Big N's Forceful Valentine's Day cards

Big N has a deep love for everything involving the combination of Lego and Star Wars. To be honest, it's a pretty cool combination.

This year he wanted to use Lego Star Wars and his Valentine's day theme. I wanted to avoid sending more candy to school. I came across someone else's neat idea and decided to change it just a little bit to tailor it towards Big N's tastes. Big N wanted to use a different character and I wanted it to fit to the photo paper we had on hand.

We used a plain sheet of paper as our back drop and I had big N arrange Obi Won how he wanted him to stand. We then took a photo using my close-up set where I made sure his face and light saber remained in focus. After adding some basic text, this was the card, text, and color combination, that Big N approved of.

With a little creative cutting of the cards, we had Big N write everyone's names on the cards and added our dollar store light sabers.

We have one very happy little boy and it was fun to spend some time crafting his Valentine's day cards together.

Sugar Cookies

Both the Ns and I made cookies on Saturday. The kids had wanted to do a rolled sugar cookie using cutters. I decided to try the recipe on the back of the last bag of sugar. I haven't found a sugar cookie recipe I really like, so this one appeared to be as good as any other.

There was a slight problem in that the dough was a drop cookie dough, not a rolled cookie dough. The kids were having no part of a drop cookie. They both wanted to roll out their dough and use the cookie cutters.

Little N hasn't quite grasped the concept of not overworking the dough, but she had a blast doing so. If it meant we didn't eat (or in this case, bake) half the cookies, she didn't seem to notice. Big N wasn't a fan of the sticky dough, but he was a fan of the edible cookies. As a compromise, we pulled out all the play dough while the cookies baked and all was right with the world.

I was quite happy with the flavor and texture of the cookies, so I will have to share the recipe before I toss out the empty bag.

Old-Time Soft Sugar cookies
Courtesy of the Fred Meyer bag of sugar

1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 egg 3/4 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla	2 Cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tspn baking soda 1/2 tspn salt
Cream together shortening and sugars. Mix in egg, followed by the buttermilk and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and stir into the wet mixture. Chill dough for about an hour. Drop by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto a parchment covered baking sheet. Sprinkle sugar with cinnamon (or colored sugar) on top of the cookie. Bake at 400ºF for 7-9 minutes or until set.

NOTE
I do not keep buttermilk on hand. The best substitution I've found is to pour your milk into a glass cup measure and add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Let it sit for a few minutes, and you have a great alternative to running to the store for buttermilk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time with all our guests. Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

I'm slightly behind on this post, considering this is the week of Thanksgiving.

I made Little N's costume this year, perhaps I should use that as the excuse for not posting since August considering I've been sewing since August. Little N wanted to be a purple and pink princess. These are, of course, the only color options she would consider and the brighter the better.



I had a lot of fun sewing this. I had to research how to deal with the thin fabric that is the top of the skirt. The actual pattern called for tulle, but Little N picked out this bright purple and pink sheer fabric with stars on it. She was in love and there was no convincing her otherwise. It took me about a month of sample swatch sewing to finally figure out the best option for the hem and the interior seams. The seams show through, meaning you had to be careful in how you dealt with them. I ended up using a princess seam for the interior seams. The hem was a little harder to deal with. I first marked the 16 feet of fabric with a line to determine the edge. Then sewed just next to the line. After that, I trimmed the edge as close to the seam as possible, trimming off the pen line. Then folded the hem up and into itself, ironing the edge into a rolled hem. Another seam all the way around almost at the fold and the hem was finally done. The rest of the dress followed the pattern. I did have to add seams on the topskirt where the zipper opening was, where the pattern called for no seam on a tulle.

Little N is quite a slave driver, watching me sew and commenting on my progress as the gown came along.

"But, Mommy, you haven't finished my dress," was always the statement after she told me good morning and I had spent the evening before staying up way to late sewing. She was thrilled when it was done, as was I.

All in all, this is the most complex item I've made and I've had to put the sewing machine away for a bit. I'm a little crafted-out for now.

Happy Easter

Big N and Little N colored eggs on Saturday. We used regular food dye to color them and the colors were really nice. You also have a lot more control over how deep the color is then the little tablet packets. Not to mention, you don't spend anything extra on a one-time use item.

