Sweetness

Hey!  How was your week?
Mine was pretty good.

We started out with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa N on Monday, and that is always nice.  We did most of the puzzle that we recently gave to them...but we left the really hard part, so it's ok.

On Thursday I went to what is called a Key Communicators Meeting.  It's something that our school district does.  Usually it's a presentation with a breakfast spread, and it's at different schools each month.  They want two people from each school in the district, so sometimes I'm one of the people from my school.  Anyhow, this time was actually more of a discussion format to aid in creating an Equality Policy.  I had been dreading it, because I don't generally like to share my opinions in a big group.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it.  I did share my opinions, and I enjoyed hearing the comments of others.  It was all great.  But the interesting thing was hearing some of the stats.

• 90 different languages are spoken in the homes of students in the district!  I don't even think I can name that many languages!
• Our district is 50% at or below poverty level
• According to the principal of the school that was hosting this month: 92% of her disciplinary work is dealing with kindergartners.  She said that it's vastly different from even 10 years ago.  She attributes it to too much screen access at a young age, which inhibits person-to-person relationships & learning to manage personal emotions.

Ok, anyhow.  Later that night I went to a cookie tutorial night, where we watched "Alison's Cookie Party" about how to decorate cookies.  It was perfect timing because the invitations to Chick's Baking Party were going to be on cookies!  The tutorial had a lot of good information for a newby like me (I may have used royal icing once before....), but the best part of the evening was sitting around after the video and chatting with friends.  It's so nice to get out and visit with other women!  Thanks for hosting, Brooke!!

On Friday my sister was in town, so I broke my vow to stay away from the Goodwill Outlet so that I could show it to her (I did tell Mr. Fox that I was going to break my word...somehow that makes it better).  I ended up getting more than intended, but anyhow....  One of the things that I found was this painting. 

It's pretty rare that I find artwork that I like at thrift stores.  Rare as in: it's never happened that I can recall.  But I did like this one a lot (Despite Mr. Fox's response of: "What is it?  I only see dabs and squiggly lines").  It had a black scrape on it, but I was able to wash it off when I got home, and now it's as good as new.  And the best part is that it cost me $1.30!  Yay!  Also on that shopping trip: brand new looking ballet slippers for my little ballerina's (they had outgrown some, so we only had one pair that fit, and I needed to get another pair)...for 12 cents.  Seriously.  $0.12, and they were like new and just the right size.  Such a nice, unexpected blessing.

On Friday night, after a really delicious dinner of burritos/ taco salad with homemade tortillas, Mr. Fox and Moose went to watch a hockey game where our school choir was singing.  The girls had a movie night at home, and I worked on the cookie invitations.  I'll admit that they aren't perfect (and for some reason I HAD been expecting perfection despite having never really worked with royal icing)...but I was happy enough with how they turned out.  I'm planning to do some practicing in the upcoming months.  (The tray of little cookies were for my Young Womens class at church).

(Before adding the written info)

(These were all experimental, trying out different techniques and ideas)

Saturday was ballet class for the twins, and then HOURS of driving around to deliver the invitations.  It's nice that Chick gets to meet new people because of her schooling situation, but between her school classmates and her church classmates we had to drive for such a long time.  But they are all out now, and I need to hussle along with the aprons!

Today I was released from my calling at church.  I've been in Young Womens (the teen girls group) for over three years, and the past almost two years of that was as beehive advisor (teaching the 12-13 year old girls).  I'm sad to not be in there with them anymore, but it's time for a new adventure.  I'll tell you the new calling next week, when it's official.

Lastly, I'm getting ready to update the PTO bulletin board at school.  It is going to be "Favorite Books on our Shelfies" featuring some of the school teachers, staff, student leadership, etc posing in a selfie with their favorite kids book.  So here's mine:

In my little world lately, part one

So much of our days is routine and rush.  But sometimes we do fun things as well.  Here are a few of the latest adventures...these are actually all from February.  I'll do the pictures from March in a second post.

