elizabethursday

Nothing makes an owie on your forehead better than a Strawberry Shortcake bandaid from your sister, swinging, and some cool sunglasses.

taylor tuesday

Don’t you know it’s much easier to color inside a box when you have it on your head?

elizabethursday

Watch out Harry Potter… Lizzie has taken broom riding to a whole new level!

Taylor Tuesday

Maybe I should go ahead and just state that these might not go out on time for the rest of the year because I will be too busy playing with the kids than working on the computer.  Plus I have to remember to stop and take photos sometimes. 

I did remember to take photos the other day and captured Taylor playing on the slide.  This slide was so much fun she came out the bottom sideways and feet in the air.  Where is the adult size one?

elizabethursday

Just another day around the house practicing our light saber skills.  At least she followed OSHA’s rules of wearing safety goggles.

Knitting Update

I have actually been knitting since completing my sweater in September.  I actually have a pile of completed knitting projects, but kept putting off taking pictures.  These projects required me to be in the pictures and I hate being in the pictures.  I feel like such a nerd.  But I figured these knitted pieces deserved to make it out of my closet before winter ended, so here are the newest additions to my Etsy store. 

I knitted a version of this cowl for myself this summer and then decided to knit a few more colors when I needed a break from my sweater.  The gray really shows off the zig zag pattern.  

  

I have a request to see this in a green and love the way it turned out.  I almost didn’t post this cowl after I did my lime green/navy outfit love the other day.  This is more of an olive green but would still look great with navy.  I am now on the hunt for a lime green yarn so make one in a brighter color for the spring. 

 

I had Chris take the pictures and it made me laugh when I went through them.  He knew I was wanting pictures of the cowls, but still took full body shots.  His explanation was that I could crop them later.  Good thing we have the ability to crop because I do NOT want you to see the slouchy yoga pants that I was rocking that day.  Baby hats are so much easier to photograph since I have a sweet friend that lets me use her baby as my model(and takes the pictures for me).  Anyone want to be my model next time? 

Taylor Tuesday

Two months of practice.  Two months of trying her hardest.  Two months of Tuesdays and Saturdays with Daddy as her coach.  Two months of cheering her on while trying to keep Lizzie from running on the field.  Best two months and we can’t wait to do it again in a few months!

Sister Saturday

Not sure how, but I ended up one lucky Momma with these two crazy cuties!

ps. Taylor was being a unicorn and I have no clue what Lizzie was doing.

Applesauce Raisin Chews

A couple weeks ago I listed a few of my favorite things and under the scoop I talked about a messy but good cookie.  I promise I didn’t forget about you and you won’t forget about this yummy cookie recipe.  I doubled the recipe because I was making them for Taylor’s soccer snack and wanted to make sure there were plenty for me at home.  Plus you need enough for sampling while the others are cooking.  Isn’t that the perk of being the cookie maker??? 

Guess what.. I even took some fancy phone pictures of the process for you too. 

Applesauce Raisin Chews

• 1 c margarine, softened
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 c applesauce
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 ½ c quick or old fashioned oats
• 1 c raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat margarine and sugar until creamy. Add applesauce, egg, and vanilla; beat well. Gradually add combined flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; mix well. Stir in oats and raisins.

(see why I need the scoop to get this gooey mess out)

Drop by rounded tablespoonful's onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 11 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cook 1 minute on cookies sheet. Remove to wire rack; cool. Store covered at room temperature.

 

I apologize for the ‘I was taking pictures at midnight’ lighting but I wanted you to see that these cookies turn out like.  They are messy looking but very yummy. 

elizabethursday

“Help Momma, help!  Get. Me. Down!”

Taylor Tuesday

I know I’m a day late but it’s really hard to believe it’s already Wednesday and I’m having a hard time picking a picture that you haven’t already seen after all the Halloween pictures posted lately.  But I do have a cute one for you.

I must-ache you a question.  Can you see my milk mustache?

Halloween/Trick-or-treating

As luck would have it the girls had their preschool parades on different days, so I needed a fun outfit for them to wear on the day they watched the parade.  My mother-in-law is starting to make fun shirts(more to come on that soon) and these haunted house shirts were just right.  Taylor tends to go for this pose lately and Lizzie… well Lizzie thought she was playing hide-n-seek with me.  At least she’s looking at the camera.  Lizzie is wearing a skirt that I made.  Yes that does mean I have been sewing, took a few pictures, and will post about that soon too.

  

The preschool parade is where the kids walk around the circle drive twice.  Lizzie lucked out and got to be pulled in a wagon the entire time.  Life as an almost 2 year old is rough!  Taylor wanted to be Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony so Lizzie is her sidekick, Spike the dragon. 

  

Don’t ask me what part of a purple dress and crown reminds you of this pony, but I think I did pretty good making Lizzie look like Spike.

