Mis Match Day

Sarah's last dress up day was "Mis Match Day". It isn't easy to see, but her pants are black and white striped. She had 2 different shoes to wear at school and 2 different boots and gloves for outside.

March is Reading Month Poster Contest

Sarah's school is having a reading poster contest for March being Reading Month. The theme was "All Aboard the Reading Express". It said it could be a family project so all the kids had a hand in creating the poster (well, except Andrew!) I looked through our digital pictures for pictures of people reading and incorporated them into our reading train.












































all finished!














Sarah cut out the train, Emily cut out the words, all three glued pictures on, William colored the first 3 cars after the engine and the black one on the top row & Sarah colored the rest plus the wheels (Emily was "in a mood" and didn't want to color any)

Custom Knit R2 Hats

I got an order for 3 custom knit hats to match an R2 droid. I thought at first that the guy had just liked how this color looked, but it is actually modeled after R3-S6 from the Clone Wars.
















Close up views:

I decided to take a picture with me modeling a hat to show the fit.

I have the hat "crooked", but as Dan said, "The domes rotate."

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It was 11:00 pm and I was tired, but I had them all done!

Sarah's Story

When I checked Sarah's folder from school last night, there were 5 sticky notes with parts of a story written on them. This is what they said:

Any ideas what it said??

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I asked Sarah to read them to me this morning.

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It says:

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Monkeys rode on their daddy's backs.

Monkeys wash in the waters.

Monkeys hide in trees from their enemies.

Monkeys eat their fleas.

Monkeys are fast little guys.

She said that they had to look at the pictures in a book and write the story they told.

Hawaiian Day

Today is Hawaiian Day, or as Sarah calls it "Hula Day". I told her she was going to dress like Lilo, since she doesn't know what it means to dress "Hawaiian".





Her grass skirt is made from a green bag from the hospital that I cut the bottom into strips. The drawstring is the waistband!

Here she is practicing her hula moves.

Sleepy Time!

The kids sometimes sleep in unusual positions. I decided to take pictures of them sleeping the other night.


















Emily isn't sleeping in an unusual position, but she picks strange toys to sleep with!










This isn't Will's most unusual way of sleeping, but this is how he was sleeping when I took everyone else's pictures.












While I was tucking all the other kids into bed, I sat Andrew down into the bend of Dan's knees. When I came back, he was asleep!

Red, White, or Pink Day

Friday's Spirit Day theme was: Red, White, or Pink Day. I, of course, had to go further, and do HEARTS!

Will is showing that he has something in his pocket.

Andrew is 6 Months Old!

Andrew is half a year old already! He was in a smiley mood, so I got to capture some pictures that show his cute dimples!

This one shows how well he can sit up by himself now!

Andrew has started pushing up into a bridge with his tummy off the floor. Crawling, here we come!

Baby Pickle

I made ham/cream cheese/pickle wraps yesterday and William was helping by getting the pickles out of the jar. I announced that we had gotten all the pickles out and he said, "No, one more". I looked, and sure enough, there was something still in the jar. I thought at first it was just a stem, but it was a tiny pickle! I was using baby dills, but this was a baby baby dill!

























It was about 1" long!

Next to one of the other pickles (which was one of the smaller normal sized pickles!)

Sarah Lost a Tooth!

Sarah lost her first tooth on the bus ride home yesterday!

Will wanted to pose for a picture, too!

School Spirit

Sarah's school is having a special dress up day for every Friday this month. Today is "School Spirit Day" so she wore Purple and Gold for the Yellow Jackets.

The hat was knit by Grandma.

Her outer wear was also purple and yellow!

Sarah thought Andrew should wear the hat Grandma had made for William and participate in her school spirit day.

Emily hugging Andrew.

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I figured this was a good place to show the cauliflower that we got last week.

It was Purple and Yellow!!

(They called it Orange!)

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Uncooked

Cooked

(It tasted just like regular cauliflower)

This was what the water looked like when it was done cooking! (I poured it into a glass to show it better!)

On Being a Perfectionist

When ever I do something "crafty", I have to do it the "best" way. When I'm laying out pattern pieces for a sewing project, I have to figure out the way that will leave the most fabric left over (even if I don't have plans for using said left overs!) Or if I don't like the way something looks, I have to make my own pattern (like with my knit snake, or my nativity) Or if there is a way that would make the finished project better, I have to take the long way to do it instead of the simple one! For example, I have a fabric panel project for a stuffed scarecrow. This panel provided the scarecrow with a head, torso and arms, but no legs as his clothes are supposed to be sewn on and the pants become his legs. Well, I have to figure out a way to make legs for him and make his clothes removable, so that he is "better"! (and so, he isn't made yet!). In a way, this affects other areas of my life, also, as I don't like reading abridged versions of stories. If I'm going to read the story, I want to read the "real" story! (So there are books/stories I'd like to read but haven't yet!!)

Well, I have undertaken a new venture in my life: custom knit Star Wars hats. I made my own pattern and chart for the layout because the ones that were available weren't accurate enough. My first order is for 3 custom R2 hats. I started the first one with 96 stitches based on my test swatch. After knitting about 20 rows, I realized it was too big as my gauge was knitting up different than it had when I swatched! So I ripped out the hat and started over with 86 stitches. I finished it and went on to hat #2. I didn't like how the very top of hat #1 had turned out, so I changed it a little bit for #2. I still didn't like it and upon further analysis, realized it was because I didn't have enough points of decreasing for the top. I had used 6 point decreases for #1 & #2, but used an 8 point decrease for #3. It was much better. So I ripped out the top of #1 and re-knit it with an 8 point decrease! (Thus making it so I've almost knit #1 two complete times!). I am currently working on re-knitting #2. Then I have to add the duplicate stitch for the "windows" and "eyes".




































Hat #1


















Hat #2

Hat #3