Elizabeth turned 4!

Elizabeth had her very first "friend" birthday party.  Long past are the days when her birthday was used to invite MY friends over and their kids. :)  Sad... Elizabeth made her guest list and decided to have a princess tea party.  What was really sad was that a lot of my close friends only have BOYS!!!! Where are the girls??? :)  So she invited her cousins, a few friends from church and a handful of preschool friends.  They were so cute!

The theme was princesses and they used real china, from my mom, and had their first tea party. :)

Cinderella came to the door..

Here I am trying to make her cake.. My first attempt at decorating.. it's supposed to be a castle. :)

Hot Dog crescents and pb&j rolls.. some of her favorite foods.

The decor..

With the teacups!

The goody bags were mesh bags that I folded into little skirts.. filled with jewelry, nailpolish, candy, etc.

Another food area... some food for the moms... biscotti's, camembert cheese, etc.

The cake is almost done here.. Can you tell it's supposed to be a castle?

The first craft of the day.. making your own wands

Elizabeth and Naomi.. Elizabeth's dress is a bit scandalous.

First game.. Find Cinderella's lost shoe!  Prize was ring pops because after Cinderella's shoe is found, they get married! :)

Tea party time!  Here is Nutella/Banana Rounds and Chocolate wafers. :)

My dainty princess

Cutie Reaggie

Eden's a big girl!

Lydia's thinking about what she wants to eat, but Audrey's digging in!

Elizabeth eating an oreo ball with her dainty fingers

Some food.. lemon cookies, fruit/creme in chocolate cups, strawberry piroettes, hotdog crescents, pbj rolls, oreo balls and more!!

Look at how precious Audrey is! What a young lady!

Second craft.. making candy necklaces... as if they weren't sugared enough. We had another game but didn't take pictures.. it was to put together princess puzzles pieces that they had to find around the house.  The prize was princess crowns!

Cake time! Ava's enjoying her ringpop. :)

Look at these cuties!

Some of Elizabeth's cousin's and school friends. :)

Oh ee-ah.. so cute!  Auggie's staring in the background.

The kids were so good!  After the party I just crashed. hahah. I love throwing little parties like this for my baby girl, but it definitely wears me down.  Good thing birthdays only come once a year. Auggie's just going to get hotdogs in the backyard. hahah  Happy Birthday baby girl!  Mommy loves you!

My "Dad's" Garden

If you know my parents, you know that they are EXPERT gardeners.  I, on the other hand, have a tendency to kill every plant in my home.  That's generally why I like to stick to non-living hobbies like sewing. :)  But this year I wanted to attempt my first garden since we just bought a new home.

I asked my parents to come over and "help" me start a garden.  From my previous post you know that there were a lot of plants that were around the house already.  So yesterday, my dad came over and transplanted a chunk of them to another area so I could have my first vegetable garden.

I told him that I wanted a square foot garden (raised bed) but he kept arguing with me.  He said, "Why waste good soil and spend money on raised bed?  Just go buy vegetables at store instead of waste money!  This year appa (dad) do for you! Next year you try your way!"  So, I ended up with a row garden instead of a raised bed garden.  How could I argue with him?  He's a 65 year old man who's had 40 some years of experience in gardening. :)  But what he DOESN'T know is that I'm going to do my own raised bed on the side and see which veggies grow better and had less work. :)

Here it is!

My row garden... boo

He left half of the garden as a flower bed since they were already planted there.  My mom laid bricks in between to keep them separate.  I know, I'm spoiled... my parents did everything and brought us lunch. :)

This was the only thing I did.. label my garden.

I have 3 rows of spinach, 1 swiss chard, 3 lettuce, 2 rapini, 2 carrots and 1 broccoli. 

As for the flowers that used to be there, they were transported to the side of my yard with lovely brick in front of them.  Elizabeth moved the bricks... gotta put them to work early on!

So far so good.. even though I haven't done anything yet. :)  I'll write more when I make MY garden. :)  Does anyone read this blog? haha

What are these?

So I'd like to plant a garden this year, but I have all these random plants that the previous owner had.  I'm not sure whether I should dig them up, throw them out, replant them or just wait to see what pops up.  If I wait, then that means gardening will have to wait until next year.  Not my first choice for sure..  Can anyone identify any of these??

 This is a red plant.. I don't know if you can tell by the picture.. kinda ugly don't you think?

This one seems like it could be pretty..

There are a million of these!

Is this a weed?  It has green leaves, with red trim and reddish stems... could it be strawberries?? Oh please Oh please!

This one has brownish red leaves with these spikey things in the middle with long stems.. ugly, but you never know!

(This picture is sideways)... buds of something..

If anyone could help me identify them, I'd appreciate it!!! Thanks

Butternut Squash Salad

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitten's website.  It looks so good and her reviewer raved about it.  Being on the South Beach Diet now for a little over a month has left little to the imagination when it comes to food. Everything is monotonous and soooo not tasty.  I was excited to try something new!

Doesn't it look yummy?? Too bad it wasn't all that tasty... hahaha  I don't know.. the recipe said parsley or cilantro, but because the hubby dislikes cilantro (from a salsa gone wrong in college) I opted for the parsley.. I think I should have gone with the cilantro.

The salad goes with a warm tahini dressing, which I like.  The pic is sans dressing. I will serve it to the hubby tonight WITH cilantro. Too bad for him. :)

My first T-shirt

I finally got around to making Auggie a shirt.  I've been making Elizabeth things for some time now, but it's so hard to think of something cute and creative for a boy.  Lately this whole "refashioning" idea has been all ove the sewing blogs I read... where you take old clothes to make it into new.  I wanted to try this 90 minute t-shirt idea from danamadeit.com.  I love her blog.  Such fantastic ideas!  So here it is, plain as it may be.

Here is the original shirt I used... I got it free with membership... though I'm not a member anymore. :)

Pieces all cut up.

Final product!

I added some yellow ribbing to the neckline to make it not so plain. :)

It's a perfect fit!

Look at my hanging cheeks. :)

The shirt looks funny here because his belly is so big. :)

I was surprised to see how well it turned out!  Next project.. a pettiskirt for kate!

Glass Slipper

Elizabeth's in her princess stage right now... as many of your toddler children are.  Almost EVERYDAY she will go to her room and change her clothes into multiple costumes (we have an armoire full of dresses).

One of her favorite dvd's is the Cinderella dvd (Side note: Have you guys noticed that old school Disney movies are pretty scary?).  It's the only one I let her watch from her our Disney collection.  Yes, I have a Disney collection.  Another story for another day. :)  Anyway.. yesterday she decided to make herself a pair of glass slippers.  She kept asking me for some tape and I didn't know what she was doing until I saw her feet...

At first she made it open toed..

 

  

Then she decided to close it off because that's how Cinderella wears it.

Here she is in her barbie costume and glass slippers. :)

Even though the kids drive me crazy sometimes.. they really do make my day by the hilarious things they do!

Pink Dress

Here is one of the many projects I'm always working on.  It was actually very fast!  I used a pattern that I bought years ago but never got around to.  Here is the finished dress... my first completed clothes project. :)  There's supposed to  be ribbon around the waist and flounce but I got lazy...

Elizabeth's dress!

 

Back of the dress

With the bow tied

Inner lining

My first zipper

Crazy looking Elizabeth posing

She turned and said, "Take a picture of the back!"

Practicing her ballet

Twirling to show the fullness of the skirt

She's starting to look chubby..

Next project is Auggie's shirts.. hm.. we'll see if I can get that done before Joshua and Sammy's birthday party next weekend... so many crafts, so little time!