Maycember

Grace made a nifty multimedia sign for Juliet using the 'marquee' letters in the mudroom

Grace also painted her hand very vibrantly.

Kennedy's mom, bravely, hosted a sleepover party at a hotel for her 11th birthday!  I hung out a while, waiting for Emily to finish up her final track meet of the year, and it was easier to leave the party than to leave our house. lol.

A bunny outside of the pool.

Hot tub time!

About a year ago now, the blog printing service that I've used for all of my blogs announced that they were going out of business.  Naturally, I ordered As many blogs as I had published, which got us through the end of 2023, possibly halfway through 2024.  Either way, I needed to find a new publisher for 2024, and I am so happy with this new blog!  I import the whole year and it divvies it up into equal volumes, and makes it look super sleek and modern!  But, I just know it's going to look so dated in 15 years. lol.

The posts below were chosen because I was texting with Kristy, so both of them are because she is featured in them. = )

Old and New.

Cynthia sent me the most beautiful collection of classic German wood cuts!  I did have to ask Christin for assistance because I couldn't translate it and the internet failed me on at least one of them, but they are beautiful books, and I love them so much.

Billy has finally talked me into doing the nerdiest thing that I've ever done: make a DND character.  Honestly, I'm excited, but I know, deep down, it's so nerdy.  Oh, so nerdy.  I'm a dwarf with a two-handed axe, btw.  Steve is going to be our DM at our next meetup with the Cornishes, in July.  We decided to set up our characters at the conclusion of our last get together.

Emily made baklava for Avia! (Finally! The ingredients have been collecting dust since February!)

William was invited to spend a Sunday afternoon with his friend Jacob, so we stopped in at the Looking Glass Brewery, where I got some of the amazing Crab Rangoon Nachos, and took a picture of a flower that looks as though it has been spray painted!  His friend lives five minutes away, so we collected him and headed home afterward.

William made his teachers some goodbye cards for the last day of school!

Picking out and making dinner every night during summer is so hard.  So, I had Grace and Juliet each pick out a meal to make last week.  I liked it and 100% will do again. = )  Juliet made a beef and pepper dish that everyone enjoyed!

Grace made a crockpot meal that we also enjoyed!

While the twins cleared out their American Girl Doll toys, I emptied their "upcoming" closet, reclaiming space and hangers!  We now have room in both closets, and a huge box of get rid of clothes for their yard sale this weekend!

Latin practice has looked a lot like homeschool this summer.  On the first day, they wore swimsuits in anticipation of a playdate with Heleena, and on day four, they worked in a box full of 'garage sale' bound clothes. <3

William recreated a picture from last year at the orthopedic doctor.  He's a little taller this go round. ; )

His hat had a little bit of a face going on at the same appointment. = )

So, what this post told me is that we have been super busy with big things, and not much going on in the catchall post.  This year is the first year I've heard the phrase "Maycember" but just know, it may be here to stay, as it is so a propos!

later days

Crafting and Cooking

We'll kick off the post with the baklava that Emily made!  It was quite tasty!  She's been in the mood to make some more, I just need to get her the supplies. ; )

Kristy gave us (a second round of) huge zucchinis, so I got to work on them!

First off was cutting one of them up for the dehydrator.  I used 4 from her this summer and have maybe 2 cups of flour to show for it?

The second one I shredded and made 2 loaves of zucchini bread.  Neither of which I took an end product for.  If I'm offered a late season one, I'll made on more batch and be sure to take a picture to add to this post!

I saw this cool hack that you can put these freezer pops in a vacuum sealed cup or water bottle and take them to the beach or on a trip for a cool treat! Well, when I packed them up, we ended up spending the ice cream money that Avia gave us at the end of our adventure, and never got to them.

I wasn't quite ready to part with the water bottle, and so I started bringing the twins freezer pops for our afternoon walks home from school!  I bring three, one for each of them, and just over halfway home there is a public trash can.  Once their first one is gone, we cut the third in half, which lasts them the perfect amount until we are home!  So far, I've only forgotten once!

Grace wanted to use food dye to make a rainbow cupcake desert for our most recent game day with the Cornishes.  I feel like we eat plenty of dye without adding more into our diet, so I asked her if she could maybe use fruit, or other food instead.  She did a beautiful job, and it looked so colorful!

I made some coconut cookies.  They touted only being 3 ingredients, but the comments added egg and flour, which made them quite good!  I added chocolate chips to some of them, and it turns out that was also a good move. lol.

I made another round of squash soup with some of our bounty!

Just as good as last year!

Grace showing off our blended, ground, and milled zucchini flour!

