Ella loves books and especially likes to read to her sister. It is so funny to hear her "read" to Ashley somehow every book is about a princess and they always live happily ever efter :)
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
March Madness
In honor of National Craft Month (I know sad that I know this), I thought that I would highlight some of the crafts and projects I have been working on around the house.
First I refinished my old vanity that I got when I was probably twelve. I thought it would be so cute in Ella's room and I loved the idea of the girls having something that was mine when I was growing up. It was unfinished wood and we never did anything with it so after sanding, priming and painting it almost looks as good as new. I am really happy with the way that it turned out and instead of buying a new piece of furniture for the girls I spent $24 on paint. My next project will be to refinish some type of antique chair or bench to go with it.
First I refinished my old vanity that I got when I was probably twelve. I thought it would be so cute in Ella's room and I loved the idea of the girls having something that was mine when I was growing up. It was unfinished wood and we never did anything with it so after sanding, priming and painting it almost looks as good as new. I am really happy with the way that it turned out and instead of buying a new piece of furniture for the girls I spent $24 on paint. My next project will be to refinish some type of antique chair or bench to go with it.
Primed and ready for paint.
I forgot to take a before picture so here is an in between picture.
After
I fell in love with this fabric that I found at Jo-anns that was on sale and knew it would work perfect for new throw pillows for our family room couches. My mother-in-law helped me with this project because I am not the greatest seamstress and had no idea what I was doing. Could not have done these without her!!!
I saw something similar on a crafting blog (sorry don't know which one) and had to try my hand at it. I made the wreath from some crepe paper streamers from the dollar store and a paper plate. I got the frame from goodwill for $2.00 and painted it white and added the knob.
These are dollar frames from Michael's that I used scrapbook paper and Mod Podge to make. The flower is from fabric I got at the dollar store and frayed the edges and then sewed together. I have also been making these flowers for hair clips for Ella and one day Ashley :)
I made this initial plaque to sit at our bar area. Again Mod Podge...can I say I LOVE this stuff!
Lastly I made this tutu for Ashley's upcoming ONE year pictures.
With all of this crafting it's no wonder my husband thinks I need to go back to work :)
Happy National Crafting Month!!!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Motherhood
Today was one of those days that just never seemed to end! It seemed there was nothing I could do to keep Ashley happy she was bound and determined to cry no matter what I did. Ella threw tantrum after tantrum screaming "NO, I NOT" to me as loud as she possibly could on multiple occasions. Every time I turned around there was another mess to clean up and someone yelling at me that they needed something. I kept repeating the quote, "the days are long but the years are short" to myself over and over just trying to make it through the day. Then I checked my email and my good friend Carrie sent me the article below. This could not have come at a better time as I had holed myself up in the office just looking for a minute to myself! I had to share it with all of you moms out there! Now I think I am going to try and salvage this day and go spend some time with my babies before they grow up on me!
On Being A Mom
By Anna Quindlen
All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves.
Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.
Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with "Goodnight Moon" and "Where the Wild Things Are," they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.
What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing.
Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.
I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month-old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language - mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, What did you get wrong? (She insisted I
include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity.
That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.
On Being A Mom
By Anna Quindlen
All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves.
Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.
Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with "Goodnight Moon" and "Where the Wild Things Are," they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.
What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing.
Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.
I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month-old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language - mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, What did you get wrong? (She insisted I
include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity.
That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Somebody LOVES the Snow
The day started out with hot chocolate and a captivating game of Candy Land, and Cooties followed by a Tinkerbell movie! Then once dad got home we headed to the Apple Orchard for some sledding.
And the building of our very first Frosty. Ella did not want to share her hat with Frosty!
So we gave Frosty Mom's hat.
But Ella was still holding a grudge, so down went Frosty.
Once we got home Ella was still not ready to leave the snow so back out we went to build an Ella and and Ashley Frosty! Ella felt a stronger bond with these ladies and was ok with sharing her hat this time.
Can I just say that I LOVE snow days! It is the perfect excuse to stay inside all bundled up have treats and spend quality time with the family. Plus the giggles and smiles of kids playing in the snow...there is nothing better!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Walking...well almost!
Almost two weeks ago Ashley took her first steps! She seemed to have no fear and kept getting up to try again. Of course she would stop the instant we would bust out the video camera...little stinker! A couple days later she was super fussy had a temperature and just wasn't acting like herself so off to the doctor we went. Once we found out she had a double ear infection we understood why our little Ashey was not her happy self. Needless to say her will to walk went by the wayside. She has since decided that the best mode of transportation for herself is to race strollers with her sister. I have to say she is pretty good at keeping up!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Valentine's Day 2011
Sadly we did not have the happiest of Valentine's Days this year. Ashely had a double ear infection that seemed to be getting worse by the day. So we headed back to the doctors office where they gave her an antibiotic in a shot form that would work a little faster and was stronger than the oral antibiotics she had been on for the previous four days. Then we had to take Apollo to the vet because he seemed to be having diminished vision in his right eye causing him to misjudge distances and fall or run into things. The vet told us that he has a large ulcer in his eye that will require surgery and that he is probably very uncomfortable. And on top of all of this I woke up with a yucky head cold. So the heart shaped pancakes that I planned to make for the family, the MOPS meeting that I was looking forward to, and the Valentine's I had planned for the girls all had to wait until today. I guess the silver lining to all of this is that Bernie and I were able to celebrate Valentine's Day this past weekend with dinner at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle with our good friends Jared and Wendy and a night away at a fancy suite at the Hyatt downtown! Here are a few pictures of our Valentine's morning with the girls that happened on February 15th this year...better late than never!
You've got mail!
*Note to self...until you learn to use your camera it's best to leave it on auto mode*
Fairy Birthday Party
Ella's friend Lauren's 3rd birthday was this past weekend and it was so much fun! Lauren's mom McKenna should be a party planner....seriously there was no detail overlooked. When each of the girls walked in they were outfitted with a tutu, fairy wings, a flower for their hair and a fairy wand. McKenna even had a smaller set of wings for Ashley! Ella talked about the party for the entire weekend and has been wearing her wings ever since. She keeps saying that when her birthday comes in July she is having a fairy party too! I am not sure how to break it to her that her Mommy is not quite as talented at party planning as Lauren's Mommy!
The Birthday Girl!
The Littelest Fairy
Pinata fun
Happy Birthday Lauren!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
A Sweet Valentine!
We had a lot of fun making Ella's valentine's this year! She had her party at school yesterday and was so excited to hand these out to all of her friends.
I made this shirt for her to wear and she actually pulled out her tutu and asked if she could wear it for her Valentine party. Since it matched I just couldn't say no!
Ok mom enough pictures already!
Monday, February 7, 2011
My Baby Boy!
Apollo is going to be TEN this May! I just had to take a few pictures of my boy, he is starting to age so quickly...I think the girls have given him all those grey hairs.
Valentine Treats
I saw these Valentine Lollipops and had to make them for our MOPS play group today. Not sure if they taste good or not but they sure are cute! Here is the directions if you want to make them too!
I LOVE Craigslist!
I have wanted the Pottery Barn Kids book rack for a long time but just couldn't pay the $119 for it. So when I found this beauty on Craigslist for $8 I was beyond excited! A couple of coats of paint and it makes the perfect addition to the upstairs playroom!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
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