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So on my to-do list for a long time has been to make my girls each a quilt. Remember Charlotte’s?
Well, I am so happy to announce that Ivy’s is finally finished, too. (Along with some fresh-for-summer gingham sheets from The Company Store.)
(sorry about the dark pictures. we’re having sunshine/clouds/sunshine/clouds weather today.)
So now that the quilt is done, I think I’ll take a break from sewing for a little while. Who knows…I’ve said this before and ended up making something anyway. For now, I’m happy with just adding away to my sewing wish list.
:: this will be near the top of the list. Don’t these look wonderful? Citronille. The name alone makes me want to move to the French countryside, live in a stone farmhouse and dress my children in whites and pale blues. (And I’m happy to have a husband who knows a little French. There is hope for figuring these patterns out!)
:: I’d like to make something from these fabrics. Can’t decide what, though. New quilt for a little niece? Twirly skirts for the girls?
:: I recently acquired this book, One-Yard Wonders, and I think I’m going to really like it. Most books like this I always feel like the project ideas are time-wasters, but I liked a lot of the ideas in this book. First pick from the book: a sewing machine cover.
:: sewing aside, this looks like a lot of fun. a paper city you can color? with stick people? yes, please.
:: I’ve been wanting to do this as a piece of art for Scott and myself, but I wonder if the girls would enjoy a little version of their own? A poster of things they love, via MommyCoddle.
A tiny superman at the end of a very long table.
He really loves his Superman pajamas. Especially the cape.
Not sure what’s going on here, but it looks like fun!
We’re pretty full swing into summer here, and with that comes one of our favorite parts of May in North Carolina:
Strawberries! (Not cats. Although this is our neighbor’s cat and we love her.)
Another big part of summer that we love is time outside. We love doing many of our family activities outside (eating, talking, exercising) but probably one of our favorites is reading.
We get out the big blanket, gather a pile of books, some pillows, and pick a shady spot.
Since another favorite summer past-time is thrifting and yard-saling for books, we feel pretty set with reading for the summer.
We picked up a little sentence-making game a few years ago for the children, and it seems to have become the right time to bring it out for the girls to practice. I found this long concoction after they finished school for the day.
It’s pretty interesting to read what they come up with. At least the sentence structure is (almost?) correct, no?
It never ceases to amaze me when I discover something one of the children has been making or playing with. Almost every time, I know immediately which project belongs to which child. Our middle child, Charlotte, loves all things pattern, math, numbers, and sorting. I found this while cleaning a few days ago:
I knew right away who had been working on this.
My sweet Ivy June loves lists, and planning out her day. Yes, we learn to read by using phonics. And it works very well. Spelling will come. Piano, however, has picked up for her. She is learning lots of new songs and can now sing while she plays, which is a new favorite trick.
In other news, I found a monster wandering around our house.
I think he’s harmless.
For a small cookie, he’ll rescue a princess.
Yesterday I thought, “Oh no! It has been a long time since I posted a blog update!” Circumstances lately have not allowed for fantastic picture-taking opportunities (it’s hot, we haven’t gone anywhere except Wal-Mart, some or all of us have been in some stage of sickness, my computer has been very slow lately, and we’ve been generally busy). And since pictures take up most of the content here, I guess I have a good excuse. (?)
So how about some pictures of the everyday moments around here?
:: cooking (I’ve re-discovered my stash of childrens’ cookbooks .)
:: reading (notice she’s dressed for the book topic…we were headed out the door to the pool…)
:: taking care of very sick child #1
:: taking care of very sick child #2
:: learning (we’re adding math to our schedule for school this fall, and it’s so much fun!)
:: harvesting
:: stack of dirty dishes, waiting to be washed and put away…
:: baking (and eating…mmmm…)
:: stack of fabric #1, waiting to be cut and sewn
:: stack of fabric #2, also waiting to be cut and sewn
(the fall sewing projects are planned out, and I can’t wait to turn these delicious fabrics into clothes for the children!)
:: trying out new sewing ideas, for future baby quilt gifts…
(we all need to have a moment of applause here for my friend Tracy, who so patiently helped me with the mathy-angle part of this little project!)
:: welcoming a new niece
Asher! winner of Most Pleasant 2-year-old. I am convinced the older he gets, the more wonderful he becomes. Sitting and reading with anyone, chatting pleasantly with Mommy during the day, snuggling after naptime, playing with boy things, pretending sticks are guns (yes, we surely see a difference between a boy and his sisters), a fascination with mud, construction vehicles, trucks, rocket ships. Such a delight to be around our little man.
Lately he’s been pretty into drawing things…and he really gets into it.
Drawing trucks, his name, numbers, letters. Of course all this is unrecognizable and mostly a series of lines and circles, but we love it just the same.
(Isn’t there just something about the back of a little boy’s neck that makes you want to smother him in kisses?)
So although it still feels freezing cold here most days, we’ve decided to press on into Spring by doing warm weather things. One of our favorite Saturday morning family dates is some yard-saling around the area. Much to our delight, we found a pair of skates to match a set we had gotten some years back! So we got home, and out they came.
Roller derby is next week; we were thinking of signing the girlies up.
In the meantime, we’re gearing up to homeschool more during the spring and summer months this year, and part of our homeschool vision has always included music. So, Ivy started piano lessons a couple weeks ago and things are going quite well, I must say.
She is really excited to learn, and things are moving right along with progress. We are working very, very hard on it and learning new things every week. Along with this new season, I discovered the sheet music bin at the thrift store. Oh. Boy.
The blue Folk Song Book was a gift from Gramma, also found second-hand, and I about danced a jig when I saw it. Perfect simple songs that she’ll be able to play before too long!
Expect more pictures soon, as the weather gets a little more tolerable and pregnant Mommy feels a little more like getting off the couch. Argh. SO done with the nausea and general yuckiness-feeling. But, as a very good friend reminded me, “Great is your reward.” Very, very true. 17 weeks and counting!
We spent some time with friends over the weekend, and I managed to get a few pictures of some dear friends while we were there.
Hostess extaordinaire. And yes, we all just love her beautiful home.
The teapot is not my friend, although figuratively I suppose… I just liked it, sitting on Dawn’s counter.
Hope you don’t mind your pictures plastered all over a blog, girls!
There was some sweet-baby holding going on…
Trying to get motivated for Spring activities lately; mainly, buying curriculum for our school “year” this year. While we decide on what to get, our main focus for school has been reading,
and then we practice some more reading.
SO much fun to have the girls reading books to themselves. What a treat for all of us! Things have absolutely “clicked” for them, and we are moving right along. Especially Ivy…she reads everything she sees: road signs, book titles, shirts, store signs, cards…
Charlotte is working as hard as she can to keep up, and doing really well with it. Been introducing a lot more poetry lately, too. Childrens’ poetry is incredibly fun to read! We have often memorized poems for the past year or so, and I think it helps them pick out rhyming words and make up their own poems.
Speaking of books, I finally figured out how to update the sidebar with current books that we’re reading. Not crucial, just fun to share what we’re reading.
Feeling a little better with the pregnancy, just for an update…it feels like things are changing, but I never know for sure. It’s hard sometimes to wait for things, isn’t it?
Here’s a picture of a handsome man. I think he likes me.
