A 3rd Birthday for Tober

Yesterday my sweet little girl turned 3. Early this month She had learned that her birthday was "August firtieth" and She would walk around reciting her full name and her birthday. Then as the day approached her big brother helped her daily with the countdown, reminding her it was almost her birthday. When she woke up She knew right away that it was her day and it was going to be special. We started the day with whole wheat pink nesquick pancakes(don't forget the marshmallows!) I had balloons for her and Auntie Pip came by to drop off her boys,(they spent yesterday cleaning because they are leaving today) She gave Tober Jane her first gift of the day which was a Merida doll. Tober hasn't let go of it since :)

As soon as breakfast was over it was downstairs for all the kids while mommy made the cake and finished other prep for the party that would be later in the day.



My mom helped me accomplish the 4 layer pink ombre cake I wanted to make and Jones helped make proper Tea sandwiches (tasty!).



Just before the party Jones and I realized that the Tea pot we are bought for Tober wouldn't hold water. :/ it is surprisingly hard to find a good child's tea pot unless you order one online and I ran out of time. So Jones set out to fix it. As I was placing the last tray of tea biscuits at the table I hear Jones who is right behind me react to what I know has to be a really bad cut because of the way he reacted. He doesn't usually make a big deal about getting hurt so I knew right away it had to be bad.
It was, my mom took him right away to get stitches and the party carried on with out them.
The kids were hesitant at first but once we got into it they all made plenty of cups of "tea" which consisted of mint leaves, lemon, honey and sugar.


They had free reign over the food and just ate and ate, and drank and drank. Eventually they all were done and since we were waiting for Grandma and Daddy still we played outside, got good and muddy, took a group bath, and still the kids were at the table staring at the cake and they still weren't home.



So we dug into the cake and, since it was pushing bedtime, got the kids in bed right as Daddy and Grandma walked through the door. We lit one candle and sang happy birthday(with kids in bed) and Tober cakes opened her presents. It was a crazy but sweet night and I am so glad she was able to have her cousins here.

Settling in

We are nice and moved out of our home and settled in at my Mom's house where we will be until Jones is done with some job training down in Texas. It is bittersweet to have moved yet again, but I am excited to be moving on to a new place and job and life on the East coast.
I am exhausted. The move was long and busy, and directly followed a bad flu weekend, so now that it is over I can fully feel my physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.
I am sad that summer is over, or at least feels like it is, even though I absolutely adore fall, this year fall means Jones will be gone.
So much to do still, as C starts school on Tues. and Tobercakes has a birthday on Thursday, and Colt y Pip are leaving us this week.
The line from a hymn keeps popping in my head
"Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, our God will nev'r us forsake, and soon we'll have this tale to tell, all is well, all is well."
I think Come Come ye Saints will be a new theme for me this year, as I feel I will be in need of "fresh courage"

Church is approaching so I better go and get ready.

Potty time

Now that I am back to blogging, let me share with you our big news, we are potty training, during a move! Brilliant! Tober has been showing signs that it was time for a while but whenever I tried to get her to sit on the toilet it was nothing but stubbornness. I had to remind myself again that I couldn't expect her to be the same as C was( 2 weeks and he was potty trained on a real potty.) and realized that she might be more comfortable using a kid potty, really I just wanted her to get the concept of going potty, because so far She showed no sign that it mattered to her whether she peed on the couch, in a diaper, in her pants....
So to Ikea I went, I knew they had simple potties for $4.99 in lots of colors, I was hoping for a great little black one



Or maybe white




But all they had was the green one, why not.
Bright green :)



this chart had been up for weeks with no stars and a few days after getting the potty Tober is filling it up quick!



2 days accident free! (wearing a diaper to bed and naps) she s now telling me when she needs to go. I love these small and personal triumphs with each kid, they are a growing time for both of us!


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I am back, hopefully

Sorry for the extra long and unexpected absence. I survived summer semester only to jump straight into sick kids and moving! again! We are packing up to start our long and somewhat complicated adventure to Maryland in the Fall. The summer is quickly coming to an end and I am not sure how I feel about it. Lots to take in as we come closer to saying goodbye to family, closer to C starting school(yikes!) and the clock ticking to Jones leaving us for 3 months of job training(sept. 19th)
We are doing great :)
there now you know.

Ridin my woes away

Today has been a long day of school. I have been pulling a lot of late nights lately, and Jones has been picking up the slack. He often gets up and feeds the kids before he is off to work and always pitches in with the house work. It is impossible to doubt that he believes in me and supports my work. Today I needed a quick distraction from school so after the kids were down for bed(my brother stayed with them) jones and I went for a little ride.




I am pretty terrified on the back of that thing, but it sure did revive me :)




I love these moments with him. Thanks Babe, for everything.


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DIY pocket embellishment

Over the weekend I did a little sewing with Pip and it made me a little craft hungry. I had a pair of pants that were just asking for a little extra umph, so I treated them to some pocket embellishments:)




I went to hobby lobby and got 1/8th of a yard of 2 different fabrics, a great floral, and a black a white stripe.
Using my pockets as a guide I cut 2 strips off the end of each of the fabrics, the floral one about 2 1/4" and the stripe about 1 3/4"




Placing right sides together I sewed a 1/2" seam allowance, the pressed it open








Once it was pressed open I pressed a 1/4" seam allowance all long the edges of the fabrics








Then I took some ribbon and placed it along the bottom of my fabric and did a straight stitch along the edge.








Then I took a needle and thread and using a blind stitch hand stitched the fabric to my jeans




Voila!




When I finished I realized I had extra fabric (poor me :) enough to make a skirt for Tober cakes.




So I took some elastic, and measured her little waist, and cut a 20" piece




I did a zigzag stitch around the outsides of both fabric pieces and placed them right sides together.








Using a half" seam allowance I sewed a straight stitch along the top of the two pieces








And pressed it open




Then I took my fabric a put right side together again only at the side seam making sure to line up the seam lines just right




And sewed that together using a 1/4" seam allowance




And once again, pressed it open




I overlapped my elastic 1/2" and sewed it together








Next is the trickier part, you have to line the fabric up with the elastic




I pinned the sides first then the front and back middles and again between those




Then I sewed a zigzag stitch along the edge sewing the elastic to the skirt, making sure to pull the elastic tight as I went








Last but not least the hem, first I folded over and pressed a 1/4" hem




And then again




I pinned the ribbon so that half of it would hang and expose a scalloped edge




And with a straight edge stitch I was done!












Tober loves to pose :)












My beautiful (big!) girl when did she go from this




to this




For the price of about $3 I have two extremely satisfying garments




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