I won a book!

I am so excited!! I never win anything!! I follow a few crafting blogs (links are to the right on my blog). I love the many tutorials and inspirational ideas I see. Well, at SEW CHRISTINE, she had a giveaway for a very cute book of purse and craft ideas. I uploaded some of my recent projects and she choose a person at random and it was me! I am so excited and can't wait for my new book. I should enter giveaways more often! Here is the winning project of mine:

Happy Halloween!

This is what has kept me busy in my free time for the past few weeks. HALLOWEEN!!! My mother started the tradition of having a theme and making all of our costumes when I was young. I pretty much keep up the tradition. This year we did the Alice in Wonderland theme. Alyssa was Alice, Savannah was the Queen of Hearts (naturally), Nathan was a card that was painting the rose (Alanna) red, and Arya was the adorable Cheshire Cat. (Her costume was kind of tricky because I couldn't find striped fabric, so I had to cut strips and serge them together, and THEN cut out the costume. Fun.)

We had an AMAZING week of Halloween parties and fun! Alyssa went to a party last Friday with her friends and stayed out until 10pm! It was almost like she was a teenager (she thought!) Then on Thursday Nathan and Savannah went to a party where they bobbed for apples, dipped them in caramel, and had a ton of fun.

Friday was the most rock'n time. Our friends just bought an amazing house out in Fallbrook. It is on a huge piece of land and the house is huge! They went all out with decorations, games, food, and fun. The kids ran, seriously, ran nonstop. Jared and I even dressed up. He was Porthos from the Three Musketeers and I was his 'beautiful woman.' We didn't get photos together, unfortunately.

Saturday was our annual church party. There was yummy food, tons of fun carnival type games, contests, prizes, music, and of course, the famous Trunk or Treat. Arya was a little apprehensive at first, but after one trip around to each 'trunk,' she was on her own! She loved it.


Then we came home, trick or treated the neighborhood while dinner was cooking, then went to to visit our piano teacher. She promised the children a big candy bar! So we took her some scarecrow cookies and trick or treated her street. So much candy, so much fun! Arya kept saying, "More house? Yes?"

Field Trip

We took a field trip to The Brass Ring this week. It was a very cool lesson on matter. Thank you to Bruce for taking us on a tour of his shop!!

Projects for this week

Here is what I have been working on this week.

Savannah is posing with her new Fancy Nancy Robe...

Her new Fancy Nancy wallet...

and her new Fancy Nancy tote.

She wanted to decorate brownies and take them to school.

Tonight was also the belt ceremony for taekwondo where my little martial artists all earned their purple belts. We brought decorated brownies for this too.

Savannah turns 7!!

October 1 was my Spicy Savannah's birthday. She is my head-strong child that is always doing things her own way, even from the day of her birth! I wanted her to be born in September because I REALLY like the birthstone. I did everything I could to make her come early, but she decided to be born on Oct. 1. She was my easiest labor, delivery, and recovery. I remember the first months with her of being pure bliss even though I had three kids with the oldest being three years old. She brings such excitement to our lives. We experience the whole pendulum of emotion with this little firecracker.

Here are some of my favorite photos of her through the years.

Seven years old:

Six years old:

Five years old:

Four years old:

Three years old:

Two year old tantrum and her favorite stuffed toys:

One year old:

Newborn:

Cute Wallet

This week Alyssa was invited to a birthday party for a friend. Babies are sooooo easy to give gifts for, especially handmade gifts, but 10 year old girls are much harder to sew for! Anyway, this sweet friend of Alyssa's already has an adorable tote or two, so I didn't want to make her one of those. Alyssa suggested a wallet. It just so happens that I love looking at this website: Sew Christine, and there is a very cute wallet tutorial. So, I made this wallet in about two hours and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I got confused and improvised on the credit card slots on the wallet, but the rest was tres facile!! (very easy) And the adorable, matching zipper pull was made by Alyssa. CUTE!

It looks WEIRD!

 

This is Savannah's math for today. II looked it over and just started laughing and laughing. It is sooooo Savannah. Look at #4. Read what she wrote. By the way, she writes in 'best guess spelling,' so some of it is spelled wrong. It says, " It's not correct because look 23, 33, 43, 53, 62. Doesn't it look weird?" I love the way she said, "Look" like she is talking to someone. I can just hear her voice saying this and it cracked me up. I love the way kids explain math! Doesn't it look weird???