 

A few months ago our ward Relief Society had a service auction.   People volunteered things that they could make or do as the items to be auctioned.  Bidding was using points "earned" from filling out a questionnaire.  At any rate, I volunteered a set of custom party decorations.  The party ended up being an "Under the Sea" birthday party.

 

Banner with salt dough sea stars

 

 

Poster for "Pin the Starfish on the Mermaid"

 

 

Invitations (and there were also coordinated thank you cards & menu cards)

 

 

It was a fun project :)

 

***********************

For Christmas Santa gave Monkey a new leotard & a voucher for some gymnastics classes.  She loved it and did really well.  She is a monkey, after all. (sadly it's done now...I'm on the lookout for a good deal for her to keep taking classes.)

 

 

 

*********************

 

This is totally random, but here's a teepee that the kids made one day whilst playing outside.  Sometimes it is nice to have a junk yard.

 

 

*********************

 

I've probably already mentioned Wedgits...Owl and Otter got a set for Christmas from Santa, and we ALL loved them so much that I bought more so that there would be enough for us to all play with them at once. 

At first there was a lot of tower-making. 

Then Moose especially fell in love with following the instructions on the design cards to make pre-planned designs. 

Chick then experimented to find different wedges (where the pieces stay together because they are wedged together.  So these are two pictures of the kids showing off their wedges...Moose with a BIG wedge, and the three older kids with a display of all of the wedges that they've discovered.

 

 

 

*********************

 

Valentine's day was fun.  I made heart-shaped breakfast cookies and smoothies for breakfast. 

Then my sister came over for a nice visit. 

Then I spent the afternoon making lasagna for my valentine, the fantastic Mr. Fox.  It was SOOOOOOO good!  Seriously!  The best I've had since I was in Italy. (It doesn't look very pretty in the picture, but it was good.  EVERYONE loved it, which is really saying something).  I used THIS recipe.

For dessert we had heart-shaped apple hand-pies.  Yum.

I didn't put up decorations or do anything very fancy, but I did make fancy foods.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for February.  Fun times with my people!

Fairy Party: Part 2 (decor and edibles)

I don't even know where to start, so I'll share some pictures of the decorations.  I reused decoration from other parties (I love doing that...then I can justify buying or making them in the first place), threw in a TON of silk flowers (everywere!), and then made a few "fairy" specific decorations (some of which were shown in my last post).  This party was definitely a stash buster, so it barely cost anything, but was my most elaborate party so far.

The pixie dust bottles were attached to branches in a vase (from the woodland wedding party that I threw for my sister).  The blue tulle is from my wedding.

Each outfit set was arranged on the piano.  I also did little "bio" cards for each outfit.  It had a fairy or elf name and told about them.  Like "I comfort lost animals" and "I live in bramble bushes" and "I can only be seen at dusk."  I didn't take a picture of any of the cards, but maybe I'll find the ones that went with my kids' costumes and put it on later. 

The bunting/banner thing was so cute...and free!  My friend had the images already on her computer (she compiled them from google), so I just picked which ones I wanted.  Her husband works at a print shop and has to do test prints anyhow, so he printed the pictures for me.  So nice.  All I had to do was cut them all out and string them up (using what I already had to string them).  And he did enough that I actually had three banners (one large, one medium, and one smaller), so it really added a lot to the décor.  (Thank you, Jill & Daniel!!)

The framed mirror, birdhouse, and wreath are all my usual décor.
I just added flowers, tissue-paper covered baby food jar "votives"
(from the woodland wedding party), and the banner.

 

I love the fairies by Mary Cecily Barker...they are by far the cutest fairies out there.  (I won't go too into it, but I'm not a big Disney Fan, and I don't like that a lot of the fairies are so scantily clad.  Barker's fairies are beautiful and appropriate, IMO).  For her birthday Monkey got the most amazing pop-up book that has Mary Cecily Barker's fairies in it...I wish it was my book, it is so wonderful!


Anyhow, I digress.  I hung my fabric strip ceiling décor...my third time using it.  This time I added white strand lights, and a few flowers here and there.  It definitely bumps up the party atmosphere. (I'm considering making another in a different color scheme...for Chick's upcoming party).

