Gotta love those belly laughs!

They were out again!

Coming home from the store the other day they mama fox and her kits were out again. I pulled in behind the church on the corner and just sat and took pictures for a while. I was about 50(?) feet away in my van, and they didn't really care. I got some good (as good as my camera can take) photos of all three kits. They are really quick and were pretty rambunctious so getting them all in one picture was a bit difficult.

I love our little town

Last weekend was the Buttercup Festival. For you Northerners, them're daffodils.

This is the third year we've gone. I love how the whole town shows up for the day. Cute booths, fun food, all the shops are open and so much cute stuff! I only took a couple of pictures, we were having too much fun. And running into people we know. Also so much fun to know we aren't strangers in town anymore.

Enjoying the petting zoo. Maggie stayed there about 1/2 an hour.

And milking a fake cow. Also a big hit with her. Maybe I should find the local FFA or 4H chapter?

And James' first bandaid. He loves to crawl around outside, but on aggregate pavement it's not always a good idea. He skinned his big toe pretty good that afernoon.

100% Boy

 

   

Sorry for the blurry iPhone photos- but I could not pass up the photo op. James took the drum, put it on his head and crawled all over my bedroom and bathroom this morning as I got ready for the day. He was SO pleased with himself!

Easter 2012

Here are the kiddos in the matching outfits I made.

James doesn't really like the grass.

Maggie in the Children's Choir at church. She woke up on the wrong side of the bed so I didn't even bother trying to do anything with her hair - it was not a battle I wanted to fight that morning.

Here are some short (and shaky) videos of her singing. I was close enough I can actually hear her voice in them!

 

A Fox and Her Kits on Easter Sunday

On our way home from church on Sunday, we stumbled upon a mam fox and her three kits. They live in a little ravine near our neighborhood, and were out in the grass behind a small church on the corner. The photos are pretty grainy - I had to take them from a distance. And I didn't get all three kits in the picture at the same time. But they were SO cute to watch!

 

We drove around into the church parking lot to see if we could get a little bit closer and see them better. The mama saw us and just kept on playing with the babies. It was so fun. A real treat!

Spring Break 2012 - Memphis

We headed to Memphis for a short Spring Break trip (Thursday - Saturday). I got a super-cheap rate at the Hilton Memphis on Priceline for 2 nights (thank you, Kelly Webster, for your tutorial all those years ago!).

James really did not like sleeping in the pack-n-play in the hotel room, so the nights were rough (like I wanted to pack up and go home at 4am), but the rest of the trip was a LOT of fun!

The front desk clerk had asked if we wanted a room down low or up high, and Maggie said "up high!". Here are the kids looking out the full-length window of our room on the 18th floor. Both of them loved the view and being able to look out at the pool.

 The weather was pretty awesome for Memphis. Both times we've been it's been 80+ and so swampy with humidity, but this trip it was 72, ZERO humidity. It made for a cold pool, but the hot tub was just right! Both kids had a great time swimming in there. And since we were there before the weekend there weren't any other families at the pool so we got it all to ourselves!

 Pool toys and water bottles are appropriate in-room entertainment. (this happy attitude, however, did NOT last through dinner). We went to Neely's BBQ for dinner. Tyler and I had been 8 years prior, and this time around it was alright but not fabulous. James let them know, too. He screamed through half of dinner and I was about to get my meal to-go. But, he piped down and we got to finish.

 Double-Bed Olympics. Lots of jumping between the beds. Here's a good shot of the take-off.

 And in-flight.

 Friday we went to the Memphis Zoo. It's set up really nicely. It was crowded because of Spring Break, but we did the whole thing at our own pace, and it was really enjoyable. The weather was so amazing, 70 and a light breeze. Cool enough in the shade that Maggie kept her long-sleeve shirt on, but not hot in the sunlight, either. And a lot of the animals were out where we could see them really well. 

Look at that lazy hippo. We were 3 feet away!!!

Never gotten to see pandas up close. It was hard to photograph through the glass. But this guy munched that bamboo with serious speed!

 With the elephants.

 Two happy guys!

 Here is Maggie at the wolf exhibit. Wolves figure prominently in her nightmares, so we were glad to see them lazing about and napping - docile and dog-like, not ferocious.

See? Sleepy. Not scary. We talked with her for a while there about them. I hope it helped her not be scared.

 

James didn't sleep well the night before, so we were all glad when he napped in the stroller.

Mama's silly monkey!

Saturday the Easter Bunny visited us in the hotel. Maggie thought that was pretty fun!

So did James.

Mama's Got a New Problem - It's Called Sewing

So I started being serious about sewing about 2 years ago. Did some things here and there, learned some skills, had some fun, but still preferred "rogue" -style sewing - minimal pattern, mostly freeform.

Well, there's a new craze called Pinterest. It's a visual website bookmark thingy that you can share with the world. And the world has shared with me a LOT of super-cute and fairly easy tutorials on sewing kids clothes (mostly girls' dresses). So I jumped right in. I am now losing more sleep than ever, and spend many nights sewing!!!

Here are some recent projects (the websites for the tutorials are in the project name):

This is the Layered Twirly Dress. It's a tank top she already had with an added elastic waistband and two layers of skirts. She loves that it twirls. It was my first real jump into sewing clothes for Maggie. 

A Midsummer Dress
Feeling emboldened by my success with the twirly dress, I marched to Joann's, bought some more fabric, and went to work. Took about 4 1/2 hours. Would've gone quicker if I could read directions properly. And not be left-handed. I blame that on 75% of my sewing problems. Maggie loves this dress, and I am SO glad because I've worked the hardest on it. Went slowly, made SURE everything was as perfect as I was able to make it.

 And so then James had to get a matching onesie with necktie and faux-suspenders.

Both dresses had patterns in the tutorial that you had to improvise. That sounds scary to some, but honestly, the little packages of tissue paper patterns that you have to cut out just right and match things up freak me out. Online tutorials are more free-form and that just works for me.

So after two dresses, 3 circle skirts (imagine just one layer of the twirly dress, no tank top attached) and James' onesie, I embarked on my own creation. Sylvia gave me a bunch of fabric a while ago, and one was a light blue cotton material. They were screaming to become summer PJ's for Maggie. I wanted a traditional look to them and for it to be a top and bottom, not a gown. I found a tutorial online for ruffle pants, modified them to bermuda shorts-length, then looked at a dress tutorial for how to do the top part and instead made a button-up tank top. Also a winner! She loves them.

I have one more dress' worth of fabric to use, and an online pattern that I want to make as well. I'll post when it's done.

Newest Habit

James' new mealtime habit. It was funny the first time, but he does it with everything instead of shutting his mouth or signing "all done" which he knows.