A fair is a veritable smorgasborg

We had the best time taking Little Omi and Baby Bro to their first state fair this weekend. Rides were enjoyed (while I watched and had tiny heart attacks each time I saw my first born up in the air), corn dogs were devoured, baby animals were adored, and sunstroke was narrowly avoided.

While we were waiting for the sea lion show to start, Little Omi treated the audience to this impromptu performance:

Any day now

37 weeks, 4 days. Keeping our fingers crossed that we make it another 13 days...

First harvest

We planted a garden this year. Just a small one—some tomato and pepper plants, pumpkins, and a few experimental watermelons, corn, and carrots for Little Omi to tend. So far the tomatoes seem to be very happy in their little sunny patch. We thought these were going to be smaller grape tomatoes, but they are more like mini-Romas. Tasty, though, especially when they're still warm from the sun.

Little farmer

Our friends are closing down their farm market stall (husband got a better job and wife is ready to take a much-needed break from the market after 10 years). Little Omi sure did enjoy coming every week and playing with her pal. I think they invigorated the place with their 3-year-old antics. This was the place where folks could buy my sunbonnets, so I think I'll be taking a break from bonnet-making for awhile, although I'm considering putting the rest on Etsy. Feel free to let me know if you're interested in one!

Aunt Sassy

Little Omi really enjoyed having her Aunt Sassy here for her 3rd birthday. This minute pretty much sums up what she was like the entire visit.

Diaper bag

My friend liked her new diapers-and-wipes case, bib, and burp cloth so much that she asked me to make her a new diaper bag using the same Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric and denim. I was a bit overwhelmed by the project, and made some very interesting mistakes, but I learned a lot and I think it came out looking pretty sharp. This was the first project I've ever made with a zipper, which was very intimidating but not that difficult in the end. The strawberry zipper pull was a last-minute addition, and I think it makes the whole bag! I used Butterick B5005. This pattern did nothing to dispel my dislike of patterns and their jangly directions (in fact it even had some pretty bad typos!), but I was pleased with the overall result: a large diaper bag with lots of pockets.

Sno-cones

We just experienced a typical Oklahoma weather event—"winter mix." This starts out as freezing rain, which usually lays down a good layer of ice on all the roads, and then turns into sleet, which in this case, put a heavy layer of ball-bearing ice pellets on top of the ice. We're on day 2 of school closings, the day when school really could've been open because the sun is shining and the roads are mostly fine, but the kids can finally play outside so everyone's happy.

Since Little Omi hasn't had a good snow experience yet, I really wanted to make snow ice cream with her. But this white stuff on the ground wasn't technically snow, and therefore would make horrible snow ice cream. As it turns out, though, the tiny pellets of ice made perfect snow cones. We poured some simple syrup and food coloring over the ice, and presto! We each had two. After all, snow cone ice doesn't fall from the sky every day.

Baby shower

Two of the moms in our playgroup are having babies very soon. After much debate over the appropriateness of second showers, the other moms and I agreed that we all wanted to give these new babies some gifts, so we decided to have an unofficial joint shower for the two women. Here are the items I was working on up until the last minute. I might have been able to finish them sooner, but before this I was working on a birthday present (another appliqué t-shirt) and I completely RUINED it by poking a hole in the knit right next to the appliqué. Now I've completely scrapped the first idea I had (a lion) and I have to start from scratch. Meanwhile, the birthday was over a week ago. It's a good thing our playgroup doesn't have any more birthdays in the next couple of months or I would be starting a backlog.