YEEE-HAW!

Little one and I and our friends went to a farm today. There were so many wonderful animals to see...a bunny, a goat, a dog, a zillion cats and 3 beautiful ponies. So, little one and her other teeny tiny 3 year old friends climbed on the backs of these ponies and rode them all over this farm! What a sight! She was laughing the entire time. On the way home, she retold the story of the pony ride. In the rocking chair before naptime, she retold the story. In bed before closing her eyes at naptime, she retold me the story. I think this made a big impression, don't you?


Another plus was getting to see a real cat, up close and personal. Might not sound like much, but little one LOVES cats (or as she calls them, yiiies.)


I think this was the only time all day that either one of them sat still. So happy I had the camera out.

Special Dinners

Mom and Dad and Gramma came over for dinner last night. There was chicken on the grill, homemade sweet potato fries, a big green salad and brussels sprouts with mushrooms (no, little one wouldn't eat the brussels sprouts, but Dad and I love them.) Little cute chocolate mini bundt cakes for dessert. No special occasion, just dinner on a day that ends in "y." But to have Gramma over, and Mom and Dad, well, that felt good. So we ate in the dining room (!!) with the pretty antique lace table cloth from my Great Gramma. Little one made napkin rings for the occasion.

She painted a paper towel tube and added glitter. I cut them into rings for her. She was very proud and so was I. I think we should use them often for fancy dinners with the 3 of us.

The paper towel tube was the last one in our house -- hopefully for a long time. In an effort to stop filling up the world with our trash, the fam and I have tried to eliminate most paper goods from our house. Ok, I say most, but even as I type this, I know that's not exactly true. There are some paper things that I have no desire to ever stop using. I have never been a Sears catalog kind of girl, if you catch my drift. Anyway, we are using little cotton washcloths instead of paper towels. It's kind of cool. I make them from this fabulously cheap yarn. I have a this book and I just pick out a stitch pattern and try it out for 5 inches by 7 inches. Useful and instructive. While we are talking about yarn, tomorrow, the Moms and I are getting together and I am going to teach them to knit. I am so excited. The more knitting friends I have, the fewer people that will be annoyed by my constant chatter about fiber content and process vs. project oriented knitting. The bonus is that we are going to take all of the squares we make and sew them into a blanket to donate to the kids in the local foster system. So, all in all, a great idea, right? *Nice bonus: to practice teaching people how to knit, I used my husband as a guinea pig. He has just finished his first 3 rows! He was going to put it down to go pick up some stuff from the store and he says to me, "Just one more row." Be still my heart!

Found this book today at Mom and Dad's house. My Gramma read it to little one. It was my fave book when I was 3. Cool.

happy happy happy

Happy Mother's Day! Today started with a lovely brunch with 4 generations in attendence. So much fun! Now, I am reading my new books, this and this, with a belly full of chinese food my husband picked up for us. Here's wishing you your perfect day, too.

Missed you.

Time has flown by. Little one turned three last week. There was a flurry of fun leading up to the day, and then she had the extended birthday celebration WEEK because her birthday fell midweek and her party was on the weekend. So much fun.

We went to the zoo on the actual birthday and saw a ton of animals. Her two faves: an ocelot, and the buffalo. I think I may have influenced the second favorite animal. You see, I had never seen a buffalo up close and personal. Their faces are HUGE! I mean, I know they are big animals, but their faces...in proportion to their bodies...staggering. I think it should become a unit of measurement. Bigger than a buffalo's face, I tell you. Anyway, I went on and on about the buffalo's face so that became a fave story for little one, too.

Saturday was the purple party day. So cute. 5 little kids running around the backyard shaking pompoms and covering themselves in sand from the sandbox. So much fun to sit back and watch them all. I can't believe my tiny little baby is 3. The time is wizzing by.

So, today I started cutting out the material for the costumes for our dance studio's spring recital. 4 little Madeline coats. It's fun. I'm trading sewing for ballet classes. What a great deal for me. Do something I like -- get paid by doing more of something I like. Perfect situation!

turning old into new

Today we took all the old broken crayons and made them into new shiny stars for little one's birthday goodie bags. Also, we made a new soft friend from an old work shirt today. We call him the Purple Pirate. We topped it off with a trip to the ice cream store. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.
Let me leave you with my very favorite Etsy shop. Sarah Jane rocks.

a robin, a clydesdale, and an embroidery hoop

Every day at 1:40pm, a little fat robin comes to the window in our playroom. I named him Christopher. I'm still trying to take his picture, but he is very quick! Spring is cool.

Wednesday, my new friend and I went to lunch with little one, which turned into a walk, which turned into hanging out in the backyard, drinking iced tea and watching little one pick dandylions. It was just such a blast to hang out with someone so smart and funny and well...genuine. I am so glad I met her.

We tried more kid art too. Little one did her first emboidery project on burlap ala The Creative Family. Soule Mama does it again. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but after showing little one how it works, she sewed away happily for like 45 minutes! I embroidered a few napkins while she sewed. At one point, I looked over at her with her little hoop then down at my own hoop, and thought, Wow. This is really cool. She keeps asking to play "sewing" again. How can I refuse?


Oh, and one more for the Random What-A-Cool-Town-I-Live-In File. Yesterday, realizing we were low on milk, little one and I trekked to the grocery store (where I got to use my new eco-bag for the first time.) Anyway, as we are walking up, we see a group of people clustering around something...It was a huge Clydesdale! Enormous feathery legs and all! His name was Rudy. Not something we expected to see, for sure! Now little one is wondering why all the other barnyard animals don't come visit the grocery store. (I don't want to explain that they are shrink wrapped inside, just yet.) She loved seeing the horse and is talking now about riding one -- but not one as big as Rudy. Maybe one the size of our 20 lb dog.

Please pass the bread.

Today, little one and I went to our local grocery store to pick up all of their day-old bakery products for FoodLink in our area. It was our first time doing this, so really, I had no idea what to expect. We picked up three shopping carts full of products -- loaves of bread, buns, muffins, cheesecakes, pies...the list goes on and on. It was staggering how much was there. Had we not picked it up, it would have been thrown in the dumpster. I just assumend that since there was so much, they had been saving it for us for a few days. Not so. They throw away this much food every day. Every day? I couldn't believe it. Since we have been on a bread baking kick lately, we know just how much work we were talking about here. What a waste of effort. Then there is the still more important side. People are hungry. There was all this food that can help and we got to make that food availible to the people who needed it. I left there feeling like I really made a small difference today. A perfect lesson in life for little one.

In that same spirit of making a small difference, I just finished my first eco-bag. I used an idea from this book for the decorations.

The picture doesn't really show the snazzy yellow stitching around and through the shapes, but it really makes the bag, so I thought I'd mention it to you. (The green beads behind the bag are little one's addition to the picture. She wanted more color.) I'm pretty proud and will definitely carry it with me to stores. I think that I'm going to make another one that I can just wad up and cram in my car for all the kid fallout that seems to collect there. Maybe oil-cloth, so that I can just wipe off the gross that is inevitable. All in all, not bad for a friday, don't you agree?