H is for Helium: Balloon Party

It started with an idea. Balloons, red and blue.

And a birthday boy, of course.

Refreshments were served (there's always room for Jell-O).

Games were played.

Prizes were won.

Cake was served.

And eaten.

For everyone else, there were cake pops!

It seems a good time was had by all.

Happy Birthday to my darling 1-year-old boy!

Be Mine

Our little play group had a Valentine's party this week, so we got a little taste of what school celebrations will be like in the future. To tell the truth, though, this party set the bar pretty high, as all the moms were really into it and everyone contributed something really special. For our Valentines, Little Omi and I made recycled crayons (recipe here) and sugar cookies. We attached Baby Bro's cards (found here) to the crayons since Omi's were the folding kind. Gramma had just given us this set of cookie cutters, which sort of combines cookie cutters with a letterpress—how cool is that? So we just had to make personalized cookies for all the kids in the play group.

Pretzels

With all the snow and ice coming down lately, we've been spending a lot of time just shuffling around the house. I guess since it's starting to feel like The Long Winter, I have been wanting to bake some bread. I was perusing my copy of America's Test Kitchen's Baking Illustrated and came across a recipe for soft pretzels. I had never made or eaten a fresh pretzel before! The recipe was pretty basic—I had all the ingredients on hand (although bread flour was required for its extra gluten). The best part was rolling out the dough. Little Omi got in on the act and made a series of rings (she said she liked them better than the traditional pretzel shape). Once the pretzels are shaped, you dip them in boiling water hat has a bit of baking soda added to it before baking them. It's the soda that gives the pretzels their characteristic brown color!

I don't have any photos of the finished product. We ate them before I remembered to take a picture!

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.

New skirt

A new skirt for Omi. I don't know what it is about Fall and corduroy. It just makes me want to make little corduroy skirts. Here's this year's edition, worn at Thanksgiving.

Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff

In this season of a birthday for every weekend, it has been a real trial coming up with different gifts for each child, especially given my limited sewing capabilities. But this tote was quite simple to make and was sized just right for carrying around copies of The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie-the-Pooh. I used Lotta Jansdotter's instructions from Simple Sewing, but made up my own dimensions and added a lining. I definitely see more tote bags in my future.

Lighthouse Tee

My second attempt at appliqué. I really like these little sewing projects that we give as gifts to Little Omi's friends. It's a fun way to use bits of fabric from my stash and to create things for different kids' personalities. Plus, it's really fun to include Little Omi in the making of the project, and it's easier for her to understand that the item is for someone else, unlike going shopping for a toy, which I think can be a bit confusing and bring up some hurt and jealous feelings.

Trees & squirrels

Little Omi is learning about fall. The leaves are changing and starting to fall off the trees, which inspired the artwork above. It was our first family art project, something we plan to do lots more of now that we've been reading and enjoying Amanda Blake Soule's The Creative Family. The other day, Omi was admiring the large silver maple tree in our front yard, and said, "I want to climb it! I need to be a squirrel." So, we made a little squirrel tail. Needless to say, the disappointment was apparent when she approached the tree wearing the tail and realized she hadn't gained any new tree-climbing abilities.

Yes we can

I'm too excited to sleep, but sleep I must, especially if I'm going to wake up in the morning to the happy realization that this amazing evening wasn't all just a dream.

VOTE

I have always taken my right to vote very seriously, and exercised it in as many elections as I could. Today I cast my vote in what I believe to be the most important election in my lifetime. This was not Little Omi's first time to visit our polling place (I bring her every time I vote), but this was her first presidential election, and the first time we ever had to stand in line. Our wait was relatively brief—20 minutes or so—especially compared with that of voters in the tossup states like Florida or Virginia. Still, it made my heart swell with pride to see all my neighbors who were willing to stand in line and wait their turn to make their voices heard in this Democracy, and to see our good friend from across the street, who has now moved into a nursing home, coming in by wheelchair to cast her vote.

Will Little Omi remember all this later on? I can't say. But I do wonder what kind of nation we can become if the very first President my daughter remembers, and the first President a whole generation of children knows, is Barack Obama. Behold, the possibility!

For friends

We are very lucky to be a part of a fantastic play group, with lots of really wonderful kids and their interesting, thoughtful, and often hilarious moms and dads. Over the next month we will be celebrating the birthdays of five of the kids, so I wanted to make some of their gifts myself instead of completely breaking the bank on plastic stuff from China. So there's Little Omi modeling a sweet panda bear scarf, from Aranzi Aronzo's Cute Stuff. Next we (yes, Omi helped!) made these little bean bags. I used double-sided fusible interfacing to make the letters and numbers and then just stitched around them onto the circles to reinforce the glue. The actual bags are circles (I used an old cd to trace onto the fabric) cut with pinking shears, then sewn with wrong sides together. I left a small opening so we could fit a funnel in and fill them with rice (this is the part where Omi helped), then stitched the opening up by machine. Hope our friends will like them!

(Sorry for the awful pics. It was dark outside when I finally finished the bean bags and I couldn't wait for the photo shoot.)

O Pumpkin, My Pumpkin

It's a good thing we got out the camera(s) for these pics:

(my turn with the camera)

(Little Omi's turn)

Because the very next morning, I found all three of our pumpkins smashed in the street:


Wah! We went out and picked up two new pumpkins, which have been rolling around in the back of my car for several days now because I'm afraid to put them out on the porch in case they become the victims of neighborhood ne'er-do-wells.

Rites of passage

So today we had the worst trip ever to Super Target. We were tired, cranky, hungry, and the whole world seemed out to get us. I of course bought some M&Ms for the trip home just to make it all better (for me and for Little Omi) and we had to stop at Sonic for ice (for Omi) and a root beer (for me). Omi ate a few M&Ms, and then suddenly got a look of concern on her face and started reaching into her mouth like something hurt in there. Suddenly, a river of chocolate straight out of Willy Wonka came shooting from her mouth, all over her perfect little white shirt (that we discovered in the closet today that had only been worn once all summer) and the car seat. All I could do for about 10 seconds was stare in horror and think, "Well, now my day is complete."