I feel like a traitor

I've turned to the dark side.

I've started drinking coffee in the mornings.

Tea, I'm sorry. You didn't cut it always, and I'm such a slug some mornings. It was time to correct this.

The coffee maker has a timer settings.
It wakes up and brews by the time the kids are awake. It tastes ok, obviously tea tastes better.

Tea, you are more work now. I'm sorry, but we need a break, just for the mornings. I'll always come to you in the afternoons and evenings.

Sincerely,

The traitor.

Sadie's 4th Birthday Party

Having children old enough to help a little with their own birthday party is super cool. I mean, last year I was cutting out a million tiny pieces of paper to turn them into monkeys for Lucas' second birthday. It was tedious and boring doing it all alone. 

This year I asked Sadie, what kind of party do you want? She really didn't get it because she kept saying "Cake and BALLOONS!" So when I asked if she wanted a bug party, she was ecstatic. She's been into bugs for the last year or so. She picks up wood bugs (pill bugs) and lets them crawl all over her hands and feet. She makes homes for them and always puts them back in the grass when she's done. She really isn't scared of any creepy crawly thing unless its a big spider. 

So, bug party it was. No princesses, no barbies (forbidden until she's at least 5). Pinterest has been the best source of party ideas for me. My party board is here if you're interested in some cute party ideas. 

So, I saw some preschool crafts that I used as decor. Here kids, here is paint and some paper plates, please paint them this colour all over. I used child labour to get all the paper bugs painted and once dry, we glued googly eyes on them (bought googly eyes months ago from walmart and boy do they come in handy) and taped them to the walls. 

The tissue paper flowers were strictly my thing, but I had little helpers throwing scraps of tissue in the garbage for me while they watched. $6 bucks for a few different colours of tissue paper that I didn't have already at home was the best money spent on party decor. 

Last minute birthday bunting made with construction paper and a sad dying felt that I should have tested first....

The kids also made the caterpillars for the food labels. They were told to count out 5 pompoms per bug, and a big one for the head. I did the glue so they had to place them on, and then finished them with googly eyes. Googly eyes are the best. 

Pinterest again had good party food ideas for bug birthdays. A few plastic bugs were thrown into the punch for bug juice, and my favourite were the lady bug bites. The chives as antennas really put it over the top. Its good to grow plants some days. I made macarons because it was last minute and I realized I hadn't made any in months. Green apple liquorice was used on their legs, but was a royal pain in the rear because I had to cut it in half length ways with scissors. Sticky stupid mess. It worked, but I'll find better leg candy next time. 

This juice dispenser has been the best investment ever. Costco had them a few years ago. The base has a spot to put ice in so your drink doesn't get diluted when the ice melts. I use it for every party. Walmart has smaller ones and cheaper ones, but I like the base for the ice that mine has.

Other than fiddly macarons (which are always fiddly), everything was really easy. Hotdogs, (caterpillars on a bun) chips + dip, blue punch, butterfly pasta salad (mom brought) and worms and dirt. Worms and dirt was dead easy and the adults loved them. 

It was a family party, no other kids other than my own. Its nice that way, no other tiny children to entertain for hours. They were entertained just with balloons and those curly noise makers and with all the attention. Lucas did well, but everyone was kind enough in getting him small gifts as well. A few weeks prior to the party, Sadie got some presents in the mail from far away relatives. I was excited and told her "look, it has your name on it!" Lucas burst into tears while sadie was jumping around, and he said "MY NAME!" He knew his name was not on those presents. 

We hung out and talked and ate food, and watched the kids. I scheduled the party at 2pm, so it was during their nap time. By 5, everyone left and then at 6 there were tired fights over new toys and such. Lucas had a bath alone to get away from the grump, and by 8:30 they were out for the night. This morning, Sadie was up at 8:30 and Lucas at 9:30 respectively. The signs of a good party. 

I'm totally going to make the kids make their own decor for birthdays after this. Good entertainment during the day. Really good party in my opinion. I think I'll let sadie keep some flowers for her room for a while. They're too pretty to throw out. 

Currently

Listening to Sadie coughing. She's caught a cold of some kind.

Read The Help. Why didn't I read this sooner? I love these ladies

Drinking Coffee thats a tad too strong

Watching the kids play outside with hoola hoops. Lucas asks for me to help him with his wiggle. 

Anticipating the new episode of Orphan Black

Thankful that theres a library to borrow all sorts of books from, including ebooks. 

Delighted that Sadie is doing so well with swimming lessons. 

Ecstatic about finding the Curly Girl method and how nice my hair looks and feels. I want all the curly girls to know about this. It looks a little intense, but its really easy. I'll probably talk more about this later.

