Leap Into Art

Here’s my good excuse for being such a bad blogger:

We are all smitten with this cute little puddin’.

Our girl is already a week old–how is that possible? We are home and trying to figure out our new routine. (Ha!) Actually, things are going well. The girls love her and Megan is a great helper. She is a pretty content baby who loves to eat. At her one week appointment, we learned that she has gained 10oz. already. When the doc asked, I told him that she is solely nursed and he circled her weight and put a big exclamation point next to it.

Here we are after the birth…so happy to finally have her here!

stats: 7lbs. 7oz. and 21 inches long

Megan can’t get enough of her. I love how sweet and attentive she is.

Emily is happy with her (sigh of relief) but not super interested.

If you know Emily, she kind of tends to do her own thing in general.

The other thing that got an exclamation point at her check up was how many infants their office has sent to the hospital with pneumonia. He said that cold and flu turn into it very easily for little ones. So, we are loving having healthy visitors, but asking that your cute kids stay away for a few more weeks. I am looking forward to joining the living soon (although probably not too soon, based on my paranoia of taking her into crowds); as well as possibly keeping my house clean for more than 30 minutes. Okay, I guess that was just wishful thinking before she was born too…we’ll see. Someday maybe.

I am going in tomorrow morning to have this crazy little girl. Can’t wait to see her. I’ll have pictures soon.

This year Halloween was for the birds. (Yes, I know that was bad.) Both of the girls ended up being birdies and Michael and I enjoyed a little less princess in our lives for a minute. Okay, I guess it isn’t exactly out of the the realm of princess, but at least they weren’t both Disney characters this year. Megan absolutely reveled in the attention she got with her fancy flamingo costume and Emily was so excited when Grandma Banana brought over this peacock dress. We had a great time trick or treating and eating chili with Grandma Lu and the cousins on Saturday evening.

It was also Michael’s birthday this week. We took the girls bowling for the first time. Megan loved it, I think Emily is still a little young. It didn’t take too long before she was ready to move on to something else. We also celebrated with some really excellent steaks and pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. Happy Birthday, honey!

I have been having some fun lately. I recently got a sewing machine and have made the girls aprons. (I’ll add get a picture of that tomorrow when they are up.) I also did this window for our bedroom. Andrea, I thought you’d appreciate the subject. : )

I call them my gossip birds.

Last week I went to a presentation by Liz Edmunds (aka the Food Nanny); which really inspired me–about dinner! She advocates making a 2 week plan (Ali, I thought you’d like that with your 2 week shopping trips.) To make making that plan easier, Liz suggests setting a theme for each night of the week. I love this idea, I think it will help with my dinner problem–falling into a rut and rotating a handful of recipes. Here is my little meal plan to fill out. I bought her cookbook because I am always interested in easy recipes. I have done weekly menus for a while and one little trick I’ve learned is to just save those menus in a file to look back through when I get stumped. I’ll let you know how it goes next week. I plan on doing some tweeking as I go; but I figured I’d share–anything to make dinner easier, right?

We were always excited to head over to Woodburn, OR for Oktoberfest when I lived at home. Although beer certainly is the centerpiece of the festival, there is a lot to see and eat at these carnivals. Oktoberfest is arguably the largest festival in the world, hosting well over 6 million people in the actual fair in  Munich last year. It was first held to honor the newly married Crown Prince Ludwig I and Therese of Bavaria in 1810. Celebrations run from late September to the first Sunday of October and chances are there is a festival being held in a city or town near you. However, if you’d like to celebrate at home, I suggest having a german inspired dinner, possibly trying out a traditional game of skittles, and making these Edelweiss hats to wear for the party.

edelweiss hats

materials:

large piece of felt or construction paper; trimmed to 12×18-inches (traditionally green)

white and yellow felt or construction paper for flower

*For paper, use a hole punch to make 6 circles or do one larger circle. You can also use 6 yellow pompoms or beads for the center.

feather

glue (glue stick for paper, craft or hot glue for felt)

directions:

1. Fold the sheet of felt or paper in half. (It should now measure 9×12.)
2. Fold both top corners in towards the middle evenly, leaving 2-3 inch border along the bottom. If you are using felt, you will need to tack the corners down with a bead of glue.
3. Fold the bottom up on both sides each to their own side.  This forms the brim.

