Noah's favorite shirt

Noah has been very picky about what he wears lately. He went through a phase where he just wanted to wear his jammies all day and threw a fit if we tried to change him. His jammies have cool things on them like tools and trucks and such. But now every time I try to put a shirt on him he points to this one in the closet. Nothing special about it, just a brightly colored striped shirt. What's up with that? Travis says he's just testing out what he can demand. Oh well, at least I like the shirt on him, and it sure beats showing up at Olivia's pre-school with him in his jammies all day.



And if I'm going to post a pictures of Noah's outfit, I guess I should show off Olivia's too. Isn't it cute? It's from Grandma L. for her birthday. The pants are so thick and cushy and warm inside, perfect for the chilly weather. And they seem to somewhat prevent the "plumber" look she's been sporting lately no matter what she wears, poor thing. She got a kick out of the ability to put her hand all the way through the pocket and into the other sleeve. Silly girl!

I knitted a sock

Maybe this is why I haven't blogged in a week. I'm so impressed with myself. So impressed that I slept in mismatching socks last night because I did not want to take it off. Ok, it's the most basic sock pattern in the world, but now that I know I can do it, the possibilities are limitless! Well, that is, after I knit the other one in the pair...

Happy Birthday at Happy Hollow

For Olivia's birthday we decided to go to Happy Hollow. I just love Happy Hollow. It is the best place for my kids' ages. There are multiple playgrounds, free rides, and it's a zoo with a feeding area too. Often the rides are not running in the winter, but on those days parking is free. Since we have a yearly membership, I didn't spent a dime today. The weather was beautiful, we practically had the whole place to ourselves, and we had a great time.

The animals were being very friendly today, I think since it wasn't very crowded with people. Here is Olivia with a cheetah (or leopard?) walking right up to her. I was a little freaked out even though it was behind glass.


Olivia and Noah checking out the giant turtle


Olivia in the Mother Hubbard shoe. There is a very steep slide inside.


Noah in a metal horse


Olivia and Noah playing on the rope spider web


And just some more pictures of them having a good time

Olivia's girly clown party

This year Olivia wanted a clown party. Not a circus party, only a clown party. Awhile back after a trip to the circus she had decided she wanted to be a clown when she grew up. Lofty goal indeed, so we ran with it. We decided to make it her first all-girl, drop-off party.

Here is a picture of Olivia blowing out her candles. My big girl! It's not easy to get 5 candles in a cupcake.



And because I'm not sure where else to stick this pic, here are the party favors. I found these great popcorn boxes to put them in. I knitted each girl a colorful scarf for the main favor and also included a package of microwave popcorn and a bag of cotton candy. Also seen is Olivia's grandpa's balloon octopus, very cool. This was definately a fun theme for me.



We snuck a circus poster into Olivia's clown party. Hey, it goes with the theme and it was free.

DIY

A friend gave me a GREAT idea to let the kids decorate their own cupcakes at the party. This saved me a ton of work frosting myself, and the girls enjoyed it. I made several colors of frosting, pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow. And had lots of girly sprinkles to put on. The cake was from a mix (with confetti in it) and the frosting was in a can. You can't get better than that!

A craft, of course

What would a party be without a craft? I found a great deal on foam crowns at Target. I spent weeks worth of coupons at Michaels buying differe sizes of pom poms, jewels, and glitter glue to decorate them. I think they look like clown crowns, don't you? The girls did a great job decorating them, and even the poor two boys at the "girly clown party" got into it.

But Balloons Always Work

Despite the face-paint not living up to my expectations, thankfully balloons always do. This year I even splurged on buying an actual tank (with Michaels coupon) so we didn't even have to leave the house for helium balloons the morning of the party. Noah, you don't have to blow on the tank, it does that for you...



And grandpa L. went all out making balloon animals for Olivia's clown party. It was a hit! My favorite part was how it entertained Olivia beforehand while I was preparing for the party; but it worked equally as well for the actual party guests.

Think Twice

Adding face painting to your party plans is not as easy as it looks. Let's just say that our attempts didn't turn out quite as perfect as we would have planned. I won't exactly be using Olivia and Noah with clown paint in Christmas cards this year. However, it is an excellent opportunity to embarress your mother-in-law in your blog.

Unraveling Liz

Ever since I found this trendy crafty message board I've gotten a major bug to start knitting. Unfortunately, I can't justify buying yarn since I have a huge bag already that I don't really want to use. One idea I found at craftster was buying older sweaters and unraveling them to reuse the yarn. The idea was so compelling that I had to try it.

Friday I went thrift store shopping and I found this XL Liz Claiborne sweater for $4 that I loved the color and it looked so big and squishy I thought it would unravel into gorgeous yarn. It took me way longer than I thought to rip out the seams, but I did get one sleeve seperate from the rest of the sweater. I started unraveling it and discovered it wasn't exactly the thick, soft yarn I expected. It was more like two thin threads that contributed to the color effect I liked. But I was impressed that I was unraveling the entire sleeve in one long piece. Until almost the end anyway. But still, pretty cool.

The "yarn" was way too thin to knit anything I wanted to knit with it, but I still like it. So I doubled it up and am trying to knit a scarf. If I was really ambitious, I would actually knit a swatch and wash and dry it to see how it will actually turn out. The "yarn" is pretty kinky from being in the sweater. I'm lazy though. Here is the scarf I'm knitting, the pattern is called "wavy," which is fitting.



Here was the original sweater. I think I could probably knit 500 scarfs out of it. I might get ambitious and try a hat if I actually finish the scarf.

Oh, the places you'll go

I'm constantly amazed at the kid's imagination. The other day I found Olivia like this. (In case you don't do a double-take like I did, please note that she is sandwiched between the back of the couch and the cushion.)



She matter-of-factly told me, "I'm going to be a couch for Halloween." Well, I probably wouldn't have to worry about her getting too much candy that way. (But she wouldn't have tripped over her too-large princess costume and fallen and hurt herself had she gone as a couch though.)

And it's fun to see Noah's imagination emerging too. Today when Olivia was at school I got to see him play without being over-shadowed by a certain almost-5-year-old who likes to be the center of attention. After getting over the initial disappointment of him not napping while she is in school and getting a few moments of free time, I really enjoyed seeing the fun games he comes up with on his own. Here he is making the baby ride an elephant.