  

fiddling with half square triangles

I promise I'll go back to the cat quilt soon. I ran out of white fabric and need to make a quick trip to get fabric.

I've had a stash of blue fabrics sitting around for a while and I haven't found the right project to use for them. Couple days ago I decided to just use a little bit to practice HST's. The last time I did those blasted half square triangles was for Lucas' quilt, and they were such a pain.  Since that quilt, I read more about better ways to cut them, and it has really helped. I still need to trim them up a bit, and thats tedious and frustrating, but I'm getting better.

So, instead of doing a quilt with these (cause it'd drive me mental) I made a mini one to hang in my kitchen. One day I'm sure I'll try these as a quilt, but this is all I can take for now. The colours remind me of the movie "Frozen" (one of the only two academy award winning movies I saw this year).

Its my cute Frozen shooting star mini quilt. I'm thinking I might do a large scale quilt top with this shooting star thing. That way I can avoid millions of half square triangles. This is its temporary hanging spot until I get some small dowel. 

A quilt for 1 (or 2)

I had the need to do a smaller project. The cat quilt is big and fiddly, plus, its black and white. Its really boring doing just black and white. This is probably why I headed down the road of vibrant colour with this one.

I should really go measure it, I think its 55 x 63, but I cant remember. Its a nice size for one or two people to cuddle under on the couch. I really wanted this one finished before the snow melted. These colours really pop against the melty snow.

I went with the grey as a backing and a splash of red. I really like figuring out the backing of a quilt. Using up scraps and leftovers to make something a little random.

See, isn't she pretty on the snow?

7/52

Surprisingly enough, we got some snow here. Its the second snowfall this year.

The kids have been loving it. Begging as soon as they get up to go out and play. We're inside now, scarfing down grapes and getting warm again.

Loitering at mcdonalds

Recently, I've taken to loitering at the McDonalds near our place. I've found that the secret to Sadie napping is that she NEEDS to run off a ton of energy. If she doesn't get out all the energy, that means no nap, and then after 5 pm she turns into a "threenager" - see this is why my three year old still needs naps if you need any more proof.   I don't care if she's almost 4, this girl gets in a foul place without her naps, and without being able to be outside 24/7. So, the kids and I walk down to McDonalds, I buy my obligatory large double double, and then they play.

And play.

AND PLAY!!!!!!

Meanwhile, I can relax, sip coffee and browse the internet to pass the time. Its fantastic. I always go around the slowest time, 10 am -11:30 ish. Theres maybe one or two kids there max. Sadie and Lucas make friends, teach the other children how to scream all the way down the slide and have a wild time.

Oh, and this one time, I saw one ridiculous grandparent try and make a business call on his phone while sitting in the play place. Foolish man. Theres no way you'll hear anything when the children get to the slide. I was secretly laughing at him in my head. Usually I'll be on twitter, tweeting these types of things, so check that out if you want live entertainment. 

So, this is my secret to keeping my sanity. Only twice a week, but its better than nothing.

6/52

Late again. I'm still going to stick with it though. We were having a bad day, so I filled the sinks and threw towels on the floor to mop up the swamp. They had a grand time. It allowed for me to finish this blog post and get dinner going.

Oh the little things.

a jumble of things

More black and white ideas are whirling around in my head. Sadly, I've only done 3 rows of my cat quilt. Its not getting finished as quickly as I'd like, but I've got other things coming up.

My sister in law and her husband are moving to Saskatchewan in a couple weeks, and so we're having our last games night here. I'm trying to clean things up a bit more, and get stuff baked. I'm hoping to bake a chocolate cake with salted caramel filling inside and then some lemon macarons.

Today I need to bake the cake and throw it in the freezer, and then measure out the macaron components. I find I'm less freaked out about making macarons if I measure out the ingredients by weight the day before. Doing it by weight is better apparently, and since I've had such success, I'll stick with it. Maybe I'll do the caramel filling for the cake and pop it in the fridge. It all depends on if the kids play nice today, or have a decent nap.

I found out that cleaning ahead of time is futile. A couple days ago I mopped the bathroom floor so I wouldn't have to the day before the games night. Well, that evening Lucas had an accident and peed all over my beautifully clean floor. He then trucked it all over the bathroom in effort to try and make it to the toilet. So yay for more mopping and clorox wipes.

So thats that. I bet I'll do more cat quilt after the weekend.

This is why my three year old still needs naps

Two days ago, Sadie was getting put down for a nap. She overheard that I was going shopping while she would be napping. That did not sit well with her. She started to cry, and then freak out, and because I just put Lucas to bed and was terrified that he'd wake up too (and I'd totally miss out on hitting the thrift store), I gave in. Yup, the start of my downfall. 

