, but I procrastinated too long and so there were no hanging vines or blown-up pictures of the wild things. There were no "King of all Wild Things" crowns. Oh well, at least the cake got done! It was inspired by an illustration from the book. I surrounded the cake with cupcakes, and each of those had a Wild Thing dancing on it. I just printed them on the computer and taped them onto toothpicks.


Here you can see all the dancing wild things. Tyler was completely clueless about what do do with that candle. I think Elise blew it out for him.


I just love the expression on his face. I've been pretty relaxed about letting him taste sweet things (compared to when I was a first time mom, anyway) but I still think a whole chocolate-frosted cupcake was a bit of a novelty for him.


It didn't take him long to figure out exactly what to do with the cupcake.

Tyler at one year...

• is easygoing. He just "rolls with the punches" when his sisters pick him up, hug and kiss him, bump into him, take his toys, and so on.
• doesn't demand entertainment and attention, but is easily entertained and loves attention. I think his default setting must be "giggle".
• is equal parts cuddly and busy. Sometimes he is content to just sit on my lap and snuggle, and other times there is no containing him. He just wants to be down and crawling, or cruising around furniture. He's been the most mobile of all 3 kids at this age.
• doesn't have any words yet (not even mama and dada). He sometimes does a bye-bye wave, and I caught him on camera once doing a bye bye wave while saying "ga ga", which seemed like "bye bye". But he hasn't done it since.
• has 5 teeth.
• loves to pick up small objects and put them in his mouth. We hope most of the time those small objects are actually food!
• loves the dishwasher, vacuum, toilets, remote controls, phones, cameras, and any kind of tool or gadget he can get his hands on.
• still likes to be swaddled, but with his arms free.
• is a thumbsucker, but only when he's tired. Boy, does he love that thumb!
• still looks like a baldy from afar, but has quite a bit of blonde hair.
• has kept his baby blue eyes.
• is a great addition to our family and we LOVE LOVE LOVE him!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

Rivalry

A cute family picture from the UofU vs. BYU gameday.


We invited some BYU fans to our house to watch the game. It was more fun that way, even if the wrong team won.


Here is Tyler with his friend Brinley. If someday he decides she's something more than just the "girl next door", it will be a tragic star-crossed romance. Alas, her family is fans of that other school.

Just kidding, we're not that "classless"!

New Moon G.N.O.

I don't know what it is about getting a bunch of grown women together to watch a highly-anticipated film based on a teen vampire novel, but man, what a fun night! I didn't get to see New Moon the day it opened (or a day early like some of my friends), but I had so much fun with my sister, sis-in-laws, and Mom, it was worth waiting a couple of days to go with them.
We went out for sushi beforehand, a first for me. It was very tasty and I'm glad I was willing to try something new.

The movie lived up to my expectations, and was very well done. I even think Mike would like watching it with me when it comes out on DVD.

Trophies

Elise asked to play on a soccer team this year, because she heard somewhere that if you play soccer, you "win" a trophy. She was a good little runner, a bit timid about getting in the middle of the bunch and kicking the ball, but the best thing of all was seeing her divide her treats with Lydia at the end of the games. And sure enough, at the end of the season, she was given a cute soccer trophy. It instantly became a prized possession. I need to take a picture of her holding it, but here's one of her wearing her cute uniform.

She also entered the Reflections art contest because I told her that everyone who enters gets a ribbon. She painted a very nice picture of a rainbow and a flower. It actually moved on to the next level, and instead of just a participation ribbon, she won a trophy!

Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?

If I remember how the story goes, when I was four-almost-five, I decided I was going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. So I insisted that David be Peter Pan, Shaunda was Wendy, Eric was Mr. Smee, and little baby Chris had to be Captain Hook. Sorry Alan, you're not in this story. You were still a twinkle in Dad's eye. But if I had known about you, I would have declared that twinkle to be pixie dust, to fit the theme of course.

Elise has apparently inherited this from me: deciding everyone else's Halloween costumes for them, and sticking to a theme. She got her inspiration from a pair of hand-me-down ruby slippers, currently Lydia's size.





Elise chose everyone's costume except for Mike's. That was totally my idea and I'm pretty proud of it. It had to fit the theme, but not be hot or uncomfortable. So, no tin man, straw-filled scarecrow, or flying monkey. He thought it would be funny to be a wizard like Gandalf or Merlin, and then just say he was the wizard... of Oz. If we had already had a long wizard robe, I would have considered it, but we didn't. The night before Eric and Mare's party I came up with this Yellow Brick Road Concept. I ran to Walmart planning to buy a yellow t-shirt, but no such thing existed in his size. So I bought some yellow fabric and a scrubs pattern, some duct tape, and some black spray paint. After cutting out the pattern pieces, I masked off the "bricks" with rectangles of duct tape, and then spray painted the "mortar" in between. I don't recommend trying to execute an idea like this the night before a costume party. Unless your costume could benefit from you being in a "bad witch" type of mood.

Howdy Pard!

Our sister-in-law Ashley throws the best theme parties. She thinks of every little detail. They are the kind of parties I would love to throw, if I were not such a procrastinator. This year her Halloween party had a wild west theme, and we had our picture taken with this great backdrop.

Tyler also got to play with his baby cousins Henry, Jasper, and Kimmie. (Kimmie is not pictured here. Maybe she was sleeping or eating.)

Actual Gardening! With actual vegetables to show for it!

A couple of years ago Elise learned that her friend Maddie's family grew Real Carrots from the Ground! She begged me to plant some, and I did, but for whatever reason (me forgetting to water them, planting them in crappy clay soil, not having any idea what I was doing, take your pick!) they failed (miserably) to grow.
This year I decided to try again, and we built a 4'x4' garden box ala Square Foot Gardening. I'm still not completely sold on the whole concept, but we did manage to grow some Actual Vegetables!!!, including about 6 carrots, 2 sweet cherry peppers, a few cucumbers, and enough tomatoes that I actually could have made a batch of salsa or tomato sauce once a week during September, if I had been the industrious-type-person I told myself I would be when I planted them (I wasn't).
Anyway, the girls were thrilled, and here are some cute pictures to prove it.
By the way, you can kinda see the deck that Mike built this summer, isn't it pretty?

Clipping Tyler's Wings

The title of this post is not a metaphor for me wanting Tyler less mobile (but oh my! he is a fast, busy little guy!). No, it's about his first haircut! His hair is so light and thin that he could pass for a baldy, and thank goodness he's a boy with this hair, but some parts of it are quite long. For instance right at the crown of his head he has a nice long tuft, but it lays nicely so I'm not daring to touch that one yet. The hair above his ears was another story though.

The wings:


He didn't so much enjoy his first haircut, but the Cheerios made it bearable:


Handsome boy!