For Emerson

Pinterest is so much fun - especially when you stalk pins by your cousin who just had a baby girl! My cousin Jen and her husband Dennis have a beautiful baby girl, Emerson. I have been working on this Crossover Pinafore Dress since I saw Jen pin it a few weeks ago. I bought the fabric at the Good Ju Ju vintage sale about a year ago and have been holding on to it for the perfect project. I hope Jen likes it and I hope it brings Emerson some Good Ju Ju!



Arghh Matey's

There is a new show on Disney Jr that has captured my son's fancy (I don't really dig it). It's called Jake and the Neverland Pirates. A bit of a spin off Peter Pan but only Captain Hook and Mr. Smee appear in the show.

The other morning after watching the show Steven asked me, " Why do pirates wear that only on one eye?"

Mom, "Why do you think?"

Steven, " Oh, because it is hard to keep one eye closed to see through their telescope."

Kitty Decor

I love the internet, it lets me go overboard for parties and not have to think of anything on my own. I'm missing a picture of the kitty sushi (rice krispie treat with a gummy lobster and green fruit roll up to tie around it).

A Hello Kitty Birthday Party

A few weeks back I took Lyla to Target to pick out her birthday invites - it was touch-and-go between Hello Kitty and Princess theme but in the end, Hello Kitty won. She was loving all the pink and that only girls were coming to her party. We invited a small group of friends from preschoool to the house to do some crafts, play and eat cupcakes!

This is Anna and Lyla color Hello Kitty Birthday pages.

Aunt Lori and Lyla share a birthday and this year Aunt Lori decided to come to Kansas City to celebrate with us! In this picture she is helping Lyla make her Hello Kitty face hair clip.

Papa was able to come for the weekend and he played his sax while the kids sang to Lyla. Lyla thought he was too loud!

Cupcakes!

For history's sake: Lyla, Anna Millard, Rachel Abadie, Maddie Laurie, Lydia Meier, and Maria Carson.



An Art Project

Steven's artistic talents are blossoming. The Easter bunny brought him scissors in his basket and he has been very excited about using them for activities and projects. Tonight he asked me if he could use them for a project and I let him do everything on his own. He didn't even tell me what he was making but he'd come up to me every once in awhile and ask for help cutting hands or feet. He had a hard time with a circle so I helped with that, too. Once he had all his pieces he asked for some tape and constructed his very own Superman. It is hard to see in the photo but his signature backwards "S" is inside of the triangle on Superman's chest.

Lyla even got interested and made her own people. 

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter morning was full of sunshine and smiling faces. And lots and lots of eggs full of candy.



Dying Disaster, again

I'm glad our kids aren't knowledgeable about specific holiday traditions and the way they are "supposed" to be done. Like using white, hard boiled eggs and Paas egg dye tablets to make your eggs look fun colors on Easter.

This year, not unlike last year, we ended up with only brown eggs in the fridge. Since I wasn't going to make a special grocery trip, I ended up boiling a few of them and trying an experiment. The kids were game.

I had read on a few blogs earlier in the week that you can use different household spices and foods as dye but they had elaborate set ups where they boiled the spices or let the eggs soak for days. We don't have that kind of patience at our house. So we dumped some turmeric, paprika, cumin and red cabbage leaves in some vinegar and waited to see what happened. I got the kids to wait about an hour and results were so poor I didn't even take any photos!

The highlights were wearing their bright orange YMCA t-shirts, stirring the spices and dunking the eggs into the cups. In total, it was about 15 good minutes of fun!

Another visit to the Discovery Center

Sometime last week I picked up a flyer announcing the 10 Year anniversary celebration at the Discovery Center. Since we had so much fun there last weekend, I decided that we'd spend our Saturday there, plus there was going to be a puppet show!

My good friend Maria is about 39 weeks pregnant, so I decided to ask if we could take her daughter Allegra along so that a pregnant mommy could have a break from her toddler for few hours. It was fun to have a friend along for our adventure. 

Our first stop upon arrival was at a replica of a boat Lewis & Clark used. They had dress-up clothes and a satchel for the kids to wear. Steven was all over trying it on but Lyla was too shy. 

There were about 10 different craft stations set up all over the center. At this table we made Lightning Bugs out of plastic bottles, construction paper wings, pipe cleaner legs and antenna and a glow stick inside for the "lightning". 

They have a press that we used to make imprints of leaves. The kids painted some leaves and put them on a plate that got sent through the press to make a paper print. They turned out so good that I think I am going to frame the prints. The man hosting this station made each of the kids show their muscles before he let them help turn the wheel. It was pretty cute because each of them really wanted to pass his test so they could turn the wheel by themselves!