Sadie was surprisingly well behaved for the thrift store up until the end. I understood, and we headed home. She never rested on the couch, and instead tormented her brother and sassed us with bad attitude all evening. I was so grateful for bedtime when it came. She threw fits, and didn't want to go to bed. She stalled for half an hour. Longest half an hour EVER. 

So, after a late bedtime, she woke up the next day as early as I allow, which is 7. I took the kids for a much needed grocery trip. Usually I take a kid in a cart, and the other gets to walk which is a nice privilege. 

Beth took her walking and I had Lucas. After 5 minutes, I see Beth practically dragging Sadie, who is trying to bolt. So we switch kids. This is when it hits. Sadie arches her back and screams LET ME OUT OF HERE!!! LET ME OUT NOWWWW!!!! and then just screams at me. You know what? I'm not about to leave without getting groceries. I'm not abandoning my cart. I've got things to do. So, I calmly go throughout the store picking up things while Sadie screams at me, kicks her feet and thrashes in the cart to try and knock stuff off the shelves. Worst tantrum I've ever seen from her. Ever. She calmed down after a while, but Beth could hear us across the walmart. It was quite a sight. Thankfully it was pretty dead at walmart, but regardless, I'm sure I got evil looks. I don't really pay attention to much else other than the task at hand when the kids freak out. 

So, that day, Sadie had a good nap, and slept well that night, and gave me no grief. So, don't let them fool you when they try and get out of naps. Crazy children. 

Also, without naps, I'd get no time away from them, and those precious 2 hours a day is enough to keep me sane. 

I also really like taking naps on those kinds of days. 

5/52

Crafts for Valentines day. Glue sticks were the highlight that day. They were purple, so whats not to love?

Started this yesterday

I have been loving black and white quilts lately, and finally I took a step in making one. Tried out this cat block, and I really love it. Tony hates cats, so its not for me, but maybe I'll make a mini quilt for myself. 

I used scraps of white fabric for this block as my white sheet is getting washed. That means a couple hours before I can really get into cutting for this quilt. Le sigh. I'll go read and have some tea while its drying. 

Pretty things and projects

I've got a few projects in the works. Theres a certain yellow quilt that I am half way done hand quilting. I really have procrastinated on that one, but hopefully this week I'll get a chunk more done. I also wanted to do a twin sized quilt, and I've got 2 ideas for it. This is also very good because have 2 twin sized battings waiting to be used. Flying Geese quilt for one. It will drive me mad, but I'll love it. The other will be black and white. That I'll do first. Might start this in a couple weeks, I've got a party to plan soon, and the house needs a good clean. Like, really needs to be super cleaned. It also means I'll need to put away all my excess quilting stuff that takes over the dining room. There are many rubbermaid bins and batting that are stacked beside my shelves. It all needs to be hidden in my room next week. So, until then, you'll get pictures of the kids until I start doing the twin quilts.

Valentines Day Crafts

I thought it would be raining today, but it was really beautiful outside. We did one of our Valentines day crafts anyways since I had prepped the hearts last night.

I cut hearts out of cereal boxes and cut out the middles. Then I used clear contact paper in the middle so they could stick tissue paper to it. Sealed it with more contact paper and then we hung them in the windows as sun catchers. They loved them.

4/52

We went to the park to check out the beaver dam and birds. Today we were lucky and saw a big heron and some pretty ducks, and look similar to buffleheads. I could totally be off on that one. They were so pretty.

The kids were happy to be outside.
1. Sadie jumping in the field
2. Lucas checking out the beaver "house"
3. Both saw the heron way down the creek

3/52

Better late than never. On one of our walks the other day we were talking about the birds we heard and where they lived. Sadie wanted to build them a nest, but I explained how we could ask papa to build a bird house instead. Well, she was so excited, she asked him as soon as she could.

Papa delivered the houses asap so they could paint them. They really love painting. I would do this more often if it weren't such a lot of work. They had to bathe afterwards and everything. It was a good day.

Finished quilts

Two crib quilts finished this last month. The grey one was a quickie done in less than a week. Its got a solid very pale blue backing.

This one took a bit longer, ahem, a lot longer, but its so pretty. I used anything and everything with this sucker, and I like how it turned out. The back is white with yellow roses cut from a vintage sheet. I also like how I got a nice shot of this one in the fog. It wasn't foggy enough when I shot the grey one.

So these guys are new. I might have a home for the grey one, and if not, it will be up for sale. The bunting one is for sale $60.

2/52

I'm behind, I know. I'll be posting more soon.

1. Sadie was getting ready to dig in the dirt again
2. Lucas was chucking ice on the pavement watching it with glee.

1/52

1.Lucas actually holding still long enough for me to get a beautiful picture of him
2. Sadie grinning at her brother

Inspired by the bleubird blog's 52 week portrait project.