StuntSewing

My girls love P.J.'s! They would never change into their 'day-times' if I didn't push the issue. Maiah even goes so far as to make sure that we are getting ready to go somewhere when I tell her it's time to get dressed for the day. If there's nothing on the agenda, that stubborn 3 year old doesn't want out of her jammies.

Never have P.J. been such serious business for me as the past couple of weeks.... yes weeks! It started out simple enough. The need to learn both knit sewing and shirring. I thought these jammie dresses would be the perfect project. Armed with notes about how other people have succeeded with shirring I set out upon PROJECT JAMMIES. The girls were so excited. Grace spent a fair amount of time helping me cut them and and sitting next to me sewing. This simple project took weeks of trying, pulling hair and ripping seams. Sometimes the fabric would pucker up and sometimes it wouldn't! I did everything I've ever read about shirring, at least twice! Thanks to the chain stitch and some wonderfully detailed instructions on the babylocksergers group over at yahoo they will do! The girls love them because I made them and they helped make them and their dad loves that they have little biker girls on them. I love that they are done and I have a little shirring experience under my belt.

I took a few minutes last night to dig out the weeds from my front beds. It was a perfect evening for it, 70ish degrees, the kids out playing with the neighbors, taking a minute to stop and enjoy nature. hmmm, maybe a trip up the canyon is in order. I hope you enjoy a few of my flowers!

Ahhh... the lazy days of summer are about to come screeching to a halt. Three of the kids start a new school on Thursday this week. Uniforms, lunch boxes, backpacks and hair done first thing everyday... I can't wait :-/ I really could wait, if that were a choice, but it's not so we'll all pack in The Taylor Bus aka Odyssey a couple of times a day and we'll smile about it damn it!

Enough about that, this is supposed to be about our cookie party. The only flavor of cookie Grace will eat are sugar cookies... This is quite a bummer for me since I'll take just about any kind of cookie any day of the week and there are far easier cookies to make than frosted sugar cookies. Ahh well, I was smart this time, I doubled the recipe and still have 1/2 in the fridge waiting for us to do this all again... hmm was that smart??? I should have double the frosting as well, oh well! As you will see there was about equal parts frosting the cookies and eating the frosting. Jax swooped in, after a mario super strikers fest with the neighbor, frosted and ate all in about 2 seconds. Olivia liked making her animals multicolored, Maiah mostly cared that there was a cookie in front of her and a spoon with frosting in her mouth and Grace, ah Grace is my perfectionist, if a limb broke off I had to 'glue' it back on, she wouldn't leave a cookie with a mm unfrosted. It didn't matter how long it took it was going to be 'professional' she said to me.

The final picture is of our cookie zoo, they look nice an easter ish don't they :-)

Down the hatch!

One of the best things about living in Utah is the summer corn. For about a month in the heat of the, all too short in my opinion, summer you can enjoy corn on the cob until your heart's content! The kids and I had a great excuse for corn and family fun a couple of weeks ago. We were at my grandmas with friends and family. I so desperately wanted to snap a picture of the bright yellow corn piled high, dripping with butter, the pitcher of iced tea and the glasses of wine. But alas, I was at my grandma's house and didn't really want to hear about how I have certainly lost my mind, by photographing the food, for the rest of the night. So there you go that's all you get. I did get some other pictures though. Olivia helped my shuck the corn and did a darn good job of it. Grace had a blast with croquet and all the kids enjoyed ice cream with 'mud' as we've always called it (chocolate syrup). In my 30+ years I've never visited this house and had there be no ice cream and mud. I hope I can live up to that, I know I try!

THE game of summer :-)

Playing Hard

Shucking Corn

ahhh what memories

Here I am trying to find interesting ways of seeing ordinary things

Certainly this will give it away...