{ spinning }

My little one was spinning around the living room the other day and the more she spun around I realized that is how my head feels these days -- without me even spinning around! Its okay though, we are in a good stage of busy. 

As a science experiment for school, Payton decided to test packaging materials. These are the materials he decided to test: packing peanuts, eco pack, fiberfill. Payton also had a "control" box with no packaging materials.

He dropped the boxes from various heights...

...and listened to hear if something broke inside...

Payton's conclusion was not to send breakable items through the mail without special packaging. The fiberfill and the eco wrap were tied in terms of "best performance". This box is proof that we did break things...

  
Aside from breaking dishes, we've been playing school. Here Chloe (who sometimes goes by "Teacher Jane") is sitting with her class.

Playing his sonatina for the talent show...

...and this one playing for the same show "Divertimento in D"...

And guess what I got to do! It isn't finished yet, but it is sandwiched together with the batting and the backing. . .I had fun with those zig zags! 

We had a park day with our church for Memorial Day- it was a good day for the swings! 

Also a good day for a bike ride. These 3 rode the riverbed to get to the park, 6 miles there + 6 miles back! 

Eight and a half days of school left. And we don't even have our summer plans made yet-- how did that happen?? There really is too much going on I guess! 

 

{ I know that I....I will survive...}

That is how the song goes, right? We just need to get to the end of the school year. I'm really looking forward to it. I think the kids are too-- they've been counting down the days for a week already  (we're at 15.5 days after today!) 

Last week we had a birthday to celebrate! Its a good thing I had used this red wine in cooking dinner the day before, otherwise I wouldn't have had anything to turn this Angel Food Cake out onto. 

We had a little surprise party for Eric-- the week was so busy we had to bump up his party from Friday to Tuesday. He didn't know about that. We also invited a couple of his friends to join us.

This is my reminder to you that if you are going to put something in the oven for storage, remember to check the oven before preheating it. oops. We decided it was still edible. 

SOMEONE got a new bicycle yesterday. Can't tell from all these happy faces who it was, can you? 

Well it wasn't Chloe. She just wanted to join the fun of riding bikes around...and she also wanted to make silly faces every time she passed me. All of my pics of her are goofy!! 

Look at this girl! She is really growing. Actually, here she is proving that she is growing into her brother's old bike. This is her first time riding this bike, because it was P who got a new one. Audra is pretty excited about a bigger bike too, though. She still needs another inch or two before she can really use this bike though, I think. 

Here it is! Payton's new bike. He was pretty excited. Eric and Payton are planning an overnight bike trip for this summer and Payton needed a new bike for it-- one that was both taller and lighter in weight. 
And yes, P has been growing too-- he has only about 2.5 inches to grow before he and I are the same height...

ugh. We are still battling Fifth's Disease. Poor girl, Audra does not look real good right now. She isn't contagious because she has the rash, but it just is not going away...

...and actually yesterday it was the worst its been. Her face looks blotchy too. Hoping hoping it goes away soon! 

So many things going on I haven't had time to do much with THIS! Looking forward to spending some quality time with my sewing machine in the next day or so. The littlest asked if we could stay home all day today. I'm thinking we should too...

{ a little of this and a little of... }

What a week! It has been busy with all sorts of things that come up at the last minute. But, that's how we seem to roll best so we ended the week happy. 

Here's a quick review:  

 An impromptu trip to the Irvine Regional Park with friends! We got to ride on the train, see the horses, ducks and peacocks, play at the play area, and go to the....

ZOO!!

The funniest part of the day for me was that there were peacocks that could go anywhere they wanted to-- and in this picture you can see one walking right into the zoo! I bet he loves to go and taunt the mountain lion or the bear. 

 Well, Tuesday afternoon my oldest came home from school looking like this...

...and this...

The next day he was supposed to leave for science camp --an overnight trip-- so I knew we had to get this figured out. Turned out to be fifth's disease. Not a big deal for kids. No treatment because it is viral. However, it is contagious--before the rash appears and you know you have it. 

 -after he left for camp the next day, his sister came down with this rash...the little one has yet to show it...I'm waiting...hoping it doesn't come because I wasn't thinking about her actually coming down with it. 

And this is where I took her the next day: story time at the library. 