********************

In the food area, there were two tables at which the kids could sit and eat. Our usual kids table plus a card table.  Both tables had silk flower centerpieces, with leaf placemats that I made.  I used a microsuede thrift store sheet for the fabric...super soft and dreamy.  I may have stroked it a bit while sewing : )  My free-motion skills are definitely lacking, but thankfully on a project like this it's ok to have a lot of imperfections.

The big table had toadstool covers on the little stools, and I LOVE them.  The only took a few minutes to make, and when I put them down (in the already decorated space) they made the whole room come alive.  They are made from thrifted stretchy fuzzyish fabric.  I have a ton leftover, too, so maybe there will be a little red riding hood in our Halloween future....

My friend (Jill, the one with the printer husband) likes to go to yard sales.  So towards the end of the summer I asked her to keep an eye out for a few things, and she picked up six teacup and saucer sets.  My Mom and sister picked up a few more at the thrift store. 

Clear plates, to not distract from the leafiness of the placemats, and simple flower napkin rings (made by my friend Megan, while I did some photoshop work for her).

 

The card table had a brown cover on it with flowers on the edge to keep the fabric from hanging down too much.

Hanging above was wedding tulle and woodland wedding fabric strips, with silk flowers.  In the corner was a branch that Fox cut and brought in for me.

 

And of course, the serving table with the food and cake.  Mr. Fox cut wood rounds that served as platters.  These pictures were taken before I'd added the smaller 2" trunk pieces that lifted up the wood rounds.  The center "cake stand" has an empty can as the base...wrapped in sheet moss and flowers glued around the bottom edge.  (Megan assembled that for me, too).

You can see the rooster "Winner" outside...
the kids were very entertained to see a rooster in the window.

 



 

We had "twigs" (stick pretzels), "fairy berries" (strawberries and raspberries, my friend Shannon donated those...you'll hear more about her in the next post), "toadstools" (apple and string cheese), and "acorns" (Hershey's kisses with mini nilla wafers).  Oh, and the best hot chocolate ever (my three kids didn't care for it...how can you NOT like milk, cream, sweetened condensed milk, and melted chocolate?!!  The adults were all in heaven....)

 

And cake.
I'm happy with how the cake turned out.  At first I was disappointed a little...it was good enough, but not as amazing as my "inspiration" cakes on pinterest.  But I consoled myself with the knowledge that I am not a professional baker...I've never even taken a class at the craft store.  Later I was looking at it and decided that it's actually a cute cake. Pinterest be darned ; )



 

So that's the food and décor.  Post #3 will have the actual party!  Cute little kids everywhere!  Stay tuned.

 

{Fairy Party: part one (things made & the birthday fairy herself)}

 

{Fairy Party: part three (fun and games)}

Fairy Party: part one (things made and the Birthday Fairy herself)

Ok, I have spent hours sorting through pictures from Monkey's fairy party that was held this weekend...and I've narrowed it down to a mere 65.  That would be a ridiculous amount, except that I've been slowly working to prepare for this party for FOUR MONTHS.  Mostly to cut down on my stress, since I can never be positive that I'll get to work on things on any given day.  And also because my interest ebbs and flows, so I'd work on it for a while and then put it away until creativity hit again.

Anyhow, it is now quite late, and I need to get to bed...but I'd promised myself that I'd blog today, so I will.  Just a little.  I'll share some of the preparation projects that I worked on.

Each party attendee got a little bottle of pixie dust, so I did labels for that (on bottles purchased for cheap on etsy.com).  They look purple in this picture, for some reason, but they are actually printed on brown paper shopping bags...then I went through and added heat embossed glitter on the words and around the edges.

I did similar invitations, which had sticks at the ends to roll up.  I used some starry wire (garage sale for 10 cents) to tie it up.  It all would have been free were it not for the stinker three year old boy who dumped out my bottle of embossing glitter!  So I had to buy a new one. grrr.

