Fall Backpacking with Daddy

Daddy took the big kids backpacking for the 1st time this summer, OK fall, but they never went over the summer.  They got to hike with another family they met on the trail, so I finally got a picture of them all together. Notice the size of Daddy's pack, he carries everything.

 

This picture I love, my kids just having fun in a tree.  

 Of course they find a dead raccoon and take pictures of it.  I will never understand the fascination of taking pictures of dead things or of animal poop.

 It warmed up the next day so they put on shorts and I blame their father for their horrible fashion sense. 

They love backpacking with Daddy and I am dreaming of Daddy taking all 4 kids to do this.  I will get to stay home alone.

Scout and Apples

Scout loves apples.  He can climb on the stool and get one out of the bowl on the counter.  The problem is that he doesn't like the skins.  He will walk around the house eating his apple and spitting out the skin.  So I find little pieces of sticky apple skin all over the house.  I am trying to catch him so that I can peel the apple and cut it into pieces for him.  He doesn't like it as much this way, but I can't handle apple skins all over the house. 

 Look at the blue eyes... georgeous!

 Who me?  I never get in trouble.

Munchkin's Crayon

Munchkin is going to be a Crayon for Halloween. Her costume was pretty simple to make and made me fall in love with fabric glue.  The fabric is left over and is hard to sew.  Using fabric glue for the ric-rac and the the letters made it easy. I just had to sew up the sides and the neck.  The hardest part was cutting the letters out of the black felt.  It is cheap craft felt and tough to cut out. 

Her hat is just an old Birthday hat. 

Quilt # 8 - Birdhouse

I finally finished another paper pieced mini-quilt.  It turned out great.

 My favorite part was this little bee, I was skeptical of how the whole thing would turn out, but once I finished with the embroidery, I love it.  I didn't take a picture of it, but I finally perfected the French Knot for the birds eye.  It made my day to do it right the 1st time. 

I hand quilted it around the outline of the birdhouse and quilted  along the double border.

 

 This little helper has been attached to me lately. I was taking pictures with him in my arms.  If he is not trying to climb on me then I need to find him because he is getting into trouble. This week it was finding the toilet brush and getting himself soaked "cleaning" the toilet.  And he likes the taste of kids toothpaste.  Munchkin let me know he was "drinking" it one day. 

It is good he is so cute.

Patuxent River Park

Fall is a great time for hiking.  We went to Patuxent River Park and had a great hike along the water and through the woods.  The leaves are just starting to change colors.

 The boys were checking out the map.

 She was begging me to let her take the leaf home. She didn't understand that we already had plenty of leaves at home.

Princess' 9th Birthday

Princess turned 9 and she was very excited to have a party with friends AND a party with family.  I never got to take a picture of her with her cakes, but I did get pictures of them playing with the balloons before school.

Mornings at City Dock

My mornings are crazy hectic most days.  I have to get the 2 big kids off to school and leave the house by 7:45 with all the kids.  However after the big kids are at school I sometimes have some time before I have to be anywhere.  A lot of appointments start at 9, so I have about 45 minutes to burn.  Not quite enough time to go home and get anything done.

 If the weather is nice I take the littles downtown and get a coffee and walk along the city dock.  Scout likes to watch the ducks and the people walking their dogs. Munchkin and I talk about all the big boats and decide if people live on them or not.

It is fun to watch these 2 interact with each other.

You can be sure he is pointing at  a "Doggie"

Haircuts

I knew it was only a matter of time before one of my children cut their own hair.  I just wish I knew for sure which child had done it. 

I found some "child-safe" scissors and this on the floor where Munchkin and Scout were playing.

 

 I assumed it was Munchkin and took this picture of her head.  When I asked her though she said she didn't think she had cut her hair.  She was just playing with scissors and cutting paper. But there is a short section. 

 Then about 3 days later I notices a short section on the top of this guys head.  It is possible that me may have cut his own hair, but I could never tell for sure. By the amount of trouble he has found in the last few weeks, I believe he may be the culprit.

Birthday Bags

Princess was very excited to have friends sleep over for her Birthday.  You can do that when you are 9.   I decided to make purses for the girls to have as favors .   They are copied off of a purse my mom made for Princess when she was 3 or 4.  The strap is too short, but she still loves it. 

I am posting lots of pictures and directions only so I know how to make them again if I ever make more.  I don't have a pattern for them.

2 squares, 15" square is a good size.  18" worked OK, but a little big for girls. Sew around leaving a hole to turn it.

 Fuse heavyweight interfacing (for twill fabrics) or lightweight fusible fleece (for thin cotton fabric) to one side.

 Clip corners, turn and topstitch around the whole thing. (closes the hole) I use a chopstick to get the corners square.

 Fold into a triangle with the outside facing in.  Draw lines at the 1/3rd and 2/3rd mark. Sew but stop 1" from the edge on the top.

 Fold over and turn in the outside corners. 

 Hand stitch the top edge down and then fold down the top flap.

 Add velcro to keep flaps closed.

 Use a ribbon or a self faces strap, and zig-zag on the sides to secure.

 Admire all of the purses in a row.

The girls loved them and I like the fruit ones the best. They each have 3 pockets, one with vecro on each side and then middle one is just a flat open pocket. The striped ones are lined with pink, and have grosgrain ribbon straps.  The flowered one is a little big and not as nice.  It is still here because the girls didn't like it.  I don't really like it either, but I will give it away to someone. I am sure I can find a little girl who likes it. 

The ones with fusible fleece are actually quite padded and would work great as a little camera bag, a snap could be added to the middle pocket to keep it closed.

National Aquarium

We finally made it back to the National Aquarium, we went on a weekday after school and it was fantastic. No crowds and still all the cool stuff. We went to the Dolphin Show again and got to see the Jelly Fish Exhibit.  The kids were fascinated by the jellyfish.
Buddy took some of these pictures.

 Upside down jelly fish.

 These are the jelly fish that live near us and the ones that have stung 4 members of our family this summer.  They are pretty, but the kids will tell you how much they hurt.

Dino Tail

Munchkin has been asking me to make her something for a while.  I finally gave in.

The Tutorial is found on The Train to Crazy It was pretty simple and may be made into Scout's Halloween costume.  The tail fits him too.

Patuxent River Hike

We have been taking some time to go hiking lately, we love it and so do the kids.  This is the Patuxent River Research, and the National Wildlife Visitor Center.

Lessons for Scout

Scout learns lessons from Grandma too, like how to move pins from one pin cushion to the other, and then to randomly poke mommy.

 I just love this picture, because what is not to love about a one socked Elmo. 

Firsts

August was lots of fun around here, the kids started school.  This was the only kid who would let me take a picture on her 1st day.  She loves her new school and her new friends.

Grandma was here to visit and help for a few days and we love having her around.  The porch is always a good place to hang out.

 This cutie loves the porch too, and his car.

Grandma had never seen anyone climb a door frame and my kids are experts at it. Princess can do it easily.

 Buddy can do it too, of course he can also hit his head on the door frame and that hurts.