move over summer, here comes school

i had one excited child for the first day of school:

1st grade

and one who was not (despite the smile on her gorgeous face):

3rd grade

nerves about new teachers and routines makes her a bit hesitant, but now that we have a good week in she is relaxing a bit and enjoying it more.  phew.

these poses above cracked me up.  little divas i have got on my hands.  my only prompting for this photo shoot was to hold up their fingers indicating what grade they were in.
aaannnd to show that they actually do love each other (below)

and they are off....
(sans backpacks that were brought to school the night before for the open house)

praying God's blessings over you sweet girls for a wonderful school year.

elastic love

i finally found what i was looking for.







elastic thread.  (what? did you think it was going to be something more monumental than that?) 

i can not tell you how many times i have checked at wally world for this stuff the past few months. (and it's A LOT cause it seems i am there about 5 times a week, no lie.)  scanning the sewing area, meticulously checking the thread display, cause silly me thought that elastic thread would be with the THREAD.  silly me, neglected to think about the first word of said product. eeelaaasss-tic.  yep.  it was by the elastic. go figure.

anyhoo.  i have been itching to try my hand at sewing a few projects with this stuff so last weekend (two weekends ago? i dunno anymore) i dusted off my sewing machine and started in with my fabulous new find.

i made all this:

first off the easy peasy t-shirt refashion following this awesome tutorial

i took 2 of hubby's old t-shirts and sewed them in and then cut off the neck and sleeves.  wa-la. an 80's inspired "flashdance" t shirt (as my sis told me it looked like, ha ha) super easy, the only issue was that since they were cheapy t shirts was the graphics weren't really centered on the front so they ended up even more crooked when the t shirt was sewed in.  no biggie though, i just twist it a little once i put it on and it's all good.

next up was this skirt:

cue fabulous elastic thread

nice and wrinkly huh?

i picked up a 3X t shirt that was on clearance at wally world for only $3, hacked it off under the sleeves and ruched the top with my snazzy new elastic thread.

i followed this tutorial.  well, in the long run i did. first, i tried to add a tier to the top of it before i did the shirring because i thought it would be too short and i ended up sewing it together wrong but i shirred the top anyway and did too many rows and then it didn't fit, so i took it all back apart and just followed the tutorial like i should have in the first place.  lesson learned.  no close up pics cause it is far from perfect! 

and lastly i made these two "ruffly" scarves:

the one pictured above is sewn from a remnant piece of fabric i picked up at wally world for just over $1 (see, i told you i was there a lot!).  it was shorter than i wanted so i cut it in half and sewed the ends together and after that i sewed two rows with my handy dandy elastic thread to create a ruffly effect.  the edges are unfinished and look kind of raw but the fabric was really hard to work with, so i am just gonna "go with it"  rather than try to put a seam on it.

for this one, i took an old pair of flannel pants and just winged it. i cut the legs off, and sewed them together and then "ruffled" them.  the length is kind of weird so i may sew the ends together and make it an infinity scarf instead.  this one i am not so confident about.  does it look like i just wrapped a ratty old pair of flannel pants around my head?

so that was my weekend of sewing (along with mending a couple things for my girlies).  pretty productive, no? 

linking to some blog parties i follow:
Polly Want a Crafter
Between Naps on the Porch
A2Z Tutorials and Tips Tuesdays
Finding Fabulous (friday)
Tatertots and Jello (friday)

click on the links to see some fabulous-o stuff that others have linked up.  :)

last shots of summer....

school has officially started.  and even though it's still warm and sunny there is a feel of fall in the air and summer is done. over. kaput. (can summer be kaput?)    insert big fat sad face. 

i feel a bit ill-prepared for this.  i still have some "back to school" shopping to do for my girlies and they are already back to school.  it's not that they are going to school neked or anything.  they have some shiny new things to wear and all of the necessary school supplies.  i just haven't finished my "list" for the first day.  no fresh new haircuts, shiny-cleaned-by-a-dentist teeth or new socks.

bummer, huh? 

oh well, life goes on.  the haircuts will come, dentist appointments have been made, and socks can be purchased at Wally world.

anyhoo, we did get a lot of fun beach time in this summer and made it to the pool, they had playdates and sleep overs (though not nearly often enough according to their standard)

some last shots of august beach and pool time:

safety first!

ignore the blur... there was a smudge on my lens :(

Big Girl Bed

miss j is long overdue for a big girl bed. 

i was dragging my feet cause "if something ain't broke, then don't fix it."   (ie: if she doesn't climb out of the crib and she still fits inside of it without bending anything then let it be)

however, it was time. i conceded that a fully potty trained child should have access to a bathroom. and lo and behold, the week i started painting up her new bed she started climbing in and out of the crib. 

i broke out my old Holly Hobbie sheets for the occasion :) 
(THANK YOU Grandma D for saving them all these years! so happy!)  her quilt will be finished for Christmas or her birthday -don't quite remember which is the plan.  but it will be SPECTACULAR since my mom is lovingly making it for her.  (she rocks like that) 

she loves her bed and spends way more time up in her room playing now.  she is also quite fond of the new bed time ritual we have started of singing a song and praying with her before lights out.   amazingly, she also will still nap without much fuss and i have yet to tell her to get back in bed. 

the first night in her new bed:

a dozen cousins

all 12 grandkiddos from my hub's side were here this summer all at the same time.

of course, grandpa and grandma thought that required pictures. 

of all of them.

at the same time.

to put in a frame.

on their wall.

(yep they're nuts)

my camera was supposed to be the one to get the "good" pic.  

i'm hoping that someone else's camera captured that illusive, semi-decent picture where everyone is looking in one direction at the same time with a smile, semi-smile, smirk, somewhat decent look on their face. 

even so, i love these pictures.  because that is where life is at right now, lots of beautiful little faces, looking in all different directions, taking in the world for all it offers, smiling when they want to, not cause someone tells them they have to. (or when their aunts are jumping around like crazy monkey's and hollering like hyenas behind the camera)

those were the best ones

this one makes me laugh out loud. for real. (hey that should be an acronym, lolfr. when something really does make me laugh out loud, not just something mildly amusing that may have made me smile.  or maybe it already is but i am so wildly behind the times cause i don't have my own cell phone and am completely inept at texting that i don't know it is already way overused and so last year) it's late, i should be in bed, excuse the rant

side note: i also edited a picture that i thought was pretty good and then realized after it was all done and i was about to edit it again a little differently (ya know, options to pick from) that one of them was missing completely from the picture.  hmm.  don't think grandpa would like a picture where one of his grandsons was MIA. delete.

a little piece of heaven

"Don't grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach."- Michelle Held

we do not want you in the zoo.

out you go. out, out with you.

(can you name that book?)

so we went to the zoo in omaha a couple weeks ago. and this is the story.

these two:

 acted like him: (or her? not sure.)



this beauty:

 is this girls fave.

we packed a lunch.  full of junk food. don't judge.

 she was enthralled that we were even adding "junk" to our water

my fave

 i may have passed on my love for these guys to them

they posed for pictures:

they humored me by riding the giraffe statue for a photo op:

this one did not find it humorous however:

one of our most favorite spots in the zoo.  we could have sat and watched for a long time.  difficult to photograph though.

it was hot. 

we tried to stay cool.

with sprinklers

and drinking lots of water (even some without "junk" added to it)

and he just is cool

we also ate ice cream to cool off, but i was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures of such things.

it was a super duper day.

full of big cheesy smiles

fun things to do.

and cute things to look at:

the end.