Loins

Bee Cool at Bee City

Some of us moms decided to take the kids to Bee City - about an hours drive - for a little field trip! Ya-ya stayed home, which was perfect because there really wasn't any place for her to crawl around, which would've resulted in a major back ache for me. Anyway, the kids learned about bees, saw some bees, made a craft with bees wax, poured honey, and saw all kinds of animals at the petting zoo. The kids really enjoyed it and it ended up being a nice outing. Here's some of the group listening to the rules. I keep looking at this picture thinking that all of these kids are coming from like 7 families or something. That's a lot of kids! And a lot of kids PER FAMILY! Wow.

Look at how attentive they are! Honestly, there were so many rules, I couldn't keep them straight. I'm glad the kids were listening in this moment, but I'm sure we broke every rule mentioned, several times...

We had fun crawling on the fake animals too!

I'm sure Noa and Evie are talking about who gets to sit on the turtle and for how long.

Evie won!

This picture was taking right after one of Ruthie's major melt-downs. She looks so content here though. They were very interested in filling up their own honey bears with honey.

Here's the bee colony that the kids got to see. Noa was pretty fascinated with the whole thing, but afterwards she pulled me aside and said, "Mom, now I'm gonna show you the real bee..."

And here it is... the real bee. :)

Precious little Eden. This is Lydie's friend - born a week later - and she was a busy little bee herself! Crawling everywhere!

Last, but certainly not least (these two wouldn't stand for that), here's Ruthie and Lulu, two middle children living up to that stereotype quite nicely. No smiles even though we asked 100 times... They are definitely kindred spirits in their approach to life: physical, passionate (you could also insert "crazy" here. "Passionate" is our positive spin on what's really going on.), influential, beautiful, my-way-or-the-highway type girls...

Thanks Rhoda, for organizing all of this! We had a fun day and look forward to when we can BEE COOL at BEE CITY again... :)

Noa's First Day of School

But first... The Lion's cheerleaders are baaaaaaaack!!!!!! (Please forgive Noa's short, short, short outfit - we are getting as much use out of last year's outfit as we can!)


Here's a little picture of a very over-tired mommy and her Ya-ya.

Beauty queen Noa and her chalk drawings below. The first is a rainbow she copied and the second is her first self portrait. Not bad!



Lydie's new face

And finally, here's Noa on her first day of Preschool! We were rushing around so much this morning, I'm glad we squeezed this shot in! She was wearing her new school tennis shoes and her new jeans. She did so well! Before we left, I told her we would probably have to leave blanky and kitty (her security things) in the car because we can't take them to school. She said, "Mom, I'll just leave them at home because that's what big kids do." Whoa! Big girl! She was a little clingy when I dropped her off. She was very nervous and shy with her teacher Miss Adelle, and the other kids, but they said she had a terrific first day. She went potty all by herself (and even told them she had to go), learned all of the rules of the classroom, and when I picked her up, she was busy on the playground and hardly noticed I was there! Afterward, we stopped at a coffee shop and she got to pick out a huge cookie because she was so brave. She kept saying, "Mom, I am soooooo brave. I went to school all by myself! And Ruthie didn't go!" I enjoyed my 3 hours of freedom, but I would be lying if I made you believe I wasn't thinking about my Noa-girl the whole time. :)

Ya-Ya

Just had a family photo shoot, so better pics are on the way. Ever since Russ got his Iphone, we've been taking a lot of pics on it and I have been lazy with my camera. Gotta get back in the groove! We've had an extremely busy September and October is looking the same. Last week Noa and Ruthie were sick with some virus, and Noa was throwing up because of it. So sad. :( Those two are back to normal this week but now the rest of us have some post-nasal drip throat thing. Blah. Anyway, Noa is going to start going to a little preschool on Thursdays, so I'll have to post pics of her first day this week. She is sooooooo excited, but I bet she'll be shy on her first day. I'm going to stay there for a little bit with her. Maybe I'M the one having a problem with it! Probably. Anwyay, to hold you over, here's a sweet little picture of our Ya. It's official. Lydie's "official" nickname is Ya-Ya, or Little Ya. And she is still the sweetest little baby ever!

Nakies!!!

