Playing Dress-Up

I think I don't want to see my sewing machine for at least a month! That's probably not reality, but it has done it's fair share of work lately. I love creating funky stuff with it, and was luckily asked to come up with a "Rainbow" costume for a sweet friend of mine who is headed to the oh-so-funky desert festival, Burning Man. I thought and thought and couldn't figure out how to actually sculpt a rainbow short of old-skool cardboard fashioning. So instead, I made a rainbow-themed outfit. This was 99% fabric from the thrift store bins down the street ($1.10/lb!).

I'd like to mention that just after I took this photo of the fabric sorting, Blossom, being oh-so-helpful, burrito-rolled herself into that purple fabric she's lying on :)
I even found a green tinsel wig to go with it!
So, I made the basic skirt, and it still needed something. Perhaps some "clouds" under the rainbow? A thrift-found wedding dress will do just the trick - and keep the baby entertained in ruffles...
Then to make the top and have the Burning-Man-bound mama come try it out...
She likes it! And those ruffles gave it excellent twirling weight! Yay!

Okay, so that was a project over the last couple of weeks, with most of the actual work being done in the last couple days (procrastinators unite!). This morning I woke up and had to make two more costumes!

The kids were invited to a Harry Potter-themed birthday party and asked to come in costume. I altered Clay's grim reaper costume from a couple years ago, added a white shirt, clip-on tie and magic marker on the forehead, and Reed was transformed into a fantastic Harry Potter!

Blossom was a bit more complicated. For her, I found a long-sleeve onesie, cut a huge heap of triangles out of an thrift-found towel and hoodie, and made her into Hedwig the owl. It would have been a LOT cuter if I had made a little hat with cute ears, but time was short at this point, the party was also today! Turned out pretty cute though (and the insta-fraying on the unfinished edges actually looked kinda neat)...
I wanted to share some photos from this birthday party, too, as it was easily one of the most fabulous I've ever attended! Cassandra, I am infinitely impressed by your party-throwing skill!! Here's Reed getting sorted by the Sorting Hat (rigged with a cell phone inside the hat, that had a parent inside the house talking through it ... "You seem brave... Gryffindor!!")
Potions Class:
"Did everyone measure out their Peruvian Beetle Extract??"
"Now you must stare menacingly at your potion for 30 seconds..."
Thanks for having us out, and Happy Birthday G! And one more pic of my cute little owlet...
Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Happy Mornings

It seems finally our morning routine is a little bit normal (knock on wood!). We had lots of adjustments when I ended the daycare - like do we even have to change out of pajamas?! Haha! Or the boys waking up early just to watch their allotted 1/2 hour of netflix (which meant knocking on *my* door in the wee hours of the morning to get the computer). ugh. We've seemed to hit a smooth time now where the morning flows along, everyone gets dressed and fed within a reasonable time, noone is getting frustrated for being woken too early, etc. I think this working from home thing could work after all :) This morning Reed was teaching Blossom to read via the refrigerator magnets... pretty cute!


It's at least a start, and definitely still a work in progress. If anyone has great tips or routines to share that make for a smooth morning routine when you don't actually have to *go* anywhere, I'd love to hear it! Peace y'all!

Water Baby

Lots of photos, but not many words! Too tired tonight!

Here's our sweet smilin 4 month old!

Reed working on his spelling (it's Anakin Bananakin :)

Today we went to swim in Lake Eden for a homeschoolers "Not-Back-To-School" fun day. Blossom loved the sand and water!

Got some fun photos of the boys diving in the lake...

Blossom is learning how to sit up!!

4 Month Old Cutie

I got a new nephew today!! Little Hudson was born in Charlotte early this morning. I can't *wait* to see photos of the lil' sweetie!! Congratulations to Scott and Julia and new big brother Corrin :)

Besides the monumental occasion of a new LIFE being added to the earth (!!!), our day was pretty non-monumental - nothing very photo-worthy - and of course Blossom filled the day with love and even let us take video after video of her sweetness! I ended up choosing this one to share, since just in the last couple days she's figured out how to stick that tongue out, which is pretty darn cute. She's also started to laugh - I'll have to capture that on video if I can remember!

