Daddy Date Night

Tonight there was someone over to spend the night with Grace, someone here for Ethan and then both of Zach's best friends to stay with him, Faith was going to feel a little left out I knew, so I suggested that Rob take Faith out for a Daddy Date Night.  They went to see The Lorax and went to dinner.  She came home beaming!  I'm so glad they could go and do that!

Hopefully they can make this a regular thing!

Menu Planning

I have never been a fan of menu planning or sticking to a menu, but I have come up with a different idea of menu planning.  I did 5 weeks worth that I will rotate through, and they are all different meals, so no more, "We ALWAYS have this"!  I also did a lunch menu and a master inventory and grocery list.  I hoping to avoid arguments of what's for lunch and dinner, and also add some variety to what has become a tedious task.  The kids are still going to help cook once a week and so is Rob, and pizza night still remains.  

I am also trying to come up with an awesome game plan for chores around the house so that everyone has jobs and know what days they are supposed to do them on.  This is all apart of my master plan of organizing our household (I feel like there should be an evil laugh in here!).  

Then there will be a color coded schedule for video games and computer time!  No, really, I'm serious!  I'm just pretty much tired of flying by the seat of my pants!  Time to be intentional!  Wish me luck!

Baby Shower Beginnings

So, yes, I am getting a head start on this baby shower, but I saw some items at a garage sale that I seriously needed to have for decorations, then I couldn't wait to start working on them, soooo...here are the beginnings of my projects!  I've wanted to try these moss letters for awhile, I just love how they turned out!

I bought five of the birdhouses, this one is my favorite, I am trying to come up with some more unique finishes for the rest of them.  I tried some paint that was supposed to look like metal, you can kind of see it in the background.  It didn't really turn out like I wanted, so I'm going to and find something else cool.  Stay tuned!

Zach's Birdhouse

Nana and Papa got Zach a Melissa and Doug Birdhouse Kit, 

he had SO much fun doing this!

He meticulously painted the details, 

trying very hard to stay in the lines!

I was very proud of him and his hard work!

The finish product was pretty great!

Easter Morning Pics

I began Easter morning with a wonderful 

early morning walk on the trail.  

I got up with the first light of the morning and walked for an hour.

I didn't remember to take an iPod with me, 

so I enjoyed the sound of the birds and the beautiful morning. 

It was really wonderful to reflect on the meaning of the day 

in the first light of it.

The kids were not in the mood to have pictures taken, 

but it had to be done, because, Momma's gotta have pictures!

Yes, I realize Faith is missing a foot, 

they were not being cooperative, 

after removing it, the others straightened right up! LOL!

 My tall, beautiful Grace.

Look, a smile!!!

Zach was not in a good mood.

I made him wear the stripe tie, 

he wanted the plaid one.

Soooo...not his normal cheesy self.

This pretty little princess is just too much!!!

Bandana Dresses!

This is my new favorite thing to sew.  The easiest and most instant gratification project I've found yet.  They are SO CUTE, and Faith loves to wear them.  This first one is made from two bandanas of six that were in a bag of scraps that my mom gave my sis-in-law, Stacey and I to play with and some leftover white gross grain ribbon I had leftover from a different project.  It was $1 at the Dollar Tree for the roll. 

I am going to have to restrain myself from making too many!  But I'm thinking birthday and baby gifts for all the little girls in my life. 

After MOPS today I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and I was very excited to discover how many different bandanas they had.   

Plus I found coordinating hair accessories-SWEET!  Because I have learned (from Pinterest) how to make hair bows, I could now make matching bows for each of them with leftover ribbon from the ties, the possibilities are seriously endless now! 

Another great aspect of this super cute project is that I can transition all of them for fall with leggings and long sleeve shirts under them, which I just adore, because I'm a huge fan of versatility.





I have got to find my camera to take any future projects, my phone just didn't cut it here.  I didn't realize what poor quality these pictures were till I went to post these.  But hopefully you can tell how cute these are!

Spring Sewing

I've been on a sewing rampage this week, here's some of what I've done!

This is a pillow case dress that I couldn't seem to get a very good picture of.  I caught her right after her nap.  This is a pillow case from a bedroom set that I used in Grace's room more than five years ago.  But it really did turn out super cute! 

This is Faith's Easter outfit.  I actually bought and used a pattern for this one!  I have not used patterns very often.

But, I admit that I could not leave it at that, I did tweak it a bit!  I lined it and added elastic at the bottom of the pants to make them like little bloomers.

She is pretty pleased with the outcome, and so am I.  Zach wants to know when I'm going to make his Easter outfit!

This is a fun project that was more complicated than I thought it would be.  But I really like how it came out.



















 





It holds a regular spiral notebook and five pens.