 

Somewhere in our attic is a tub containing some of our Halloween décor, including our 8’ wide blow up spider. Chris thought the yard looked a little lonely without the spider so he got up a 8’ tall ghost.  Lizzie fell in love with the ghost and named him Spooky.  She informs us anytime he falls over, has to check on him every morning/after nap, and runs to to greet him when getting in/out of the car.  “I see Spooky” has become a common phrase from Lizzie.  Chris then got us another spider, but this one has a head that moves from side to side.  He has become known as Creepy.  We might become “that house” with Halloween decorations up until Christmas since I’m not sure I can bear a sad Lizzie without Spooky and Creepy.

    

Lizzie, aka Spike, attacking Creepy with her flashlight.

My little trick-or-treaters.  The best part of Lizzie’s outfit is her tail.  After putting off sewing her outfit for weeks, someone posted this link a few days before Halloween and Pinterest became my saving grace.  Several houses busted out laughing when Lizzie would turn to walk away.  The tail is probably as big as she is and I convinced her to wear it by telling her that no one would give her candy unless she wore it.  I know I’m a bad Mommy, but the tail was worth it. 

  

Over the past few days I have heard lots of talk about what to do with all the candy our kids get.  Not only did  my girls get more candy than they need(even after I take my Mommy tax out), we ended up with only one trick-or-treater and tons of our own candy left.  My brother and sister-in-law told me about the Halloween Fairy a few years ago and it has been the best.  Kids are to pick out a certain number(think counting skills here) of pieces from their bag and then leave the rest for the Halloween Fairy.  The Fairy takes all the given candy to share with kids who weren’t able to go trick-or-treating and leaves your kids a surprise.  The Fairy left our girls the new Tinkerbelle movie.  For some reason, my husband all the sudden had a bucket of candy arrive on his desk November 1st too.  Hmmm… wonder how that happened and gladly it keeps me from eating anymore of the candy!

Pumpkin Patch

We planned on making a big family trip to a pumpkin patch but my sinus infection took care of one weekend and Chris’ took care of the other free weekend.  So we met up at a local church because it just wouldn’t be fall without bringing home a few pumpkins to decorate.(Until the kids are bigger we decorate our pumpkins with sticker faces rather than deal with carving). 

After doing this for several years, Taylor has become quite a pro at posing for me and works on getting the obligatory pictures out of the way at the beginning so she can focus on picking the perfect pumpkin.  And this year she was set on finding the biggest pumpkin possible.

  

Lizzie ran around exclaiming ‘This one’, ‘It’s heavy', and ‘pumpkins!’.  She had a blast running up and down the aisles.

 

After several tries, this was the best we could get of both of them looking at the camera.  I’m glad they did a stand up background this year.  Last year it was a wagon filled with straw and both kids hated it.

 

Lizzie found her perfect size pumpkin and was good to go.

In our house, we aren’t quite into the carving and pumpkin insides mess.  We prefer fun foam face stickers to decorate our pumpkins.  Can you tell which is Taylor’s and which is Lizzie’s?

 

Hooded Towels

My kids love hooded towels and what can I say… I love how cute they look in them.  The only problem is that Taylor is tall(not sure where she gets that from) and all the kid friendly hooded towels barely reach her knees.  I want to be able to snuggle my girls up in a fluffy towel after their bath.  When a friend shared a post about making a hooded towel out of a regular size bath towel and hand towel I thought she was genius.  Only I stressed about what color fabric to use for the stripe to coordinate with the girls bathroom and then decided to make life simple and leave it off.  So here is my version of the hooded towels:

Hooded Towel Tutorial

Supplies:
1 hand towel
1 large bath towel
Thread
Scissors

Directions:

Start with a regular size bath towel and matching hand towel.  I like to use the quick drying ones from Target.  Target often runs them on sale for $4/$3 each and they work well for the kids.  Also make sure you take a hand towel with you to buy thread rather than guessing.  I didn’t so so well with my choice of purple.

  

Fold the towel with the right sides together and the short ends meet up.  Then stitch along the two outside edges.  I know you can’t see my stitching, but pretend you see straight stitches on the right and left side of the towel below.

 

Flip the towel right side out.  Take the corner of the hand towel that I am pointing to in the picture above and tuck it into the opposite corner.  Tuck the right corner inside the left corner.

    

Once you have tucked the one corner into the other, this is what your hand towel will look like.

I learned after creating my first batch, that the hood can gain a funky shape after washing so I decided to add a line of stitching along the back seam almost to the ‘point’ of the hood.  It gets a little tricky to get up in the hood, but it gives the hood a little more structure. 

To cut down on thickness to sew through, I cut off the finished bottom edge of the towel.  Then fold it up in the back and stitch into place in order to conceal the raw edges of the fabric.

Pin the center of the hood to the center of the bath towel (right-sides together)......stitch into place using a 1" - 1.5" seam allowance (yes, a large seam allowance).  If you need to use a larger seam allowance because you can still see some of the extra hand towel, feel free to do so.....no harm done.

   

Once you finish it will look like this on the inside. 

 

Then you ask your kid to model it for you and get silly poses like this.

       

And then little sister begs you to hurry up and make her purple one.

 

This is the girls bathroom.  The hooded towels also work great because I decided to forgo traditional towel bars in their bathroom and added knobs for hooks instead. 

       

This project takes less than 30 minutes, even with kid interruptions, to complete and your kids will love it!