Juliana Rides Her Bike!

Juliana has been working on learning to ride a two-wheel bike for a while now. Her brothers have helped her a lot. It was Peter's mission to help her learn. Today, with no one else around, she jumped on her bike and took off all by herself! These pictures show her riding Peter's old beat up bike, which is a bit smaller than hers. Once she gets steadier on this one, she'll move up to her "princess" bicycle. Yay, Juliana!

 

 

 

 

Girls Skirts

When we took summer clothes out of the attic last week, we discovered Juliana has a serious shortage of play clothes. Yesterday we took out the box of fabric stored in the attic, and I let Juliana go through it to her heart's content. Ummm . . .I think she caught the fabric bug. She had at least 15 projects planned out with fabric she "loved"! I had seen some really cute skirts on various blogs and Juliana had a few ideas too. So in about 4 hours, I whipped up 3 little skirts. I didn't spend a lot of time on them because they are for play. Best of all, we used only things we had around the house to make 3 great outfits!


This is probably my favorite skirt. I love the way the fabrics work together. I found the idea here and just had to try it. The skirt took about 1 hour to construct and was super easy.

This is Juliana's favorite skirt. She's already testing it out today! The print has cats and flowers. She wanted a basic 3-tiered skirt. I love the color because it is brown--the color of dirt--and won't look stained so quickly.

I am still working on perfecting shorts underneath skirts to make skorts. I would like to figure out how to make them less bulky. Another project for another day!

While sorting the box of fabric, we found this eyelet dust ruffle someone gave me several years ago. I didn't want to throw out good eyelet, so I kept it for "something". When I held it up to Juliana, it was the perfect length for a skirt.

So, we made a skirt to Juliana's specifications--long, very full, and twirly! It was super easy. I cut off the velcro on the top edge, sewed the two edges together in a back seam, added a lining and elastic waistband, and presto! An adorable skirt. This one isn't for playing outdoors, but if it gets ruined I have enough dust ruffle left to make about 10 more skirts!

Inventive Mind

Peter is becoming quite the inventor. Every time I turn around, I discover something new he has created. I'm sure I will be posting many more inventions as I find them!


His chair-mobile! He rode around the deck for quite a while on this invention!

Although not my personal storage preference, this is how Peter is storing his accessories right now! He built the rack from K'nex and stores hats, slippers, sweatshirts, etc. on it. It resides on the foot of his bed, but hopefully will find a new home soon!

This is some sort of alarm he rigged up yesterday. It hangs directly above his pillow. I'm not sure if it is a security/burgler alarm, or a bell to call room service!

How to transform a little child's basketball hoop into an "awesome" basketball hoop. Attach it to the support pole of the trampoline and then make incredible jumps to slam dunk the ball!

Sewing Projects

Just a few pictures of some of my latest sewing projects.

I made hand smocked matching dresses for the girls' Easter dresses. Almost didn't get them finished because it took a lot more time than I thought. This is a close-up view of the smocked front before I put it into the dress.

Resurrection Sunday morning smiles!

This one shows the dresses a little better. They really were adorable!

My aprons have a hard life and my current ones are ready for retirement. Finally found a few hours to make a couple of new ones on our break from school.

We found this fabric in a box from my grandma! Loved it so much and the black edging made it an adorable apron!

Easter 2012

Resurrection Sunday was one of the first sunny, warm days we've had in a while. So delightful!

Having fun after brunch at church!

Annual Easter Pictures. Peter chose his outfit all himself.

Looking at and discussing symbols of Easter with Poppy!

This little bucket was just perfect for Kate! She didn't know what to think about the grass under her bare feet. She walked a little bit like a cat walks on wet grass!

Egg hunt at Poppy and Meema's house!

Kutie Kate!

Katherine will be 1 year old on April 28th! How this past year has seemed to fly now that I look back on it. She is such a special part of our family and contributes her own personality and gifts already.

One of her nicknames is "Precious Moment" because of her eyes. This picture shows those beautiful, soft, sweet eyes really well! She was so proud of the fact she could get her own snack out of this container!

Awww! Snuggle time with Daddy early in the morning. Kate sleeps well at night (9-10 hrs) and wakes up only occassionally in the night. But during the day, she is a very light sleeper. Some days we only have two 20 minute naps for the entire day. We have been working with her and she is napping a little better some of the time. At least she isn't too grumpy on such small naps!

This is her mischievous look! You can see she is ready for adventure and fun!

Katherine discovered that she loves the outdoors. Now that the weather is nicer we gate off the deck and let her run. She cries whenever someone goes out of the house and doesn't take her along! It is her goal to sneak out the door whenever possible! She is walking quite well now, but the uneven ground here in the mountains makes it difficult for her to stay upright! By the end of summer, I expect to see her doing her best to keep up with the big kids!

The little plastic playhouse on the deck is Kate's special delight. She loves going in and out of the door and opening and closing the window shutters! She also seems to love that the house is just her size!

While cleaning the refrigerator I had lots of "help"!

This is her laughing face! (Oh, and if you look close you might see her 4 little teeth.)

We rarely see her this still. She is in perpetual motion. Her favorite thing to do is dance. If someone turns on music of any kind, she dances (some people would call it knee bends)! She also loves it if someone sweeps her up and dances with her in their arms. She has a keen sense of rhythm. One day I caught her dancing to the rhythm of the bread machine kneeding the dough!

Bathtime is another favorite activity. Rubber duckies are her absolute favorite. She doesn't play with any other toy in the bath. Hmmm . . . .do these bubbles taste good?

And once in a while she is SO tired, she crashes. Nathan took this picture because he thought it was so funny she fell asleep in the chair while sitting up.

We love you, sweet Kate! Happy 1st birthday!