Swim Suits

Every Easter "Nanie" (Jay's mom) gives the kids swim suits (which they wear at the lakehouse when we visit each summer) and we finally got a day warm enough to break them out in the yard!! (The Frog and Peach have already worn them several times at the pool...)

I was particularly excited for Hazel to try hers on, and since the neighbor kids were over, I thought it would be fun to get a big group shot.

As you can see, Hazel's sitting position isn't exactly reliable yet...

No biggie.  I'll just ask The Frog to hold her. He does it all the time...  (and our neighbor, S., lost interest...)

Me: "Can you look around her so I can see you?"

The Frog: "She got too heavy."  :S

I gave up and went for a solo shot in Hazel's "happy place".  (once she had regained composure after being dropped on her face....)  As you can see, no permanent damage was done to this cuteness :)

It's hard taking decent pictures when you're watching 5 kids under 6!

Stroke of Genius!

I had one of those moments where I decided I had a problem and my life would be much better if I could fix it. Suddenly, the solution smacked me in the face so hard that I had to keep from giggling about how absurd it was that it had taken me so long to figure this out:

Claw clips to tame cords in my drawer...

Simple, yet amazing!

Kid Conversation

I was playing with Peach in her doll house and the following played out:

Me: How about the mommy is cooking dinner and the daddy is doing the dishes.
Peach: No, daddies don't do dishes, they sit down and wait for their food.  
Me: (Me getting all feminist...) That's not true!  Our daddy does dishes all the time!
Peach: How 'bout the daddy looks at the sky?  (Lying the daddy down on the floor and using her high-pitched pretend voice)  I'm lookin' at the sky!

Not sure if I should laugh or be upset.  Calm down, Libby...

Alphabet Quilt!

I've been taking American Quilting's Saturday Sampler quilting "class", which is basically, you get a couple of quilt block patterns and fabric each month, you can sit in on a 15 minute explanation (which I never did, because I was always in a rush with someone waiting the car for me, usually...) and you must turn in your work the following month on time, or you have to pay $5 to get the next patterns.  I just got my last blocks and couldn't help but hurry and finish them last week!  Our final class is in June and we find out how they are all supposed to fit together!  I'm so curious, because they are all different sizes.  I thought it would be fun to show them all off here, before they are assembled.

This year was called an "alphabet quilt" because we got patterns for each letter of the alphabet.

A is for Album

B is for Bachelor's Puzzle

C is for Chimneys and Cornerstones

D is for Duck and Ducklings

E is for Evening Star

F is for Friendship

G is for Grandma's Choice

H is for Hayes Corner

I is for Illinois

J is for Johnnie Around the Corner

K is for Kansas Star

L is for Log Patch (or Lincoln Logs)

M is for Morning Star

N is for Night & Noon

O is for Octagons

P is for Pineapple (my favorite!)

Q is for Quartered Star

R is for Rambler

S is for Shoofly

T is for Turnstile

U is for Union Square

V is for Virginia Reel

W is for Whirling Whirlwind

X is for X Block

Y is for Yankee Puzzle

Z is for Zigzag

Something this class taught me is how much I value picking out my own fabric.  It was at times annoying to spend so much effort working on something with fabric I never would have picked out myself.  Because of this, I probably won't do another class, but it was great to have an excuse to sit down and sew every month :)

I'm planning to quilt it at Jay's parents' house because his mom just bought a long-arm quilting setup!! wahoo!!  I'll show the final product once it's finished :)

Family Photo?

We dress up every Sunday for church, and we don't have any family photos since Hazel had her baby blessing...  I just took matters into my own hands and took a family photo yesterday before church, right before we walked out the door (despite my bad hair day.... hence why I pulled it back...)  We took 20 pictures (the self-timer would do 10 in a row.  good call, Libby....) and this is the best one:

Not bad, but I've decided to just keep doing it until we get one I love.

How do you get your family photos on the cheap?