Then it was on to the make your own bird feeder station. The kids got to help hammer the frame and staple the wire mesh. They also got to feed the wire hangers through the holes and twist them together. Now we just need to find a good place to hang our feeder. Last year we hung a feeder on our front porch (its still there but empty). The birds were pretty messy and this year I have a bunch of weeds growing under the feeder that I am going to leave just to see what they become. 

Next we rolled seed balls. These balls have ornamental grass and coneflower seeds in them. The station host was quick to indicate that all of the seeds are native to our region of Missouri so we are safe to plant them in our yards and they'll come back year after year. We've got to find a good place to plant these in our tiny urban oasis!

What a great day at the Discovery Center!

Nature inspired weekend

I was able to get out of work early on Friday so I decided to get the kids even though Friday is Tommy's night to pick them up. I stopped at the house, got Kira and headed to Lyla and Steven's schools. Then we went over to Tommy's office to start the weekend of outdoor fun. 

Tommy's office shares its land with the Missouri Department of Conservation's Anita Gorman Discovery Center. The Kauffman Foundation has a nice outdoor space of its own with a pond and waterfalls that the kids were loving! I was afraid at a few moments that we were going to have soaking wet kids, but in the end they behaved. 

After dodging goose poo around the pond we visited the wooden canoe and stopped to watch the frogs. 

A big highlight for me was catching a glimpse of this robin keeping her eggs safe in her nest. It is so nice to have this little nature oasis in the midst of the city. It really doesn't feel like we are a mile away from our house when we visit the Discovery Center.

Continuing the weekend's nature theme, I took the kids to Lakeside Nature Center on Saturday for Mother Nature Reads. Tommy spent the morning at the Zoo being a docent because admission was free for residents of Jackson County. He said it was nuts (attendance when he left around 1pm was over 14,000) so I am glad that I decided to take the kids somewhere a little more low key. 

After listening to a few stories about Owls, the kids did a sticker art project and played puppet show. I don't quite think that our kids completely understand that puppeteers should remain behind the curtain during the show!

We even got to be silly with horns at the touch table.

And to top the weekend off we spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning working in the yard. We found worms, rolly pollies, snails, slugs, and a mulitude of other creatures of nature that our children do not fear. 

And the last photos of our weekend top them all. I wish I could say April Fool's but really, it was 90 degrees! The kids were so excited for the warm weather that we put out the plastic pool and let them play in the frigid water. They absolutely loved it!

I thought about running and turning the water on while she was holding the hose like this but that would have been mean.

I've confirmed that we have a daredevil on our hands. Lyla took off at a run from the neighbors yard, jumped in the pool, splashed into the side of the pool and laughed her head off. Steven was a bit more timid - he took off at a run but stopped before entering the pool and carefully stepped in and then proceeded to let his sister splash all kinds of water on him. 

What a great weekend!

Upcycled: Easter Dress

I loved this dress, shoulder pads and all. It was probably a junior high/early high school dress. I wish our photo albums weren't in storage right now because I'd love to see if there is a picture of me wearing it. My sister, Lori, had it for some reason (boy am I sad that she didn't save it for Eleanor to wear in a few years, you know, shoulder pads are coming back) and brought it in her upcycle donation bag last November. 

I decided to try and modify a pattern. It was my first attempt. I didn't want to add a zipper or buttons down the back so I tried to figure out how to reshape the arm and neck holes. I wasn't very successful because it was huge on Lyla. I ended up pinning the neck so that it didn't fall off her shoulders. I think I'll need to add some kind of button closure to the back for future wears but didn't she look cute for Easter?

My morning companion

I think I've shared before that I am not a morning person. Never have been. Ask my mom and she'll tell you that in the morning before I left for high school I maybe uttered two words to her. She knew better than to try and get more out of me. Thanks, mom.


My children, however, have not yet learned that leaving mommy be in the morning will get you far in life. Weekend mornings are the worst, the kids wake up, yell "Mommy", I grumble "come in here" and then the unpleasant-ness begins. I never want to get up, they want breakfast, they fight over who gets the middle spot between me and Tommy ... on and on and on.


Weekdays are a little better. For some reason, the noise of the shower which shares a wall with their room never seems to phase them. But sometime during my ready routine, Lyla will show up at the door ready to be my morning companion. Normally she curls up on my robe on the floor and rests while I shower and do my hair. However, lately that is not good enough and she drags her blankets into the bathroom and makes a little bed on the floor. And stand back, because if you disturb their exact placement, she'll glare at you like I am sure I did to my mom when I was 16. Like mother, like daughter; I'm afraid.