Happy 6th Birthday Grace!

I can’t believe our sweet girl is six years old today.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were opening jars of baby food and lugging around a diaper bag?  What a joy these years have been.  What a joy Grace is to us!

We celebrated today with a simple dinner at home with friends and family.  Dad grilled burgers and hot dogs while mom and I fixed some baked beans and chips and dips.  We had a Hello Kitty strawberry cake for dessert!  The Towns’ joined us….Will and Grace played together the whole time.

For months, Grace has been asking for an hourglass.  Weird, I know, but she was SO excited to receive one of her very own tonight.  She sits and just stares at it!

She was also excited about getting a Crayon Maker.  Kudos to Crayola’s marketing campaign for making every kid who watches PBS Kids want one for Christmas.  Todd found the last one in Fort Worth!

Grace, your daddy and I love you for so many reasons.  We love your sweet and gentle spirit.  We love your eagerness to learn new things.  We love what a good helper you are around the house and to others.  We love to watch you dance and sing.  We love to hear you talk about Jesus.  We love playing games with you.  We love that God gave you to us after so many years of asking for a child of our own.  How thankful we are for you, dear daughter!

How To Make a Pillowcase Dress

A couple of weeks ago, I invited two of my SAHM buddies over for a sewing playdate.  Between the three of us, we had nine children from age 4 months to 7 years old.  Despite the chaos, I managed to teach my two friends how to make a simple pillowcase dress for our daughters.  It was a really fun time of fellowship together!

I promised to post step-by-step instructions, so here goes:

Materials needed:

• 1 yard cotton fabric
• All-purpose thread that matches the base color of fabric
• 2 yards 1/2”-1” coordinating ribbon (Get more if you want to sew ribbon around bottom of dress above the hem)
• Fabric scissors
• Pins
• Basic sewing machine
• Fray Check (optional)

  1.  Cut two identical rectangles of fabric.  Length should be the desired length of dress from neck to hem plus about  3”.  Width should be about 18”. 

2.  Place right sides together.  Pin fabric together with identical pins 6” from top on each side for sizes Birth-2T.   Pin 7” from top for sizes 3T-6.  Pin 8” from top for larger sizes.  With right sides still together, sew 5/8” seam from marked pins (armhole) to the bottom hem. 

3.  Press both seams open all the way to the top, including the armhole opening.

4.  Reinforce armhole by sewing down one side, turning sideways across bottom of armhole, then back up other side.  

5.  Make casing for ribbon.  With dress still inside out, fold back a double casing a little larger than the width of coordinating ribbon across top of dress.  Iron it flat to make the sewing easier.  Repeat for other side of neckline.

6.  Sew  both seams very close to bottom of casing.

7.  Make hem.  Fold a double hem around bottom of dress.  Iron and sew.

8.  (Optional).  Sew extra ribbon a few inches above the hem.  It’s still just as cute without it!

9.  Cut ribbon into two 1-yard lengths.  Thread ribbon through casing on both sides with a safety pin.  

10.  I like to cut the ends of the ribbons at an angle and seal it with a little amount of Fray Check to keep it from unraveling in the wash.

VOILA!

Here is Grace modeling the dress I made for her at our sewing party.

You could also add a coordinating strip of fabric around the bottom, separating with a pretty ribbon.  The possibilities are endless!

  

Happy sewing!

Youth Camp 2010

Hello internet!  June has been a crazy month, full of travels and family visits and lots of fun!  We started off by traveling to Orange Beach, Alabama for youth camp with my dad’s church.  We weren’t quite sure what to expect with the oil spill. 

When we first arrived, there were itsy-bitsy tarballs on the shoreline.  Unfortunately, it got worse during the week and it prevented us from swimming in the water.  The Coast Guard was hard at work the whole time we were there.

The tarballs didn’t stop us from enjoying the beach, though!  Grace loved playing in the sand and searching for seashells.