The kids had a blast making a mess! My kitchen smelled like boiled eggs and vinegar for the rest of the night, but no one seemed to mind.



The spoon for lifting the eggs into and out of the dye cups apparently slowed everyone down way too much. Both kids figured out fast that the best egg dying utensils were their two hands. Big N's fingers are still slightly green 2 days later. Little N's have a hint of pink, but it seems to be fading much faster than our deep blue-green.



Little N appears to enjoy finding the eggs more than decorating them.





Happy Easter!

Happy Valentine's Day

Both kids helped me make a cake for today. I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's day!

Big N sent a valentine to a few of his favorite people. His former neighbor, B, will receive this in a few days. He insisted on writing the note on the bottom. He misses her, a lot, lately. He told me he loves her and wants to see her. He also insisted that she has a better toy collection and a bar that you can swing on from her play structure.

Young love.

Jack O lanterns and Christmas trees

It is the day before Halloween and the month of October has flown by. We have yet to carve our pumpkins, let alone finish putting up the decorations Big N picked out. He has noticed, which means I cannot forget to put them up or I will have them up for Thanksgiving. This evening will be busy as we try to finish decorating and carve 2 of the pumpkins for the kids.

With so much to do, it is surprising that I am still thinking of what happened on my way home. Yesterday evening I stopped for gas just east of Seattle, well past the Bellevue traffic jam. I am predictable and I picked this gas station because it is cheap and it has a coffee stand. Pete should be able to tell you which gas station just from that statement. I of course went inside to grab a cup of coffee. I was in a hurry, which is nothing new for me. I am always in a hurry. I wanted to get home and I was already late enough that I would miss the kid's bedtime. I was running through my mental list of things I needed to get done around the house and not really listening to the barista or the background chatter as I smiled and nodded, ordering my usual. I had to remember to set out Big N's frogie Halloween costume so he could wear it to preschool. We need to pick up a little candy in case we get a few trick or treaters that brave the walk down the dark gravel road to our house. As I was waiting for my Mocha and adding to my list, a beautiful male voice sang "the First Noel" over the store stereo.

Listening to "No-oh-ell-el, No-oh-elll..." I realized I was staring at a small teddy bear on the counter. The little bear was wearing an orange sweater with a black jack o lantern smile on the front, the price tag attached to his left ear. Here was this beautiful Christmas song, one of my favorites, the warm tenor tone punctuating the fake cobwebs and plastic spiders on the wall. It was out of place. Forced. Fake.

It is fall and the forces that be, the companies and stores that see Christmas as a boost to their bottom line, are trying to start off their Christmas season with a bang. They want us to think about Christmas. Perhaps the longer we think about Christmas, the more we will spend on Christmas. The more we spend, the better their end of year will be.

I'm not ready for Halloween, I'm really not ready for Thanksgiving, but Christmas, I don't even want to think about buying for Christmas.

We're rushed enough, why can't we enjoy the season as it comes instead of trying to hurry up the Christmas spending?

Those are good polka dots

We took the kids to see a fireworks show this evening. This was the first official fireworks show they have ever been to. On the 4th of July, we were able to see the town show from our back porch. We also had a 365 degree view of all the neighbor's fireworks. We are just outside the city limits, which means that it is legal to set off large fireworks in your front yard. Our not so near neighbors did so and they outlasted the town show.

Both kids loved the fireworks, yelling out the colors in the sky and pointing in the direction of each one since they were all over. They both crashed hard after it was done and slept in this morning.

The kids did so well on the 4th that we decided to surprise them and head over to Pioneer Days in Cle Elum, the next town over for the show on the 5th of July. Big N has never been a fan of loud noises, so we haven't been brave enough to do this in the past. He was so excited after the night before that we thought he might be ready. He did point out that the stars made the sky look beautiful when he looked up prior to the start of the show.

Once the show began, Big N was having a blast. Some of the really loud ones bothered him. Once the big ones only designed to deafen started to go off, Big N pulled my hands over his ears. He burrowed in so far that he fell asleep! Little N sat in front of Daddy and hardly flinched. Some of the brighter ones bothered her eyes, but she ooohhhed and ahhed with the best of them. At the end of the show, she looks over towards us and says, "Those are good polka dots, Daddy."

Happy fourth of July.