Project: Rocker

When I was pregnant with Youngest girl we found a glider rocker very cheap at a tag sale. It was missing the original cushions and someone had thrown on some ugly throw pillows in their place . But, the price was right and I am handy with a sewing machine and a big bag of fiberfill so we bought it and put it in the nursery. I bought some fabric to match the nursery quilt and sewed up some cushions. That rocker served us very well through Youngest girl's babyhood. We spent many cozy hours rocking and nursing in that chair.



Once we put Youngest girl's toddler bed into the room there was not quite enough room to leave the rocker in there. So, we moved it to our living room and there it sat - for more time than I care to admit - clashing quite nicely with our living room furniture. In fact, we had not intended to just leave it there but it became a comfortable addition to the room. So, then I decided I would find time to recover the cushions and it could stay there. But, somehow I never made it to the fabric store for that purpose or if I did go there I forgot about buying fabric for that project.

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to JoAnn's fabrics on a Halloween-related errand and while I was there I remembered to actually buy some fabric! Yay! And this past week I finally made the time to get the project started. It took until today to finish it, but now it is done and looking quite lovely! (I'm so modest...but seriously...doesn't it look nice? And way more living room-ish? And I'm really liking the fabric which is such a buttery soft sueded something or other.)




So, there you have it. My latest sewing project. I have also been working on knitting a few pairs of baby socks to donate to the church craft fair which is coming up in November. I need to take some photos so I can share them here. They are so cute! (There I go again, being all modest and crap.)

October 12 of 12 (and Date Night!)

This month we had a great day for the 12 of 12 (see Chad's site for the 411 on 12 of 12). The weather was absolutely beautiful, the fall colors are at their peak, and it was a Sunday so we could spend the day (mostly) as we pleased.

Church - 10:30am

Some friends who had moved away were back visiting this weekend and we got to see them all at church. Middle girl is standing with her friend C who was born two days before her. Yes, they both turned 6 this month - even though Middle girl is nearly a head taller. LOL

Church - noon

Leaving church - isn't it a gorgeous day?

After lunch we decided that we would take the girls apple-picking in a local orchard.
Cold Spring Apple Orchard - 1:45pm

How do you like them apples?


So big that Middle girl can barely carry more than two.


Look, ma! It's as big as my face!


The apples of my eye.

There was a geocache (go to http://www.geocaching.org for the 411 on that!) not far from the orchard so we figured we try to find it.

On the trail - 1:50pm

Rebeca took this picture of me and Rick (and if you look between Rick's legs you can see Middle girl hiding behind him)

Off the beaten path - 2:00pm

Rick on the hunt for the cache.

Trailside - 2:10pm

Success! The girls got to choose a trinket and we left a few behind. And on the way out of the cache we met some fellow geocachers...a dad and daughter team who were out for their fourth find. It was the first time in all the years we've been caching that we actually met someone on the trail who was also out geocaching! We've been out before and suspected that another group or person on the trail was a geocacher but it seems verboten to yell out "hey, are you a geocacher"?

Date Night! To end the day off on a wonderful note Rick and I had managed to arrange for a date night. We were long overdue - or at least it felt that way. We dropped the girls off at Rick's parents' house and headed out for a late afternoon hike to enjoy the foliage and the views on the top of a nearby mountain. The weather was absolutely perfect, but the mosquitoes were a bit insane for this time of year. And the mountain itself was swarming with other like-minded individuals who wanted to enjoy the day to the fullest. I think we passed at least 30 other groups of hikers on our way up the mountain.
Mt. Norwottuck - 5:00pm

We made it to the top!


This picture does not do justice to the great colors we saw.

On the way down - 5:20pm

Artsy fartsy fall foliage snapshot. A nice way to end this 12 of 12.

After our hike we did get out to dinner and had a delicious meal with wine, dessert and even a Bailey's coffee for me. Yum. It was relaxing to just sit and chat with no interruptions and eat some really great food that we didn't have to prepare, serve or clean up after (and no need to cut someone else's food into bite sized pieces). The end of our date night was a romantic trip to Target. We had to get some essentials like TP and paper towels and we also got a few gifts for Youngest girl who will turn three on Sunday! (Seriously!) We resisted the urge to buy a fire pit even though that would have been a romantic thing to buy on date night. But, we just don't need it and we are trying to be more mindful of the stuff we buy.