Grace found a super cute pea pod stuffie on the internet.  She wanted to save money to buy it, but I was able to convince her to try and make one instead.  It came out so cute!!!

Her inspo: 

Loving this season of the year and of life!

later days

Crafts and Projects and Food

My ironing board cover finally petered out, and I didn't realize how awful the old one was, until I replaced it!  Ironing board covers have a nice built in batting that I hated to toss, so I cut out any swatches that were large enough to make cord wraps!

The first two came out super cute!  I'm sure I have enough to make two more, but I don't know if I'll get more than that out of the old cover.  

I made another round of potato flour.  (Speaking of which, I have some potatoes in the basement that might be flour in the near future.)

Grace was an excellent helper on the final step!

I found a tutorial on how to microwave dry my basil!!!! 

It worked perfectly and I've added it to my shaker. = )

The girls' Easter dresses came in, and so I dug through my fabric to find a very similar gingham to make William's bowtie!!! = )

One of my personal goals is that when I have out all of the sewing elements (cutting pad, iron, ironing board, fabric chest) that I make a few extra cord wraps.  Maybe one day I'll have enough of a stash to have a booth at a craft fair again!

My walled button popped off of my wallet.  = (  With the help of google lens, I was able to find an exact match, but it was $10 + shipping on Ebay.  I didn't even pay that much for it when I bought it.  So, I thought I'd try my hand at repairing it.

The repair worked for just long enough that I found a replacement wallet, for $3, at the thrift store.  It's a little different, and no snaps this time! = )

Grace was practicing some of her art class skills. = )

The robotics team was having a bake sale fundraiser, for which Emily made backlava!  She made a large pan of pistachio and a small pan of walnut.  I helped with a few things, but it was mostly her time and energy!

She also made no bake cookies and banana bread!  The sale was a success, but she didn't bring home the leftover baklava. so sad.

Grace and Juliet wanted to make something fancy too, so they made cupcakes!

I found this cute dodecahedron planter at the thrift store, and it made me think of Natalie.  So, I bought it and added some vinyl numbers.  After discussing it with Billy, 12 was the number that I left off, since it would be up, in the most desirable orientation. = )

Emily went to a friend's party at the skating rink.  She dressed up as Elizabeth Afton from a show that I've not heard of.  Her friend is really into Dr. Who, so she made her gift look like a tardis.

Lots of deail!

She also stapled in some "Exploding Tardis" fabric that I had left over from a long-ago project.

Billy ended up with a hole in one of his jeans, so I tired my repair technique on his jeans.  He's worn them in his rotation several times now, and says that he doesn't feel a difference, so I'm calling it a win!  There were also a few smaller holes that I closed up, so that they wouldn't grow.

Grace made a rock gift for her Sunday school teacher's upcoming birthday.  She painted the rocks in Harry Potter colors, because Lisa likes Harry Potter. = )

I bought another round of 25 cent cellphone covers for my garden path.  The girls were playing with them over the break and I'm going to need A LOT more. 

Emily's dance recital is coming up in April, and we're getting the information dump in preparation thereof.  One of the items was advanced flower orders.  In my quest to buy less (and create less waste) I grabbed some of the artificial flowers from Alice's birthday party, and some ribbon that came in a bag of other things we wanted, but were just going to pass along.  I was really pleased with the end result, and hope my dancer will be too!

To follow up that last post, I did break down and buy a fabric marker, new, in packaging to help aid my clothing patching.  The spot I fixed on my jeans looked pretty good, with a cute triangle pattern.  I also reinforced one of the belt loops, edged the tops of the pockets and caught a few small holes.

William's pants, however, made it much harder to see my lines!

The end result was lack luster, but hopefully the holes won't grow!!!

So, long story time:

The band is doing a pie fundraiser.  The kids are expected to sell the pies and collect the money.  Then, the parents are expected to help make pies and help deliver them. Well, Emily sold pies mostly to her teachers, and we are also expected to pick up the pies Saturday, after making them.  I don't really have that much freezer space, so all week, we've been eating freezer food and meals, I didn't buy any new freezer food.  We finally have a place to put all of the pies that Emily sold!!!

Well, one of the things that we cleaned out of the freezer was the half box of phyllo dough that was leftover from her robotics baklava.   No one complained about the mid-week baklava.  = )

Emily's upcoming birthday is at a skating rink, so we pulled out our favorite favors: rocks!  Using my cutter, I cut out tiny vinyl ice skates.  Emily helped attach them to the rocks.  Next,  I spraypainted them white, then turned them and sprayed the bottom. = )  Today, Emily added touches of purple and yellow before pulling off the stickers.  Some of them came out super cute, others came out okay.  
 

January and February are good months for baking and crafts, and I feel like we made the most of it!

later days