4. Cut out an edelwiess flower. (Here’s the pattern I used:) If you are using paper, use a hole punch to make 5 yellow circles and glue all together.

5. Make a small puddle of glue on one side of the hat and lay the bigger flower down to make the base, then put the smaller on top. Next add a puddle in the center of the flower and arrange the circles to form a center.

6. Then tuck (and glue if necessary) the feather behind the flower and feiern!

So, if you see me much in real life, you probably aren’t surprised that I haven’t posted anything in a while. If not, let me just say that graceful pregnancies are not my forte. We’re all fine, I’m on activity restriction and meds with frequent testing and observation. Michael is taking good care of me. Basically, my blood pressure (etc.) is control; I’m just not really holding my actual life together all that well; let alone the extras. I’ll skip the whining and promise a project post soon. Afterall, Oktoberfest is in full swing and it’s not just a holiday for beer drinkers. (Okay, it is primarily about drinking beer, but there are plenty of kid friendly ways to celebrate too.)

*Fully a week late, I would like to state that due to various technical difficulties, this post has taken FOR EVER to finish! Yes, I am embarrassed. Let’s move on.

Megan was so excited to have her birthday be the first day of school. She has been looking forward to kindergarten so much. Monday was a giant day-long celebration. She beamed as we all walked her into the classroom. I think Michael and I were more nervous than she was. She confidently found her seat and began assembling blocks–then didn’t even notice us as we left. That’s my girl!

After school we opened gifts and played with new toys; including an avalanche of new Barbie playsets delivered by our own personal fairy godmother. We love you, Juli! Needless to say, these have pretty much been the big hit around our house for the last week.

Then we headed over to the swim club for Grandma Verna’s swim party. What could be better on your birthday: swimming with cousins and eating pizza, pink cupcakes, and soft serve ice cream? What a day!

Really the festivities started the week before when Grandma Lu took Meg and her cousin for the traditional pre-Kindergarten shopping trip. She took them for lunch then out to buy a new outfit (make that outfits, the cute Grandma!) for school. They came home with the cutest puffy vests! Megan was definitely in her girly element. She was so excited to have this special time with Grandma. Unfortunately, when it came to getting a picture,  we just didn’t have much luck.

She also had her first fishing trip with Dad. Although they didn’t  catch anything, they had a great time. Megan has been “practicing her casting” a ton. I love it! She and Michael have had a ton of fun this summer, camping, backpacking, and now fishing. He is such a good daddy!

We had a Strawberry Shortcake water party on Saturday. The girls had a ball. (Megan specified that only girls were invited this year. If any boys came, she said that they would have to wear a baby costume. Okay then!) Surprisingly, 13 five year olds (plus Emily) was pretty manageable.  We have a boatload of darling girls in our neighborhood.

I feel so lucky to have Meg! She is my big helper; she’s so eager to do anything she can to help out around the house. Often she’ll run to close the gate or get me something, saying “I want to be your helper!” It definitely makes my life easier. She has such a sweet and loving disposition and is so quick to tell us how much she loves us. Which also goes for her relationship with Emily. They play so well together. Our pediatrician said that they “get along uncommonly well” as he watched them play during her check up this week. It is true, they are awesome sisters.

Megan has a hilarious sense of humor and I love the funny laugh that she does when she is really amused by something. She is also one serious drama queen. She and Emily play out elaborate scenarios (where she is almost always a princess) When she is hurt, boy, the world knows it! It’s hard to believe she is five, she is wonderful! Happy Birthday (a little late) sweet girl!

If you think kids grow fast (and I DO think kids grow fast) you should see boxers. I can’t believe that Jake is 9 months old. He is such a sweet boy. I can’t imagine our family without him. He is so excited about…well…everything. Of course his excitement can knock you over now; but it is still pretty darn cute.

I know this probably sounds a little trite; but I just love this little guy so much and I really enjoy how much he loves me right back. (That’s just one of the really great things about dogs.)

Jake in February (3 months)

He still loves his little green bed, even though it isn’t quite as accommodating now.

Meg and Jake: best of pals