Girls puttin' on a show at B&N

Lifelong Friend

When we were up in Michigan a few months ago, we scheduled the trip at the very last minute. Like a day before! It isn't the easiest thing to cart 3 babies around while trying to manage their very particular sleeping habits, eating rituals, and tantrums. I wouldn't really call it a "vacation," it was more of a change of scenery. :) We needed a place to stay while in Cadillac, so we once again emailed my friend Betsy and told her we were planning on coming THAT WEEKEND! She responded something like, "I just want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly... You mean in about 2 days?" Yep. Get ready! So, in typical Betsy-style she had everything perfectly ready upon our arrival and let us take over their basement (well, and the rest of the house too, if you know anything about toddlers), and come and go as we pleased, all the while having food ready for us if we should need it. I'm talking good food. Full meals. She even invited my mom and sister over for dinner the last night we were there so they could see the girls one last time. This was a really sweet blessing for me. (Side note, we now have too many people to stay at Mom's house. We are growing way too fast!)

Anyway... Betsy is definitely gifted with hospitality. I especially notice it since I am most definitely not gifted that way! In the last few years, she has hosted us on numerous occasions. We joke that she always has a different house every time we come (sometimes in a different state) and we always have a new baby. I think her kids will be disappointed if we don't have a new baby next time we come! But, more than that, Betsy has been my friend since birth. We were in the womb together, she came out in March, I arrived in October of 1977. We grew up going to the same church, even became pen-pals when my family relocated, and have continued the friendship through marriage, babies, etc... I love Betsy and her family dearly and I wish we lived a whole lot closer. I'm sure I would be at her house every day and forgo raising my kids, so maybe that is not the best idea. Anyway, to show our appreciation I decided to make her a quilt since she kept hinting that I needed to send one up to her! I bet you thought I wouldn't have the time, Bets! And really, I don't. But, I had a lot of left over fabric from Linda's quilt (the blue side of the Kumari Garden line), so I went to work making this little ditty:

The last star quilt I made was 15 years ago. I cringed while writing that, thinking to myself, "Am I really that old?" It was a different kind of star though (I think called the Ohio star, but I can't totally remember) and I wanted to try my hand at these. Not too difficult, but if you look closely, you'll see that none of my stars really have points, sure sign of an amateur. Even so, the effect is still the same, right?

I decided to stipple again. I thought it would be a nice, round contrast to the square looking stars, and it is easy, so double bonus!

The fabric for the back wasn't from the same line, but was totally on sale, and I thought it went well. It wasn't until later that the leaves reminded me of a marajuana leaf (without the points, but I think with the same number of leaves), but Betsy is the last person on earth to smoke pot, so I don't think she'll notice... :)

I also made a TON of binding for Linda's quilt(my favorite part of quilting - isn't that weird?! But, I love it!), and it already coordinated so well with the fabric, I decided to use it for this quilt too. I love it.

And, with practice, I am getting a little better at mitering my corners.

I *love* this quilt. It is hard to say good-bye, but I know it is going to a better place where little kids won't get their slimy fingers all over it. :) Betsy, I did realize that I got so excited about sending this out, that I forgot to clip all of the thread from the quilting. When you get it, you'll probably want to clip any long threads you see. Might as well make you do something. :)

Queen of the Fairest

I've got my fall candles burning even though it is still 85 degrees outside. Fall, I need you! Hurry up! At least today is a little bit rainy and windy. I am so sick of summer! We've been all princess-y around here lately. The girls have been enjoying their dress up clothes more than ever before! Yay!

Noa keeps prancing around saying, "I'm Queeeeeeeeennnnn of the faaaaaiiiiirrrrreeeesssstttt!" I think she's trying to say she's the fairest of all, but somehow it has become a twist on that phrase. I've heard that I used to always say, "I da queen." So, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess.

Ruthie actually likes to wear these earrings around for quite a while. I am so surprised she doesn't rip them off right away, but I think she feels pretty. So cute!!

Noa was helping me go through a bin of material the other day and she found this scrap of fleece (why did I ever have this??). Anyway, she just saw some pictures of a friend's wedding, so all she wants to do now is pretend she has a strapless wedding dress on. Not too shabby for a scrappy piece of fleece pinned with one pin!


I found a junky old $3 shirt at the dollar store and made this other little short wedding dress for her. It actually fits Ruthie a little bit better and I think Noa prefers the fleece. Oh well. Many more years of dresses to come! :)

Princess Babers!

Just a normal day.

Ruthie drove a play car off of a deck yesterday (I didn't see it, the DADS were watching the kids) and cut up her eye. Then this morning I heard a big THUD in the other room and a bunch of crying. She tripped and hit her head on the coffee table going down, hence the line above her eye. Lookin' rough! Poor thing. But, I guess just a few typical days around here.

No Lydie pics. She's pretty uncomfortable lately as all of her top teeth are coming in at once! Will have to post the update when they're in! I just finished another quilt, so pics coming on that one too!