Fiona Sings

Unlike Fiona in the Shrek movies, my Fiona can sing!  I had no idea she could carry a tune so well!  I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but...well, we just don't do a lot of family singing unless it is a silly song.  I tried to sing to my kids as they grew up, but they would just cover my mouth and tell me to stop.  Now that they are older, they will sing the Gilligan's Island theme song, a few Christmas carols, and Veggie Tales silly songs with me.  I'm not that bad of a singer; I can carry a tune even though I'm not Broadway material.  I don't know anything about teaching kids how to match their voices to what they hear.  But it looks like Fiona has an ear for pitch!

Being a Yes Mom

When the big boys are away, the girlies will play.  When Evie asked if we could have a sewing party and invite Grandma, I said yes.  Well, we didn't get any sewing done while Grandma was here, but we had a lovely time chatting and eating cookies!

Daniel survives Girl Time by napping in front of Thomas

After she left, we dug into our projects.  I really wanted to dig into the projects I bought fabric for yesterday, but Evie asked if I could fix Puppy for her-again.  I said yes.  Evie made another bag for my Kindle:

She folds a piece of felt in half and sews a running stitch along the edge- Sewing 101, right? When she asked if she could make another (third one) bag for my Kindle, I said yes.  But this time she learned the whipstitch!

When Fiona asked if I could now fix her stuffed bunny, I said yes.  When she saw Evie sewing, she asked if she could learn how to sew too!  I wasn't sure if I had the nerve to hand Fiona a sewing needle...but I said yes.

The look of concentration on her face is priceless.  I felt like I was witnessing the birth of the modern Dr. Frankenstein.  Only her monster is a pink bunny.  She learned the fish bone stitch.  I've found the fish bone stitch to be the best for fixing stuffed animals.

My project has been dubbed The Smart Baby Burp Cloth.  My mom says I should sell them on Ebay (and Etsy- I could name my store Crooked Seams because that is how well I sew).  Because black and white designs are supposed to stimulate a baby's brain and make them smarter, what better way to multitask?  Burping time is wasted without this educational opportunity!

I've seen black and white geometric borders on nursing bras, so why not burp cloths?  Maybe I should call them Baby Frankenstein Burp Cloths instead (Baby Einstein is taken) in honor of my crooked seams.  And by the way, I'm totally making fun of myself.  I'm not serious about trying to make my baby smarter during burping time.  They get smart enough on their own without my help!

Lula Smiles

Hot, Hot, Hot

I don't like hot weather.  Anything over 76 degrees is too hot.  Today reached 96 degrees and the inside reached 77-one degree too warm for me!  The heat makes me grumpy and I feel like dried up vegetation ready to flame up at the smallest spark.  That is why I am so glad that Mark and the boys get to go camping this weekend.  It has been a long hot week and the week isn't over yet.  Lula doesn't like the heat either.  If she isn't sleeping, she is fussing because we are sticking to each other!  I am so thankful we replaced the windows and we no longer live in our old house.  That house reached 85-in the coolest part of the house!  I remember canning when the kitchen was that hot and wondering why all the berries needed jamming in the middle of the heat wave...

Today I covered all the windows with blankets, refused to let the kids play outside, brought the fans down from the attic, and made sure everyone drank their water.  I'm not planning on making dinner either-we are having cold cereal and maybe blueberry smoothies if I feel like making them.

Picture courtesy of my friend JB!  I stole it from Facebook!  Hahaha!

This was the funnest thing we did this week-maybe this whole summer!  My friend had this great idea to get ice blocks and go sledding.  We met a bunch of other homeschooling families at the park yesterday and swam and sledded to our heart's content.  That picture is of me going down the hill with Daniel on my lap.  Thanks J for taking pictures!  And coming up with the idea!  All you have to do is buy block ice, use an old towel to sit on, and sled! 

All in a Day's Work

Yep.  All in a Day's Work.  Nothing special, nothing exciting.

Most of the firewood is chopped and stacked.  Mark and the boys do this job in the morning before the sun gets hot.  The boys set a line of wood on end so Mark can chop, chop, chop.  They then stack the chopped wood or reset it.  It makes the chopping and stacking go much faster. We have double (at least) the wood we had at the beginning of last winter.  Mark has to lift the boys on top of the wood pile so they can stack it!

I'm picking the green beans and freezing them for winter.  We have a bumper crop of beans this year.  I'm loving my Food Saver for this job.  I've canned and dehydrated, but this is the first time I've blanched and frozen.  I can't believe how easy it is.  I do flash freeze the beans before I vacuum-pack them.  It keeps the water from interfering with the seal.

Thanks to the planting of an entire package of seeds, we also have a bumper crop of yellow summer squash.  I'll be making and canning relish this week.  Relish.  Every time I read that word, I want to say re-LISH instead of RE-lish.  Rhymes with delish!  I counted 30 squash in the garden and that does not include what I've already brought in.

So much for me not having anything to do with gardens this year!

Evie Loosens a Tooth-and Loses it!

Why is Evie so happy?

She is going to lose her tooth today!  The lighting in the lower living room was perfect for picture taking yesterday, so Evie hammed it up for the camera.

 I love her shiny green eyes and chipped blue nail polish.  I also loved her ideas for getting the tooth out!

She wanted to do the tie-the-tooth-to-the-door-and-slam-it idea, but she also improvised and came up with tying her tooth to something heavy and dropping it.  Another idea was having Shane knock it out while jumping off the couch like last time.  My absolute favorite was tying the tooth to Jack the Pirate and opening the door so he could chase a cat.  She would lose the tooth, but she would REALLY lose it and have nothing to leave for the Tooth Fairy.

We are just going to let it fall out by itself after much wiggling sometime today.  And how did I get such a pretty daughter?

Later...

"Look. it's even more loose!"

"Try twisting it out."

"Now it's stuck!"

"I guess you just have to pull it out!"

 

One Month

Lula is now one month old and is no longer a newborn.  Wow, time sure flies!  We are trying to get her to smile for the camera, but it is slow going.  We get a lot of pictures of:

But we did get this one!

We are still trying to figure out which sibling she looks most like. What do you think?  And can you guess which baby is which?