Tea Party

The best tea parties are ones shared with friends.

Any moment these girlies are playing happily together and NOT FIGHTING over the same toy, is a moment to be celebrated! 

Happy Friday, friends!

Selah's 1st Birthday "Month"

It took about a month to celebrate Selah's first birthday (she's starting out right!). Getting together with both sides of the family was a challenge, but we are so grateful for everyone that set aside time to celebrate Selah's first year of life with us! And those who couldn't come, sent their well wishes and love. 

My side of the family celebrated Selah's birthday on Memorial Day, which was the same weekend as her birthday this year! After going to the parade, we headed over to my parent's house to eat yummy food and hang out together. It's so nice when birthdays fall near a holiday!

She opened her presents like a typical one-year-old... wanting to play with the packages instead of the presents, and getting upset when she kept getting interrupted from her exploring to open more.

Birthday money from Grandma & Grandpa!

 

She had two favorite presents - her Hungry Caterpillar book...

and the GIANT elephant floor pillow from Aunt Mimi & Uncle Aaron for her bedroom, soon to be decorated in elephants... once I get around to it!

For her "cake", I decided to do a Hungry Caterpillar out of cupcakes. For the extras, I put sour gummy worms on the top to match the theme. :)

My dad had the wonderful idea of standing Selah on the coffee table while we all sang to her... she not only almost fell off, but then she grabbed for the candle and almost burnt herself! Such a crazy moment, but certainly memorable! 

She loved eating the caterpillar "head," and got messy enough for a bath! Mission accomplished!

Then we tried out her new bubble machine she got from us... I think she likes it!

 

Lovin' from Aunt Eliza :)

 And if that wasn't enough, we went swimming at a friend's house, went out for custard, dashed home in a rain storm, and had a quick snack before bed! This little one was exhausted after her big day!

"Happy Birthday, Sweet One. You were a trooper today!"

Almost a month later, some of Scott's family traveled from Illinois and Michigan for Selah's birthday, part 2! Now you can see why it took me forever to post this -- there were so many pictures I had to sort through and choose the best ones for the blog!

The cousins had fun playing on a water blob Scott made following an idea from the blog "Go Kid Yourself (click here for her directions!). It was sorta a cross between a slip n' slide and a water mattress. The kids LOVED it! And they played all day with no large leaks or holes! 

Aunt Julie, who has three boys, generously gave Selah a beautiful outfit with matching sandals, and a bag of other fun goodies. Julie gets so excited to have the opportunity to shop for a girl! 

My sweet neighbor Lori who loves to bake, offered to help me get ready for the day by making the 2nd Hungry Caterpillar cupcake batch! She did a great job!

almost burning herself again!

Better at making a mess the second time around!

 All done! Shew! If you made it through that avalanche of pictures, you deserve a reward! We are so thankful for our little girl. Selah is such a treasure to us, and we are excited to see what a year of being ONE will hold for her! :)

Tutorial: Fan Blade Duster

I don't know about you, but dusting is one of my least favorite things to do. About the time I start to notice the dust bunnies forming into dust elephants, I know it's time to do something! For some reason, dusting the blades on our ceiling fans typically escapes my notice until I turn on the fan and pieces of dust start flinging around the room! Yikes... How is that for honesty?!! In case there was any doubt left in anyone's mind, now you all know I'm NOT perfect. haha

Anyway, this tutorial was born out of me trying to figure out a way to dust my fan blades without the cloth wiping all the dust onto the floor. I once read somewhere that dusting your fan blades with a pillowcase can solve that problem, but I do not have any extra pillowcases to devote to being covered in dust. Since flannel is an excellent material to dust with, I decided to make my own fan blade duster and pass along the measurements to you all... in case I am not the ONLY one with this quandary!

Directions:

1. Cut a rectangle of flannel fabric 21 inches X 26 inches. 

2. Fold and press one of the 21 inch sides down 1/2 an inch, and then fold over 2 inches more.

3. Sew a straight line down the edge of the fold, making your hem.

4. Fold and press your rectangle in half lengthwise, keeping the right side of the fabric inside. Now you should have a rectangle that is 10.5 inches by 26 inches.

5. Sew around the bottom and the open side. (Since flannel frays easily, I recommend zig zag stitching the raw edge or serging so you don't have tons of random strings hanging around inside after you wash your duster.)

6. Turn duster right-side out and press. All done! Now you are ready to dust some ceiling fan blades!

This might gross you out, but here is a before picture of a nasty ceiling fan blade. I told you dust elephants were growing!

All I did was slip the duster over the fan blade, careful to not knock any loose dust off....

...sandwiched the cloth between my arms and wiped down the blade.

Look at how pretty it looks after just one swipe!

And look at all this dust inside the cloth!

So easy! After I dusted all 5 blades, I then folded the end of the cloth up and used the outside of the flannel to dust off the lights. 

When finished, I threw the duster in the wash, and it came out as good as new! Now when friends come visit, I will ALWAYS have my ceiling fans dusted and sparkling clean!

maybe.... ;o)

Happy Sewing!!!

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School Shopping!

That time of year has come again. This time we are preparing to send Brooklyn to school all day for K5. It is sad to think about her being away from home for so much of each day, but I know letting go is part of parenting! I'm excited about the things she'll learn and the relationships she'll develop at school, and I hope and pray it is a positive experience! We received the postcard in the mail with her teacher's name, and next week we are  anticipating finally being able to tour her classroom, meet her teacher, and make friends with some of the other students. Is it bad that I am intensely eager to meet her teacher and mentally evaluate if she is going to be the kind of person I want Brooklyn to be taught by for 7 hours a day? I've even googled her, but unfortunately I couldn't find any pics. ;o) Yes, I'm aware I'm being a stalker mom! But this is a big deal. This lady better be worthy of being entrusted with my little girl!

