A Busy Weekend

Miss M turned 4 on Saturday. I cannot believe it has been 4 years already. Too bad she acts like she is 12. I guess that is what happens when you try to keep up with an older brother.

Here are the start of her birthday photos. I have been busy editing lots of pics and trying to put together a video. I will post more when they are done.

M wanted a "princess" party. I am not a fan of cartoon character parties, so I went for more of an elegant party (fit for a princess). We used real plates and cups with different ribbons on each handle.

I got these gorgeous flowers at the farmer's market that morning for .10 cents a stem. I hung them from the trees above the tables with tulle.

I made up some felt crowns and had stickers for the girls to decorate with.

                                                                Every princess need a crown.

There was hopscotch.

And cute girly dresses.

Of course even cuter girls.

I think every one's favorite part of the party was digging all the treasures out of the sand.

I don't know who had more fun the kid at the party or me planning it. I am such a sucker for a party.

After M's party, we had my brother Vinnie's official graduation party at my parents house.

Here are a few pics from that.

No party is complete without live music. I don't know what we are going to do when my brother Donnie moves to California. We will miss his great voice. (don't worry Donnie, that's not the only thing we will miss)

Everyone obviously had a good time. That's my brother Vinnie, third from the left, next to him is my cousin Jesse, then my brother Donnie and my cousin John on the far right. Vinnie, Jesse and John all graduated college this year. It was a celebration for all three.

Happy Celebrating!!

Rhainnon

All Things Girly

We have been spending the day getting ready for miss M's 4th birthday party.

The party is tomorrow and M is so excited!!!

Here is a sneak peek. It will be full of all things girly.

Don't forget the cupcakes!!!

Happy Decorating!!

Rhiannon

Happy Birthday America!!!

I hope everyone had a fun and festive 4th of July. Ours was great!! We spent the day with friends eating lots of food.

I made these cookies. They were so simple and looked great.

The kids spent the day swimming, eating popsicles and playing with friends!

Of course no 4th is complete without a little red, white and blue. Unfortunately all the store bought clothing for the 4th usually has the date and year on it. I am not a fan of this, because as most of you know, I am cheap  frugal and want my kiddos to be able to wear their clothes more than one day out of the year. I found Marcus' shirt for 50 cents at a garage sale. You can't tell but it just has stripes on the front with the number 15 in navy. I made Maria's dress from old t-shirts. It has enough red, white and blue to be festive, but she will still be able to wear it all summer.

Now before you look too closely at the next pictures, I have to tell you I forgot to take photos before Maria put it on. I took these this morning and obviously before I did the laundry.  Please ignore the wrinkles and stains.

This is the same tie dress I am in love with. I made my own pattern from a dress I had, but Dana over at Made has a free pattern for her version called The Warhol Dress.

My friend Shannon has been making skirts out of t-shirts and she leaves the bottom unfinished so they roll as they get worn in. I like the look, so I left the bottom unfinished.

I did make myself something to wear for the first time. I will post that later, because it did make it into the washing machine this morning.

Happy Monday!

Rhiannon

Good Job Dad!!

 I thought I would show off Jason's recent project. I had intended to post this for Father's Day, but time got away from me. Seems to happen a lot lately.

I am lucky to be married to a great handyman who is somewhat of a perfectionist. At times this can be frustrating because I am an instant gratification girl and he is a measure twice cut once guy.

Anyway, here are some BEFORE photos.

Try to ignore the our crazy kids and focus on the sidewalk.

We live in an old farmhouse, that came with an old sidewalk.

Now for the AFTER.

Didn't he do a great job? We plan on putting a stone wall and patio where the grass is on the bottom half of the picture. Jason will do all of it himself, so it may take some time.

If it looks as nice as the sidewalk, (I know it will) it will be worth the wait.

Happy Landscaping!

Subtract one and add two...

..projects to my  list.

I finished one item this weekend, and gained two more. I made a baby gown for Casey. If I was smart, I would have finished something with an earlier deadline. Casey is not due until September and I have several things that I need to make before the end of July. Oh well, I was inspired by this Beetles T-shirt I found on clearance, and I had to go with the inspiration.