 The Hokey Pokey in a packed room! These kids love Miss Carolyn, the Librarian. 

We also did some cleaning in the last day or so-- this one LOVES to clean. 
She takes it so seriously ;) 

She spent quite a while reaching as far as she could.

I did get to play around with my machine a little, too! Lining these up like this makes me want to do another strip quilt. I was loving the rainbow effect these had while they were on my ironing board. But alas, I had other plans.

Notice I have not added in the reds-- this is because the friend I am making this for said her favorite colors are cool colors...hmm...wonder if I should take out that yellow too?? Something is throwing this off and I can't decide yet what it is. Any ideas? 








Plenty of other things happened and didn't happen around here this week also. But we don't have time for all of that.  :) 

{coffee sleeves}

Sometimes we make things because we need to make them.
Sometimes we make things because we want to make them.
Sometimes we make things to prove we can make them better than the ones we saw in a store...

  

The inspiration for these little coffee cup sleeves came from seeing some poorly made ones which were being sold in a coffee shop.

 

I took home one of the paper sleeves and made my own template.

 This shows you how I construct my own version...






(bad picture, taken at night)

I love choosing colors for these! The ones I make are reversible because I use snaps to keep them closed. 





(the 6 on top do not have their snaps on yet-- I need to get more! The bottom one, my daughter was playing with and one half of one of the snaps came off...needs to be fixed. They really do hold up-- just don't let your kids snap and unsnap them multiple times in a row!!)




This project was a nice distraction from some of the bigger projects I've begun. It is fun to have something little like this to make, in order to feel like I'm actually finishing things!!

{proving my point}

  

Today was a day well spent: sewing, hanging out with my girl, and more sewing. My projects: pillowcases for a young man who recently had a multiple organ transplant.

Now, when you're hanging out with my girl, it is normal for her babies to have top priority in seating, so they can see what mom is doing.
--yes, I was careful to keep the blade closed when not in use! Don't want those babies to be harmed  ;)

oops. Can you tell what happened? That hasn't happened to me in a long time, but boy am I glad this pin got the worst of it. 

My friend whose son had the transplants also has another boy and a girl, too. So they'll get a special pillowcase of their own-- gotta spread the love around a little!  ;)

Another friend said she had trouble with directional print when she made pillowcases recently...even after her warnings, I did too. This is the material I wanted to use for the little girl's pillowcase.

So, proving my point that I can't seem to make just one of anything right now-- even these pillowcases multiplied!

{what next?}

We've been gone.

For our Spring Break fun this year we went to the Sequoias and asked my parents to come along. We took our time getting up there, enjoying beautiful scenery along the way.

-the kids, Dad and Mom, Us at Hume Lake

It never fails to amaze me how HUGE these trees are! We had a great time together. As you can see we had beautiful weather. There was a little snow on the ground here and there. It was sunny though, and just right for hiking around the trees.

My little one wasn't feeling real well, so that was a concern of mine. During the night she spiked a fever of 105°. On the paper where I was keeping track of her temperature and the times it was taken I wrote "frantic panic"!

Her temp wasn't the only thing happening overnight. A snowstorm covered the huge trees! How fun! We got to see these giants with a dusting of snow.
It felt like a whole different world than the day before. 
-General Sherman, the largest living tree with a base circumference of 109 ft, and growing!

The glory of God's creation is amazing and humbling...makes one feel small...especially among such tall trees! 

So. Now that we're home that is what I'm asking myself: what next? As in, which project to pick up and be dedicated to? 

I've got plenty of them rattling around in my mind...

-Payton's Quilt

-my sweater

-baby hat made of super fine yarn

-half square triangle quilt

-that bag I wanted to make

And that's only a start...guess I'd better get started! 

{twos}

Is that how you would spell it? Or would it be toos? (As in, I'm making another one TOO!) Seems like I choose new projects and just can't make only one! 

You too? 

Starting a quilt for my son-- and this is not it. This is the one I made last year for my daughter's teacher. But my son will be getting one very similar. 
I've gotten 5 of these wonky stars made up for his quilt already...a small start.  

Looking forward to adding details like this one to P's quilt! Wishing I could work faster like some people I know
  :)

Coming up to Spring Break-- looking forward to a little free time to quilt, knit, and hike with the fam!