Play-doh differences

The difference between boys and girls is so clear!

Snowy day

We start getting a little craz..er, creative cooped up inside on a winter day. This morning, the kids had fun dressing up in Charlton's sweat shirts.

"You are my sunshine" by Caroline

This has been a favorite song in our house lately. Rylan loves to make up his own version, substituting words like sock, sandwich, etc.. in place of sunshine. I even taped him singing one with Mommy in place of sunshine. It melted my heart and was super cute, but I can't get it uploaded from my phone to Youtube yet. Here is a little sampling of Caroline singing at breakfast.

A few cute things.

We took Bethany lunch at work today. The kids were so excited to see her at the hospital, play with her stethoscope and badge, and roam around the ICU lounge.

When we left, Rylan exclaimed, "That was fun!"

"Yes," I replied "that was a special treat."

"No," Rylan corrected me, "Treats are chocolate."

Caroline is crazy about biscotti. Cranberry, chocolate chip, almond biscotti. Both she and her mom have been rather addicted this winter.

Lately I noticed she was eating it in a new way, almost like a beaver eating around a tree or corn on the cob. I teased her about eating it like a squirrel, and she told me she was trying to eat all the "booowies", the cranberries. And I thought she liked the chocolate best! What 2-year old likes craisins that much?

Valentines Breakfast

This post is a little late, but here are some cute pics of our Valentine breakfast. We made heart-shaped pancakes with one of our favorite toppings, sprinkles!
Heart with bite marks. Yummm!
Even Batman can appreciate some heart-shaped pancakes.

We tried going to the park, but it was too cold and windy, so we opted for some play time at the mall playground instead. After naps, the kids opened their Valentine's presents, a stuffed Bullseye horse for Caroline, an IronMan action figure for Rylan.

It was a blessing to spend the day with the ones I love the most.

While I was cooking dinner....

the kids were upstairs playing and I heard a lot of banging and crashing going on, but thought it was coming from Rylan's room. I figured they could only do so much damage and then we would all clean it up when dinner was over.
Then Caroline came downstairs with something sticky and pink all over her shirt and I knew she hadn't been in her brother's room.
She had been quite busy in the bathroom....




Yes, that is toothpaste all over the toilet seat.

The linen print dress re-make

When I was younger, I had a favorite dress from Land's End. It was loose and comfortable and I loved the sweet spring time print on the linen fabric. It wasn't terribly stylish to begin with, but since I wasn't a fashion diva, that wasn't a problem for many years. Finally I parted with the dress, but couldn't bear to just give it away to Goodwill or someplace random, so I passed it along to a good friend I knew would wear and enjoy it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Caroline and I ducked into the Salvation Army store before a Little Gym class and I spied THE dress! I am so sentimental, especially about certain clothes, so I just couldn't pass it up. I didn't know exactly what to do with it at the time, but knew I could figure out some way to use all that nice fabric with a little girl in the house. At only $3, it was also a steal!
I copied a jumper dress already in Caroline's closet and it turned out so cute. I think I will buy a pattern next time, because there were a few anxious moments with cutting all the pieces symmetrical. Thankfully you can fudge over some little mistakes with sewing.

Here is the finished dress.
I wanted to preserve the pintucks near the hemline.


Aren't these buttons adorable? I didn't find out until after I pulled them off the package that they are dry-clean only! On a dress for a 2-year old? Ooops. I think these will be going in the wash, very gently and if they don't last, I'll just replace them. Caroline was more excited about some ladybug buttons than these anyway.

I had enough fabric left over to make a matching tote lined with some coordinating left-over quilt fabric. Caroline was excited about her "petty purse."
I will try to get a picture of my little sweetie actually wearing the dress, and maybe with the tote also. We have been having some warmer weather here in Colorado, so hopefully we will have a chance to try it on soon.