Casey loves the Beetles and requested some gowns for the baby. I think she will love this.

Now Casey, I am only posting this because you know I could never have saved it for September. Keeping surprises is something I am not so good at.

Here is another pic, I love the striped sleeves. I cannot wait to see this on the baby.

I will cross that off my list and add the curtains for my grandma and dress requested by my aunt (for her granddaughter). Sleep is so overrated.

The kiddos and I went to our family reunion today. Here are a few photos I had to share.

Unfortunately for the little ones, it rained. Miss Louisa (my cousin Laura's daughter) was so sweet playing in the puddles, until...

my kiddos gave her a lesson on puddle play.

I think her laughter was worth getting her new (handmade by Laura) dress all wet.

Louisa soon got the hang of it.

A little rain isn't going to ruin our party!!

Happy Splashing!

Rhiannon

Picking Some Summer Fun!

It seem like my list of things to sew keeps getting longer, and all I want to do is enjoy the sunshine and summer with the kiddos. I have decided that I am going to write my list down, and hopefully seeing it on paper will help me get motivated to finish all the projects in my head.

Here is my to do list

Baby gift for Casey-she is due in September (plenty of time left)

Birthday  gifts for Caitlyn-July (still got time)

Baby gift for Baby Gia and Birthday gifts for Dax and Petra -coming to visit in July

Dresses for Jersee and Jayla -their mom gave me fabric and asked me to come up with something (starting this tomorrow)

Fix zipper on Jenny's bag - should have done this already
Baby gift for  Reid- born on Friday (luckily he lives in Arizona-got a little time) Congrats Andrea-Love you!

Believe it or not, when I see it in writing, it does not seem so bad. Very doable if I focus- oh yeah, that's the hardest part.

I almost forgot the biggest project is Maria's Princess Extravaganza coming up in July. Looks like I may have some long nights ahead of me, because I refuse to miss out on moments like ...

..this.

We went to our cousin's quarry and the girls picked me some of these wildflowers.

They matched my summer tablecloth perfectly and were the perfect size for my hanging jars.

I love this tablecloth, I stumbled across it a garage sale last year. It is actually meant for a round table, but I don't care.

I usually have candles in the jars, the flowers are a nice change. And yes, I do have a tree branch hanging from my ceiling.

The kiddos and I also picked some of ..

these yummy mulberries. We all ended up with..

these. It was worth it.

Happy Picking!

Rhiannon

I'm Back, Too!

Wow, it feels like forever since I've joined y'all on the blog. I'd like to thank Rhiannon for staying so motivated and sharing so many of her goings on lately. She's been keeping this blog rolling, for sure!

Well, what the heck have I been up to these past weeks?

Moving.
Packing and moving.

Then packing some more.
Cleaning.
More packing.

After that I did some moving and a bit more cleaning.

It was just a move across town but good grief was it so much work. Work that isn't exactly done yet. See, there's one huge hurdle left to tackle.


This hot mess will one day be my craft room/office. I'm so excited to have an entire room devoted to housing my craft supplies, one that has a door on it that can hide the messes... er... I mean, projects in progress. But right now it is hiding all the things I ran out of energy to deal with. Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to share some progress on this project so I can get back to the fun of crafting again. My poor sewing machine has been neglected for so long.

One of the first places to set up during a move, the most important room in the house in my opinion, is the kitchen. Am I right? I think it gives everyone comfort during such a long transition period and it's nice to have some bit of normalcy to go along with a big change. Especially with a toddler in the house. It certainly isn't easy or always practical to keep up with homecooked meals during a move so we focused on making things that are fun and easy to prepare. With summer (unofficially) in full swing here in Georgia, we made one of our favorites recently. Pink Lemonade! I found this recipe on Joy the Baker's site last year.


Aiden squeezes the lemons while I process the raspberries.

Wowie zowie is it ever yummy.

Do yourself a favor and make some. It is especially delicious when sipped on the back porch on these hot summer nights.

Well, it's good to finally have internet again and to be back in touch with my virtual world. This is going to be a great summer, I can't wait to share it with you all.

~Megan

PS

Anyone want to share their favorite summer recipes?