Port Discovery and GREAT kids

My kids are totally wonderful.  OK, not every day, but most days.

The kids had off school at the end of the quarter for professional development days.  I decided to have a fun day and took them to the children's museum in Baltimore.  It was great.  It was a Thursday and most kids were in school, so there was 1 school group and maybe 5 other families in the museum all day long. 

This is the story time.  There are 7 kids total, my 4 represent more than half of the group.  The drummer was cool.

 

Soccer time, notice that they are playing together without any other kids.

 

Playing chef and waitress in the diner.  Last time we went the 4 boothes were full and the kitchen was packed.  This time, my kids and one other kid.

 

Depending on whom you ask, Scout's first word was either dog or ball.  He Loved this stuffed dog that was bigger than him.

Scout loved playing with water, he was totally soaked, but he loved it.

 

 Usually I am unable to take Scout in the area reserved for kids under 3 because the big kids aren't allowed in, and I need to watch them.  This time there was no one else there, so all the kids got to play with him.  This was one of my favorite parts.  It was a image projected on the floor and when you stepped on the mat on the floor it changed.  The water rippled with sound effects of water. Then the image changed to fall leaves that moved when you moved your feet, with the sound of wind. It was cool and all the kids got to play with it.

Plus, the kids totally surprised me by not only getting along but also helping each other and watching out for each other WITHOUT being told.  I was shocked.

The museum has a 3+ story climbing fort/treehouse/slide whatever thing in the middle of it.  It is completely enclosed by cargo nets, ropes and all sorts of stuff. completely safe, but if you are 4 years old, being able to look down is a little scary.  The 2 big kids totally helped her, one going ahead and the other behind.  They encouraged her, cheered her on, held her hand and on one point even pushed/pulled her up a rock wall.  It was amazing to watch from the balcony of the 2nd floor as they helped her.  I never asked them to do it, but all day long as we moved from exhibit to exhibit they worked together. 

This is the only pictures that kind of came out.  This is munchkin with a very scared look on her face as she climbs off the structure onto the 3rd floor balcony, notice a brother in front showing her its safe and a sister behind encouraging.

 

She even gave me a very brave smile.

 

After the first few times she got more confident and played freely, but her siblings STILL stuck by her to make sure.  It made my day/week/year.  There is hope that they like each other.

Date night

Sometimes we get a date night away, and then sometimes we get to dress up and go to formal affairs for work.  Sometimes they are even fun. 

It was a good excuse to get my hair done, do my nails and wear makeup.  I don't do that very often.

Fall Festival 2012

 I got to take the 2 little ones to a Fall farm with MOPS. We had a campfire and fed our kids S'mores at 10AM and realized every other mom is doing the same.   It was a small little farmers market but I let Munchkin take some pictures with the camera and she loves that.  I get some cool pictures too.

 

Of course this little one did NOT like the feel of hay and wanted to be off of it as soon as possible. 

Sewing Room / Play room

The kids sometimes want to be near me.  So despite how much I wish to escape into my sewing room, they know how to follow me. 

 They also know how to make a mess and get into all the beads/fabric and other Stuff, and crawl under the table.

Just in case you were wondering, yes I have a huge sewing area now with 2 tables (one was our dining room table before ths week.  My sewing room is normally this messy.  All part of the creative process, or at least that is my excuse.

Scouts Big Bed

We finally moved Scout out of the crib.  He is sleeping in a big bed now and while he looked huge in his crib, having him in a big bed makes him look tiny.    He usually is pretty good about staying in bed.... except for this morning.  He has a cold and isn't feeling well and therefore isn't sleeping well.  So he wimpers at night, but usually puts himself back to sleep in under 30 seconds, so we don't get up.  When I went to get him this morning he was sleeping on the floor.  He must have wimpered a lot
to end up on the floor.

I also need to go buy some more boyish sheets.  The pink cowgirl ones are a little much.

I also need to get rid of the crib. It is finally time for it to be given away.  Any takers?

Eating at the table

We are a family that eats dinner together at the table every night.  It is an important part of our day.  When we moved the movers lost some parts of our dining room table. Some VERY important parts, like the legs.  We moved in our house in early July and have been eating on a 5' church folding table since we moved in. It worked, but was tough, we had to serve off the kitchen counter because the table was less than 30" wide.  It was tough to have guests, we would eat in shifts.  i.e. Kids eat first then adults eat.
We finally found and ordered a table, but it was custom because it had to match our existing chairs.  We were told it could take up to 8 weeks to be delivered.  FINALLY it was delivered.  It is wonderful to finally able to have normal meals at the table.  It has been a long 3 1/2 months, but we are enjoying every meal.

Now we just need to get the money from the movers to pay for said table. 

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.