It was a great 12th of the month and I'm so glad I remembered it was 12 of 12 so I could make a record of our day. Now I'm off to post this to Chad's site and to check out what other folks did on their 12 of 12!

Cel-ah-brate good times...

I hope I'm not dating myself with that song for my title.

Middle girl celebrated her birthday in style on Sunday and Monday. Sunday was the friend party at the local gymnastics school where she has been taking classes for about 3 years. She had nine friends along with her two sisters as guests and they all had a ball with the "party people" Ann-Marie and her husband Bobbie.

Here are a few choice photos from the party:


A gaggle of girls ganging up on Bobbie.


The birthday girl waiting for instructions (along with friend M).


Eldest girl enjoying Ann-Marie's antics.


Youngest girl stuck close to me for the entire party with the exception of this short
stint on the trampoline - which she obviously enjoyed thoroughly!


Cake time! And for the record, I can no longer be called 'Martha on Crack' (right, K?). I forked over big bucks to let someone else run the party AND I bought the cake from the local bakery!


Present time - with help from mom and friend N.

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On Monday she woke up at 6:30 and I was able to wish her a happy birthday on the exact moment of her birth - 6:53am. Hard to believe that this baby is now six!


(....and equally hard to believe that the other "baby" in the photo - who seemed soooo big at the time - is going to be 9 this winter).

At school she celebrated with all her classmates. Her sisters and I ate lunch with her in the classroom and then we handed out cupcakes (homemade but with canned frosting - see, K? No Martha living here no mo'). This teacher does such a nice job of making the child feel special on their birthday (and even the summer birthday kids get to celebrate before the end of the year). During circle time they do a special little birthday 'ceremony' and sing a special song. One child sits in a chair holding a small candle - this child is the "sun". The birthday child carries a globe and walks around the sun as many times as they are old to signify how many times the earth has been around the sun since they were born. The teacher also reads the A.A. Milne poem "When I am Six" to the child and the class then sings a second 'birthday song' which is not the traditional birthday song. I don't know the words to the songs but they are both very sweet. :-) Oh yeah, and a birthday story is also read to the class and the birthday child gets to take home a special book bag of birthday stories to read at home. I can't say enough how much I love Ms. W!!!

Here are a few pics from the school celebration:



Putting on her special crown.


Circling the 'sun'!



A special birthday poem.


Lunch with mom and sisters.


Happy Birthday!


Time for cupcakes!

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And last but not least we celebrated with my in-laws by having them over for dinner that night! Middle girl requested chicken with spaghetti sauce over pasta and green beans. Nothing fancy so it was an easy relaxed dinner...and of course...more cake for dessert! :-)

All in all, a wonderful couple of days to celebrate the day we first met our very special Middle girl!

Expecting a Fair(l)y Small Visitor

Updated!

The big news today in E.W. is that Middle girl lost her first tooth! And "lost" is a good way to put it because she literally lost it. She was eating an apple and accidentally swallowed it. I think we were all very surprised because she had not been complaining of a loose tooth and then bam! it was gone. She was upset at first but luckily Eldest girl had something similar happen not that long ago and a note explaining the situation sufficed in getting her due from the tooth fairy. So, she figured we could just write another note and hopefully she'd get a visit too. Eldest girl helped her write the note and they left it along with a 'form' for the tooth fairy to fill out! I'll scan it and post it once the fairy has gotten a chance to fill it out. I'm curious to know if she'll actually have time to do that while she is here. I guess it depends on how many houses she needs to get to before morning...

Without further ado - here's Middle girl with her adorable gap-toothed smile.



Monday she turns 6! Which is pretty hard to believe.
And it's picture day at school so I'm hoping she will show off her new smile. :-D

10/5/08
The Tooth Fairy did, indeed, make her visit last night. Middle girl was up very early this morning to check and found four quarters and a note in a little envelope from the tooth fairy. The note gave Congrats on losing her first tooth and condolences for swallowing it. She also wished Middle girl a happy birthday! She signed the note "Your Tooth Fairy, Starr". The girls assumed that the tooth fairy did not have time to fill in the little form they left for her but mom's sharp eyes noticed the teeny, tiny handwriting on the form! Not sure it will show up here - but you should be able to click on the picture to see it larger on Flickr. She wrote her name, the date she found it and her comment was "Sorry you swallowed it!"