It says:
The fairies and elves are gathering!
Amid the flowers, on glittering wings,
Their tinkling voices this news foretold:
Monkey is turning 5 years old!

So they've worked some magic and cast a spell,
and are throwing a party in Monkey's downstairs dell.
Take no care about thy clothes--
the fairies are providing those.
You only need to RSVP
and a magical time will await thee.

Step into the fairy circle on December 7th from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m.


Everyone also got a little pipe cleaner fairy (or elf).  These are such fun little dolls to make!  And super simple.  The picture that included the boy elf dolls is fuzzy, but it's the only picture that I have with the elves in it.

All of the fairies got felted star wands, which was another super fun project!

The fairies also got wings (purchased on halo heaven), homemade square "handkerchief" style skirts (you'll see them in my next post), and head wreaths. 

Here's Owl modeling Monkey's wreath:

(Don't feel bad for the Elves...they got tunics and sashes, but best of all they got bows and arrows that Fox made.)


I made menu rocks...

...and a welcome sign.  The welcome sign was originally going to be made with "moss graffiti" (blend up moss, yogurt, and water and paint it onto the surface and watch it grow) but the moss never grew.  So sad.  So instead I did the same as on the menu rocks--I just hand-lettered it all on using sharpies.  Then I hot glued moss around the edges of the board, and used some glitter glue to highlight the words.  I like how the rocks and the sign turned out.

{I really REALLY enjoyed all of these projects and am happy with how everything turned out} I made some other things...toadstool stool covers, a banner, and leaf placemats (and other things) but I don't have non-party pictures of them, and I don't want to ruin the surprise of the party décor! Maybe I can blog about that tomorrow.

********************

Other recent party-related projects were special clothes for Monkey.  The fairy set was her main birthday present.  I made flowered fairy shoes, dress, and wings. 

I don't mind saying so myself, but I think the wings are amazing.  They are one of those things that I can't believe that I made.  And they were really quite EASY! (though I almost didn't attempt them because it didn't seem easy when I was looking through the tutorial: HERE, at Antique Lilac, which has such beautiful fairy dolls and clothes!  I highly recommend this tutorial...I hope I get to make another pair sometime).  On Monkey's wings the beads are homemade from polymer clay.  The wings are made from scraps of fabric and silk flowers and odd little pieces of embroidery floss and wire hangers...little pieces of nothing that add up into a really stunning something.  And it was so fun to do. 

The harness part was made from part of a silk maternity dress that I'd bought for $1 way back when...I bought it for refashioning, since it's not a color that I can wear successfully.

Her dress is actually too short, and I am going to add a dark purple ruffle at the bottom (and probably a pink ruffle as well)...but I haven't had time to do so yet.  At any rate, the purple is painted on, and the flowers are all hand-sewn and hopefully durable.  The dress was made from an all-white women's skirt that I found at the thrift store for $1.50.

Here she is in her completed costume.  This was just after the party...I'd done a little photo corner so that we could get pictures of each of the kids sitting on the stump.

 

 

Isn't she such a cute little fairy?! She originally came down in argyle knee-high socks, and I told her to change into tights.  When I saw that these were the tights I told her to go change, but by then the guests were arriving...oh well, it adds to the whimsy, I suppose. 

{Fairy Party: part two (Décor & Edibles)}

{Fairy Party: Part three (Fun & Games)}

So this is Christmas

This may have been one of the nicest Christmases in my opinion.  The kids slept in until 8:00, and I hadn't taken on as much homemade because of the babies...so I was in bed by 12:30 (earlier than other years).  The babies slept in even later...they got up after we'd had breakfast. 



The three older kids got up and were given permission to start opening their stockings while we got breakfast set out.  Breakfast was oranges, spiced cider, poptarts (a novelty for us), and an experimental crock pot french toast recipe that I found on Pinterest.  The french toast was the worst part of the day-- over cooked and sorta yucky.  I regretted abandoning my traditional breakfast casserole, and regretted it even more the next day (my birthday) when I didn't have leftovers for breakfast.

