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!

New Pals

More of the same summery goodness lately, made even better because we have made friends with the neighbors across the street.  They have a little boy six mo. younger than Ingrid and one just a couple months younger than Otis.  It's been instant BFFs around here! 

Today after nap time we had them over to play.  I'd made this paint I saw on Pinterest, which did not really turn out like paint so much.  It's simply flour, water, and food coloring, but all I had on hand was whole wheat flour, next time I'd try regular flour and hope for a better consistency.  But all in all it was a nice messy project for the kids on a hot day.

We had a pool of cold water ready to wash them up, and of course, popsicles.

The other day we stayed inside for the hot weather, and the AC must have been cool enough because we baked cookies.  I'd gotten some cookie cutters from Ikea that Ingrid desperately wanted to use, so we made moose sugar cookies.  They were delish.

Chicago

Yesterday I took the kids to Chicago to visit friends.  Actually, they're in Oak Park, which is amazing, seriously!  The park we went to was gorgeous, as it should be with the tax rate there...All sorts of Frank Lloyd Wright houses there, it's like rows and rows of the most beautiful houses you've ever seen.  I'll have to go back sans children someday and walk around. 

My kids could've cared less about the houses, they just wanted to get out of the damn car.  And once we were out, they got to run around, play with baby puppy Shirley, and pester big kid Keagan.  Ingrid has a bit of a crush on Keagan, so she kept bothering him, much to his dismay. 

It was the sweatiest, stickiest day, but we managed to have a good time and it was great catching up with one of my oldest and dearest friends!  But really, next time will be without kids so we can have an actual conversation that does not include "Stop hitting!  Use your words!  Put the dog down, she does not want to be held by her neck!"

The Cutest Little Naughty

Oh, Otis is so naughty lately.  And I know it's not because he's really "naughty" like doing it to piss me off, he's just frustrated with his lack of words and doesn't know how to communicate these intense feelings he has.  But nonetheless, when he flings guacamole all over your forehead while throwing a loaded chip across a Mexican restaurant, it's naughty.

But he has this sweetness to him that I hope stays.  He loves to cuddle.  He stands in his crib and calls "Mama, Mama, Mama!" in the morning (well, middle of the night?  4am when he comes into our bed...)  He loves to give hugs and kisses.  He gives thee most flirtatious looks to random strangers that say hi to him. 

As a friend said, kids are cute so their mothers don't eat them.  Indeed.

Ikea

A friend and I went to Ikea on Wednesday.  I love and hate Ikea.  I can sit and daydream with a catalogue in hand, imagining a comfortable sofa, tons of clever storage, bright colors, and a happy family.  And then I get in the store and find what I thought was cute is actually really cheaply made (thus the $30 price tag) or it's not the color I thought it would be or there's no way it will fit in my car. 

However, I had a specific list of things I knew I wanted, so the trip was pretty fast and fun.  Having no kids along was an added bonus--I saw all the other moms with screeching kids yelling "stop touching that!  Just keep your hands off!" and I sighed a contented sigh and went back to  my leisurely browsing.  Suckers.

I got some Expedit shelves for our dining room.  They look so much better than the cheap Target bookcases we had before!  I got some baskets for the top, too, that have cleaning supplies I had nowhere else to put.  Now the top of my refrigerator is bare!  It's amazing.

You'll notice my trim is still not painted.  I intend to remedy that this weekend.

If I can find a dining room set I even kind of sort of like I will get it and then the dining room will be done.  I have not found a thing I like though.  Boo.

Other fun items purchased at Ikea were curtains for Ingrid's room, measuring cups, wooden spoons, and food storage containers.  I am so old and out of it that it is a happy day indeed when I have new wooden spoons!