 

The lessons at camp were wonderful and the kids were great!  It’s always such a pleasure to go every year, worship, and enjoy the beach!

This year two of Grace’s friends were able to be there, so they stuck together like the Three Amigos:   Claire, Sophie, and Grace.

 

On a serious note, it was heartbreaking to see the devastation that this spill is causing the Gulf economy.  Hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers were bare.  Several business owners and waiters/waitresses thanked us for not cancelling our trip and helping the local economy.  It was so saddening to see first-hand what the Gulf communities are experiencing.  I pray that the clean-up efforts go smoothly and fast so things can get back to normal!

Every Little Girl Wants to Be A Princess

Our much-anticipated trip to see the musical Cinderella finally arrived!  Grace woke up extra-early and donned her special dress!
I even let her wear a crown and put on an itsy-bitsy bit of make-up!  

First, we picked up her sweet friend, Natalie, who spent several hours in the ER last night being treated for a broken arm!  She wasn’t letting that stop her from today’s extravaganza!

We ate lunch in a beautiful tea room.  The girls sipped pink lemonade from a silver teapot and ate sandwiches and fruit.   These girls entertained everyone with their excitement, laughter, and dancing!

Despite the rain and bad weather, everyone still looked beautiful when we got to the theater!

 

After the show, the characters signed autographs for our little princesses!

Despite Grace’s disappointment that Cinderella had dark brown hair, it was a FABULOUS show, full of very talented actors and musicians.  The girls loved every minute of it, and we’re already planning our trip to see Peter Pan in a few short weeks! 

Zoo Day

Grace has been suffering from seasonal allergies, but she was feeling better, so I took her and Kie to the zoo!  It was a perfect day…sunny and warm.  They had so much fun!  Grace paid for it later after being outside in the pollen and around animals for several hours, but they were so sweet and had a blast!
 

I don’t think I had to tell them once to take turns or share.  They made sure each other could see the exhibits and obeyed me when it was time to move on or leave.  So precious!

We rode the train around later in the day when we were tired. 

I am really going to miss Kie next year when he starts school!  What a blessing he and his sister have been to our family over the past two years!  Grace will miss him horribly!

Wedding Weekend

We had a fun-filled and busy weekend, full of sweet family and friends celebrating the marriage of Cal and Claire.  Last summer, they asked Grace to be the flower girl, and Grace has been eagerly anticipating the moment ever since she realized that she would wear a princess tiara for the ceremony!

Of course, we spent quite a while explaining to her that CLAIRE AND CAL were getting married, not HER.  Whoa.  Please put on the brakes about 30 years! 

Anyway, Thursday night was Claire’s bachelorette party, and I had tons of fun making a few treats for the girls to enjoy.  Here are my wedding cake pops.  It’s white brandied cake dipped in white chocolate candy on a lollipop stick!  I couldn’t resist adding the candy pearls and tiny poinsettias.

And here’s the main cake.  It’s devil’s food with chocolate truffle filling, covered in fondant to look like a lingerie gift box!

Friday night was the rehearsal.  We took a few pictures before we left the house.  I don’t think the basket left her hand all night…she loved it.

Here she is with beautiful Claire at the rehearsal.

We took time during a break for a quick family photo.  I’m not sure what Todd and I are looking at.  We can just never seem to get a good photo, which is why nobody’s getting a Christmas card again this year.  Well, that and because I’m a terrible procrastinator.

Now it’s Saturday and we’re getting ready before the wedding.  I got dizzy after a while watching her twirl around constantly in her “princess dress” in front of the mirror.

Here she is before the ceremony with Cal, the eager groom.

Another blurry, failed attempt to get a good picture for a last-minute Christmas card.

Minutes before the wedding….

After much prayer, stress, and anxiety, I was relieved that she did great during her walk down the aisle!  She smiled, walked slowly, and threw the flowers perfectly.  She also did great with all the pictures and did everything the photographer asked her to do.  We were so thankful and happy that she enjoyed herself!