At any rate, no one really cared about breakfast...there were presents to open!  Too many presents, in fact.  Ok, maybe not, but the kids were so contented with everything that they could have had less and been just as happy...we had to keep them on track to finish opening them.

Mr. Fox got me a food processor, which I've wanted just forever!!  And it's as wonderful as I'd imagined.  I actually helped him get it.  I saw a FB notice from one of my thrifty/money saving sources telling about a really great deal on a food processor.  I looked it up, sure enough, about 70% marked down for Cyber Monday, good brand, good reviews on Amazon.com.  But it was late, Fox was in bed asleep already.  I went in, woke him up, told him about this amazing deal, and asked him if he wanted to get it for me.  I think he fell back asleep, and I shook his arm again, and he mumbled, "I don't know."  Well, of course I couldn't risk the deal being over the next day, so I bought it, and told him what a good husband he was afterwards. : )  (He is a really awesome husband, btw, regardless of food processors).  I have a similar story from 5 years ago when "he bought me" some cute black boots : )

Anyhow, Santa brought Moose a strider bike.



This'll be a picture to show the future dates: Buzz Lightyear jammies, superhero cape, Cinderella shoes, on a bike.

Monkey got a camera.

 

Owl and Otter got owl and otter stuffed animals from Santa, and Buntings from Fox and me.
 

Chick got a Cinderella dress and shoes. 

hem looks funny in this pic because she'd just finished twirling.

 

Santa had put a letter in under the dress, saying that Mrs. Clause had made the dress especially for Chick, but she's grown so much since last year and it might not fit right...so he was including extra fabric in case Mama had to fix it.  Which I did.  She didn't get to wear it for two days because I had to cut it open down the back and put in a zipper and button.  I'm going to pat myself on the back, though, because I think it looks rather intentional.  It's a beautiful dress...made from remnant sparkly fabrics bought long ago (for such an occasion), notions and things on hand, and a $4 thrifted formal dress.  Plus it's fully lined in white satin, so when she wears it inside out it looks like a wedding dress. 

Monkey got a photo calendar from Fox and me.  Moose got a homemade super hero cape. 

Fox's brother got us a fantastic new printer, and it's amazing.  Plus we've been without a printer for a year...so it's even more wonderful because of the stark contrast!!

Anyhow, lots of present opening, and such.  No tantrums or drama.  Sometimes my kids are the sweetest ever.  Then they spent a long time all sitting quietly at the table coloring in some new coloring books that they'd gotten.

Because Christmas sometimes feels rushed, and because getting my family out the door is often difficult and tedious, the party came to US.  My parents and my brother and his family came and had dinner with us (with all of us taking part in the food assignments, so I didn't have to stress about "hosting" much).  It was a nice informal dinner and visit.  The three older kids and my brother's two all got flashlights from my parents...and then we'd just see them as they ran from dark room to another dark room.  Lots of giggling and cousin fun : )

Oh, and a non-present: when we were getting ready to set the table I lamented using the old table that came with the house...we had a nice new one downstairs and were waiting to set it up (I think we were waiting until we'd completed the kitchen remodel that we have yet to start and have been discussing but not doing for over a year).  Anyhow, Fox agreed to set it up.  It was a Christmas miracle : )

Lastly, it doesn't matter how many babies I have, I still have to make things for Christmas.  I made song cubes-- the cubes themselves are bought, but I made the inserts.  One had 50 primary songs to use for Family Home Evening (roll the cube like a die to decide what song to sing), and the other had a set of 6 primary songs, 6 colors, and 6 generic kid songs.



I made cookies in a jar for all of the kids' sunday school teachers (and my Mom made kleenex holders for the two school teachers). 



I made a fort kit for a family exchange gift.  I had intended to make one for our family too, but I had to abandon that plan in order to not get too stressed and lose too much sleep.



And I did Christmas cards.  Some still have yet to be sent...so some of you reading may still get a card...I think I'm aiming for Presidents' Day now.....



It really was a Merry Christmas.