Visits & Reed's Perspective

We are coming down from a pretty busy weekend! B's dad came to visit for a few days. It was his first time to meet Blossom, and a perfect age for meeting her - she's all smiles! He got a pretty good tour of Asheville, from the Black Mountain Sourwood Festival and the Folk Art Center, to the Lazoom Tourbus and The WNC Nature Center. I'm tired just thinking about it!

Bobby's dad grabbed a shot of us, too:

Reed was the camera man at the Nature Center, and took about 50 shots and some videos! I'll just share a few of those with you - he worked hard!
Thanks to his homeschool "Fungi" class, Reed easily identified all these shelf mushrooms!

The man behind the camera (and his new haircut!)

On Saturday, my beautiful Sister-in-law in Charlotte had her Baby Blessing for her about-to-be-born son! I am so excited to get another cute nephew! While we were in Charlotte, my nephew handed down his Exersaucer to Blossom (who loves it - thanks guys!). He was a little unsure to see it go, but it will return soon :)
Now, back to home life - projects need to be done, muffins need to be baked, and the Summer seems to be slipping through my fingers too fast! I'm NOT one to complain about the crazy heat waves this Summer. For me, that's more excuses to go to local swimming holes in the river, eat ice cream and play in the garden! Yet the weather has started to cool down, and public school's are in full swing. boo. I'll try to savor this last bit of Summer!

Around the Homestead

Bear with me - lots of photos tonight... Summer is just one of those times when the gardens and the kids seem to be doing something new every minute!

First, some fun thrift store finds. The kids cookbook is from 1971, has adorable drawings throughout, and super easy instructions, so adult help really isn't too necessary. I also like that is was written before the times of "super careful parenting". I mean it's nice and all to think a kid will help make dinner with only the use of a plastic butter knife... but in reality, kids want to actually help, and they're very capable, if we can just let go of our own fears and trust 'em :) This book has kids browning meat on the stove, slicing and dicing veggies, and of course making plenty of 1970's desserts to go with it (jello salad, anyone?). And as a side note, a recipe should NOT be called "Never Fail Fudge" because when the fudge turns out a gooey (but delicious) mess, and never becomes firm, it's mighty easy to get a bit angry at the title of the recipe.

This is our bean patch. Pretty sad state of affairs. Stupid Mexican bean beetles are trying to get the better of me, but I'll win in the end, you'll see. I didn't catch on to the beetles' diabolical plot until pretty late in the game. However, a lot of the plants are sending out new leaves, so I think we may get a second round of harvest there. These are my fave Jacob's Cattle beans. They look all dead and brown there on the plant, but look how cool inside:
The first sunflower opened up today ~
My new patio garden bed is being over-taken by something from the compost. Not sure what, and it's fine with me, as there's not much planted there anyhow. Always a fun mystery, for sure!

Clay's black-skinned watermelon plants are Rocking Out!! They have completely covered the trellis he built for them:

B's dad is coming to visit soon, which means he's looking around restlessly at all the unfinished projects he'd like to have done before the visit! Including the skate ramp tarping system. That was destroyed in the big hail storm earlier this Summer, and with much grumbling, the project was put on a back burner for a while. Hopefully it will be resurrected soon!

Reed was determined to pick all the "pricklies" off of the cucumbers. These are Edmonson cucumbers from Seed Savers. Oh so yummy!

Figs!!

Hardy Arctic Kiwi plant climbing right up the porch
...

And a few cute baby photos to send you off with. At four month old, little B-girl has started to figure out what her hands can do...

Grab everything!!

This little girl is so full of love, I feel blessed every day to be around her spirit!

So, that's what we've been up to this weekend, hope your days are just as lovely~

Cherokee

We had a great Adventure Day in the town of Cherokee, last week. It's a beautiful hour-long drive from Asheville. We stayed really busy this trip, and decided next time to just hang out :) This time, we played at Islands Park, their new town skatepark, went to the Oconaluftee Cherokee Village, and saw the Unto These Hills outdoor drama at night, before heading home. Everything was really nice, can't wait to go back! And thank goodness to groupon for enabling us to buy half-off tickets for the living history village and the outdoor drama!!

A war re-enactment at Oconaluftee Village:
Reed and one of the Cherokee bears (they were all over town!)
Relaxing time at the river!
Blossom cuteness!
A rare photographed smile from Clay :)
Love to all!