And here she is after the ceremony holding her audience captive with a highly entertaining story, I’m sure…

I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any pictures of the beautiful reception because there were no Kodak moments.  Our sweet flower girl reached her sweet and obedient limit for the day and was in no mood to dance or party.  I didn’t take pictures of anybody or anything else at the reception because I was dealing with her dramatic mood shift.   We decided to call it a night around 9:30 and go home to get her in bed after a long and exhausting day. 

What a complete pleasure it was for our family to be involved in such a wonderful, God-honoring union of two precious people.  We wish Cal and Claire many wonderful years together as they build a family of faith.

Grace’s 5th Birthday Party!

It’s so hard to believe our little girl turns five years old this month.  It seems like just yesterday we were changing diapers and teaching her how to walk.  I’ve heard the passage of time only gets faster, which is both grievous and exciting.  We love each new phase of her life.  Watching her grow up and mature is so special, yet sometimes we want to just put on the brakes and hold her close, forcing her to stay that little girl snuggled on our lap!

On Saturday, we invited ten little girls from her Sunday School class over to our home for a cupcake-decorating party!  It was loads of fun and worth all the effort and preparation!

My precious friend Joy came over early to help me prepare the food.  I couldn’t have done it without her!

Here’s a picture of the lunch spread.  I served peanut butter sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, chips and dip, a veggie tray, an AWESOME fruit tree (with marshmallow dip) that Joy put together, cupcake pops, and birthday cake.

After eating lunch, each friend got a baker’s hat to decorate with foamies and stickers!  I also sewed each little girl a cupcake apron as a party favor.

Then we decorated cupcakes with endless toppings and sprinkles!  If only I had a dollar for each sprinkle that ended up on the floor after the party!

I had fun making her birthday cake!  She wanted a giant cupcake-themed cake with polka dots!  Chocolate, of course!

After opening some sweet gifts from her friends, the girls went in the backyard to jump in a big bounce house!  It was really fun and had a basketball goal on the inside.

Grace had a BLAST at her party.  It was perfect for her, and we’re so thankful for all her little girlfriends from church that helped make it so special!

Christmas Goings-On

I’ve been pretty busy lately with parties, Christmas baking, and entertaining.  I love this time of year, and it gives me so much joy to cook and host people in our home.  But it’s severely limited my time to read or write blog posts, play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, and catch up on DVR’d episodes of Monk and The Closer.  You know, the important things in life.

Anyway, I’ll start with my precious Pre-K/Kinder Choir at my church.  We had our annual Christmas program last Sunday night, and here’s a picture of us warming up and giving last instructions before singing.  You can see that Grace is practicing her “asleep on the hay” choreography.

How cute are these kiddos?  I’ll admit that it was a tough sell to get some of my little guys to wear a white frock with a big red bow, but when I sold it as “Superman’s Special Christmas Cape”, most were eager to wear it!

They walked down the long aisles of our church with tea light candles and sang beautifully.  I was very proud of them!

Later in the week, I had the pleasure of catering the desserts for Todd’s Faculty Christmas Luncheon.  Here’s a picture of the spread:

The cake in the back is a yellow cake with almond buttercream.  It has a fondant poinsettia on the top.  The snowflake cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  The cupcakes are also red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  The Merry Christmas cake is devil’s food with espresso buttercream filling.  They were all fun to make and I’m glad I could do something for his staff, which is full of really great people!

We also had some special guests spend the weekend with us.  The Bakers came down from Oklahoma to stay with us and attend our church’s Christmas music program last night with guest artist Scot Cameron.  Unfortunately, Grace came down with bronchitis and I had to stay home with her.  (More on that later).  But staying at home with Grace gave me extra time to visit with our guests and play a few extra games of Rummicub!

So far, December has been a whirlwind.  Things are slowing down a little this week.  We’re looking forward to our friend Claire’s wedding this weekend!  Not only do we get to rejoice in the union of two precious souls, but Grace has her big debut as a flower girl!