Felt Dolls

Yesterday in a burst of creativity, I finally made some felt dolls for Ingrid.  I'd seen on mamasmiles and it looked super cute.  Ingrid has the magnetic ones from Melissa and Doug, but I have so many felt scraps that she loves to play with, I thought I really should try to make some of these dolls.

They were a hit!  I drew out a shape onto cardstock paper, along with shapes for pants, shirts, and dresses, and then we used those as templates for the felt.  I made different hairstyles, bows to put in the hair, and we had random scraps that Ingrid used to add to the shirts and dresses.  It was super easy, just took some scissors and a bunch of felt.

 Of course I couldn't just have them sitting around in a ziploc bag, nor could I have Ingrid putting them on another scrap of felt.  I had to make a little carrying case, with a pocket for the clothes, right?  Of course.  So I put two pieces of cardboard in between two pieces of felt.  I'd put on a name tag on the front, then a pocket on the inside first, then I sewed everything up into a little folding book.  Portable and functional! 

 They do not look as fancy as some I've seen on Pinterest, but Ingrid loves them anyway.  She has seriously been playing with them nonstop since I made them yesterday while Otis napped!  And that, my friends, is a thumbs up in my book.

Rainbows, Bruises, and Siblings

We had a gorgeous double rainbow the other day.  You can't see the other one that was above this, but it was amazing.  It happened right after I put Ingrid to bed, I got her up from bed and she was all confused.  "Why did you wake me up to look at this?"  I thought she'd love it, I was wrong I guess...

Otis and I were playing ball the other day and somehow he face planted on the sidewalk.  Again.  I honestly do not know how it happened, one minute he was laughing and dancing, the next he was splat on the concrete.  His nose got a bit beat up...again.

Yesterday we did some painting early in the morn.  Otis is entranced by the finger paints, but he doesn't quite get that it goes on paper.  He also got one of the dot paints (like a big Bingo marker) and had a big smear of purple all over his cheek for the morning.  Apparently they don't wash off.

After painting we went outside to get some air before it rained.  We found all sorts of ways to get dirty before 9am!

 



Summer Fun at Gramma's

Last weekend the kids and I traveled to Michigan to visit my mom.  We were supposed to take the ferry, but got a call at 4:30am saying the waves were too big and the ride had been canceled.  I was pretty bummed, as Ingrid had been begging to go on the boat for a long time, and I would much rather have puked for two hours on a bumpy boat than driven the almost 7 hours it ended up taking us...But it was not meant to be, so we packed up the car and took a road trip instead.  And honestly, the kids are so good in the car, it wasn't that bad.

We got to my mom's in the afternoon and the kids were free to roam and run and not be in a car.  The next morning we started out with a breakfast picnic.

Followed by running in the grass.

The weekend was full of fun things.  We visited the horses in the field and at the stables.

 We took a paddleboat ride.

 We played a lot at the little beach.  Ingrid and her cousin played "gardening" for hours, and also "making chocolate milk" both of which were basically making mud. 

 And no trip to Miss Wendy's is done without a trip to Tiny Town.  This place is amazing.  It's two little kid sized cabins filled with kid sized furniture and dishes.  Ingrid LOVES it there, and Otis had his first chance to play there as well.  He seemed to like it but the kid sized dishes are vintage china dishes, so after breaking a cup, it was a small plastic cup for him!

 It was a perfect weekend, the only thing better would have been if Brendan could've come with us. 

Nostalgia

We found a DVD of old videos of Ingrid today.  She was so small and such a little smartypants!  It made me realize how much I miss hanging out with her.  I love Otis to pieces, but I forgot how nice it was to have one on one time with Ingrid.  She is so emotional and sassy lately, I forget how sweet she used to be!

Anyway, got me thinking of babies and them growing up and how on the one hand I'm glad to be done with bottles and sleepless nights, and on the other hand that means no more squishy 6mo olds with their two little teeth and big chubby cheeks smiling at you.  So I will just look back at pictures instead, that's more economical than having another one, right?

Our Weekend

It was a birthday party filled weekend here.  Brendan's birthday was yesterday, so we had cake for him.  Then our friend Junie turned two and we went to her party.  And then Brendan's parents came over to celebrate his birthday with another cake.  Sheesh, a little birthday overload!

Fun pictures from this weekend--spaghetti night messy faces:

 Ingrid's amazing vintage dress we got awhile ago.  She is too funny--when I told her she was going to wear a party dress to the birthday bash today, she cried and cried and cried, swearing up and down the dress was too tight and she hated that dress and she wasn't going to wear it.  Then she went up to her room, grabbed the dress I wanted her to wear and said "Please, Mama, can't I wear this one?"  I do not know what goes on in her head but she can be so dramatic sometimes!

After his nap, Otis was also quite dramatic.  I was napping and woke up to hear Otis screaming like crazy.  It was his frustrated-nothing-is-going-right-for-me scream, and it was all because his pasta wouldn't get on his fork right or something like that.  It's tough to be a kid.

And lastly, I caught the kids jumping from coffee table to couch this afternoon, giggling like crazy so I couldn't really be mad.  As soon as I saw it probably wouldn't cause a trip to the ER, I let them at it while I took pictures.  So cute to see them getting along after a day of them being pissy with each other!

 And now it's FINALLY bed time and I can relax and get some more bibs done and watch Downton Abbey on Hulu.  Yay.

Favorite Things To Do

Around these parts, our favorite things are:

Coloring (with or without pants)

Eating ice cream

And making play doh.

It's been a great week so far!