Now what was I saying about letting go??? I know, I know! ;)

Kelle Hampton summed up exactly what I've been thinking and feeling when she blogged about her daughter going to off to school this year:

"...I'm going to pack some darn good lunches and ask good questions after school. I'll give big hugs when she runs to the car, clap the loudest at school musicals and make my presence known in every way I can. I will explore new ways to love--ways that involve letting go, standing back and cheering from the sidelines. I'm still there, and she will know that."

Beautiful words!

To start the year out right, Brooklyn and I headed to the Red Eye Store (Target!) to get everything on her school supply list. Of course we had to start with a lime slushy to get some sugary energy!

We had fun picking out special pencils and folders of kitties and Cinderella, and all the random requests the teachers make for paper towels, ziploc bags, and sharpies (since when do teacher's make the kids purchase all the teacher's supplies, anyway??? So crazy!). I tried to talk Brooklyn into a cute brown backpack with pink and orange owls, but she insisted on La La Loopsy. I have no idea... She claims she has seen the show before and it is "cute." The tag said "Sew Magical! Sew Cute!" How could I say no to something that talked about sewing??? LaLa Loopsy it is... let's just hope it lasts the entire year. Sometimes the character ones aren't the best quality.

As last year, Brooklyn was so excited to come home and show daddy all her treasures! His favorite was showing her how to work the calculator.

And a picture of all the supplies laid out for Grandma, who LOVES school supply shopping and wishes she could go along sometime. Perhaps some year we'll have to go to MI to do the shopping with her. Grandma would be tickled. :)

Now to work on a special first day of school outfit... I have ideas, let's just see if I actually have the time to make it happen!

Of Check-ups and Squirrels

I started a bad thing. It was a few years ago now, but unfortunately it stuck. You see, we have this squirrel that lives in a tree in our back yard. He/She is always running around, up and down the tree, and the girls love to watch it from the kitchen table. This squirrel is almost like part of our family because we've observed it and talked about it so much! It is only fitting that an animal living in our yard for the last 2 years should be named, right? Well, a couple of years ago I named the squirrel Bathsheba. In case you couldn't read that, I named the squirrel "Bathsheba." Yes. I did... : /

Source

Come now! Let me explain!!! It made sense in my head at the time! You see, the squirrel loves to sit on a stump from a cut limb high in the tree, directly in view of our kitchen window. More often then not, the squirrel is seen cleaning himself (er, bathing...) on top of this stump. See??? Once upon a time, I suggested the name as a joke, and Brooklyn picked it up immediately and it stuck! The girls have no idea.... And since I haven't shared that lovely Bible story with them yet, they have proudly told friends and even my sweet mother-in-law the name of their "pet" squirrel in the past!

But I have never been more embarrassed about this squirrel than last week in the doctor's office at Brooklyn and Cassidy's yearly check-up. How did a squirrel come up during a doctor's appointment, you ask? Well, the conversation went pretty much like this:

Doctor: So, girls, do you have any pets?

Brooklyn: No. Mommy and Daddy say I have to wait until I am eight to get a pet.

Doctor: Well, I bet you have lots of bunnies and squirrels and chipmunks living in your yard, right?

Brooklyn (nodding vigorously): Yes! We have our very own squirrel who lives in our tree! His name is Bathsheba!

Doctor (turning to me, quite startled): Uh, what did she say???

I had a chance to pretend the doctor misunderstood Brooklyn, and that she said Vasheda, or something, but instead I sheepishly tried to explain, going nowhere and digging a deep hole.

I'm pretty sure the doctor thinks I'm an insane mother. 

And can you just see it in Sunday School someday when Brooklyn hears the story of David and Bathsheba for the first time? I can just see her face when the light bulb goes on! 

Oh dear!

Froggy Tunic for Brooklyn

Ever have something on your white board to-do list for so long that once you finally get it done the marker won't wipe off??? I think I will permanently have "Brooklyn's Frog Shirt" scribbled into the white board in my kitchen! I bought the pattern and the material for this tunic at the end of April, I think, and I just finished it a week or so ago (hang head in shame). Oh well, it finally got done, and Brooklyn loves it! It will be a perfect fall shirt for school, and I think it is big enough that she and Cassie can wear it next spring and summer. :)

The pattern is Shwin & Shwin's Maggie Mae Tunic, which is sold in sizes 6 months - size 10. It can be made dress-length or shirt length, and I kinda went in between, adding a couple inches to the shirt length so that she can wear it with leggings. I love that this is a style that would look good on a girl throughout all of childhood! And the square white buttons on the back add a fun touch -- though I made the button holes a bit too small and it is a tight squeeze to get them in and out! I guess I need more button hole practice!

I love Shwin & Shwin's patterns! Go to their shop and take a look around! I'm sure you'll find something you'd like to sew. And don't worry, you can follow the patterns easily even if sewing is a fairly new hobby for you like it is for me! :)

Only one thing I'd recommend you do differently with this pattern: open up the side seams a bit to make the arm holes bigger. My daughter has skinny arms, and she felt the armholes were even too tight for her. I noticed a couple other bloggers who used this pattern had the same issue. To fix this I used my seam ripper to open the side seam a couple inches, and folded the edge in and did a tight zig zag to discouraged any fraying. An easy fix! :) Next time I may just cut the bodice a bit bigger so I can do a double fold seam instead of the zig zag, but this worked!

Shew! I finally can cross this shirt off my to-do list (since obviously I can't erase it off my white board now!)

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My entry into Blissful and Domestic's Feature Friday Link Party sponsored by Appliances Online.