See Mama Sew: Day Three

 The first thing I worked on for day three of my See Mama Sew week was finishing the pants from day two.  They were so cute and little!  I forgot how small twelve month clothes are.  I was very happy with how the set turned out.  I think the birthday girl (or at least her mama!) was too.

Next, I worked on something for my little monkeys to wear to our little friend's birthday party.  Her party was a Minnie Mouse party, so I had to run with it.

I appliqued this shirt for Jack.  When I showed it to him he said, "Uhhhhhh, I think I will look ridiculous."  

I did a chevron (LOVE!) dress for Katie with the same Mickey applique.  I seriously cannot get enough of chevron.

I don't think that they've ever done matching outfits before, and I loved it.  Jack is probably getting a little old for some matchy-matchy business, so I better do it now if I'm going to!

They looked so cute!  (And how big does Jack look in this picture?!)

See Mama Sew:  Day Four will be some sweet little treats for a baby who is getting a mama and daddy!

See Mama Sew: Day 2 - Tiny Clothes!

It's day two of See Mama Sew. 

Last night I made this sweet little peasant top for our little friend Reagan's 1st birthday.  I was on the fence about adding the r because it's already pretty busy, but I like how it turned out.  

I *almost* finished these little ruffle pants to match.  I just need to slap the ruffles on and it will be ready to wrap!

I love how these turned out, and I love that we're giving her a homemade gift.  She's a sweet little muffin, and they're going to look so cute on her.

Happy Friday!

See Mama Sew - Day One

For my first See Mama Sew project, I started with a dress I had last year that I only wore once.  It doesn't fit me anymore, but I loved the material and didn't donate it to Goodwill.

It was this style, and it's a knit jersey material.

I gave that dress a little facelift.

I could eat this child with a spoon.  How did I live my whole life without her?

This is the dress now - it's a maxi skirt for Katie.

Are you freaking kidding me?  It's SO cute!!  I'm in love with it.  

I'm so excited about my project for day two.  It's a birthday gift, and may be hard for me to part with.  Happy Thursday!

See Mama Sew: Seven Days, Seven Projects

 My mother gave me a sewing machine about 10 years ago for Christmas.  I took a few sewing classes and put it in a closet.  I would take it out periodically, but never really did much with it on any sort of consistent basis.  It's much more fun to sew for a cute girl!  Now, I'm sort of obsessed.  For Katie's birthday I made all of her gifts (except a Bitty Baby doll).  I'm going to do seven days of projects, starting today.  I'm excited!   Here are the things I've made in the last few days

I'm in love with chevron!

A mustache skirt?  Yes please.  These embellished bib top shirts are all over etsy.  I love them.

I did this skirt for Katie to wear on her birthday.

It perfectly matched her "Happy Birthday To Me" t-shirt from Carter's!

I also made this sweet outfit she wore at her birthday party.  This is still my favorite of the things I've made recently.  I love the little Matryoshka apron skirt!

Katie loves hooded towels, but she's too big for the toddler sizes they sell at most stores, so I made her one.  (With lovely modeling by Jack!)  

I also made a cutie option for her baby doll!

So, next up is See Mama Sew.  Seven projects in seven days starts today!

Happy 6th Birthday Katie!

Today, this amazing girl turns six.  She spent the first four birthdays alone.  

Never again.

Thank you to my sweet friend Jen for taking this photo!

I will never know what she was like as a baby.  I don't know if she was fussy, or if she was a good eater.  I didn't get to rock her to sleep or get up with her to comfort her at night.  I never smelled her sweet baby breath or made an impression of her tiny baby foot.  I didn't pick out little tiny dresses and sweet little newborn gowns for her.  I didn't hear her first cry, see her first smile, help her sit up for the first time, watch her crawl, hear her big baby belly laughs, or see her take her first steps.  I have only a single photo of her from when she was a baby.  One.  I'm so thankful to have that.  

Our boys love for me to tell them stories about what they were like when they were babies.  I have none of those for Katie.  But she has a bigger story.  When I snuggle Katie in bed at night and we read books, when we're done with our stories I get to tell Katie a bigger story.  I tell her about her first mom and dad who were young and so excited to have a sweet baby.  I tell her about how they likely didn't know if they were having a little boy or a little girl, but how nervous and happy I think they were.  I tell her about how that mom and dad were probably very scared when their baby was born a few weeks too early.  And then I tell her that the mom and dad had to make a very brave, incredibly hard choice.  I get to tell her that those scared young people loved her so much, they had to let someone else take care of her for a little while, until her daddy and I could get to her.  It took us a while.  Longer than she probably wishes.  But I tell her how brave she was, and how proud I am of what a big girl she is.  And then I tell her the most important part. . . how amazingly lucky I am to be her mama forever.  I tell her how proud I am of her.  And I tell her how much she is loved by every single person who knows her.  I tell her she will never, ever be alone again, and that we are so happy we finally found her.  

At six years old, my girl is amazing.  She is smart and silly.  She is sassy and funny.  She is snuggly and sweet.  She is creative and witty.  She is kind and friendly.  She is tenacious and energetic.  She is happy and stubborn.  She loves dogs, Spongebob, reading books, eating hot dogs, jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the pool, swinging, taking a bath, going to school, singing, dancing, pushing her baby stroller, piggybacks from Henry, coloring, and her beloved iPad.  She is so very, very loved.

Happy 6th Birthday my sweet little Katie!

Katie's 6th Birthday Party

The title of this post, "Katie's 6th Birthday Party", is a little misleading.  It's not Katie's 6th birthday party; it's the birthday party she had as she turns six.  It's only her second birthday party and the second time her birth has been celebrated.  Last year we had a little party at Chris' parents house.  We weren't sure how she'd like a party, lots of people, noise, etc.  This year, we had a party at Gigi and Grampy's house and invited our friends, because we know now that Katie is the life of the party, not scared of a party!

The morning of the party, after I checked the mail, Katie's "big" birthday gift hadn't arrived yet.  I was really unhappy.  There was, I later found out, a mixup with the shipping box the sender used and it was returned to her.  I spent about an hour with this view the morning of the party as I quickly worked something up for her.

I used this invitation from Yankee Baby Designs on Etsy.  She was super easy to work with and the invitations were perfect.  

We had our easel by the end of the driveway.  It was a good thing, as the people across the street had about 50 people over that day, at the same time, so certainly there could have been some confusion about which house to go to for Katie's party.

I made yellow cupcakes and filled some with homemade strawberry jam.  They were all frosted in a delicious milk chocolate buttercream icing that David proclaimed the best icing in the world.  

I downloaded all of the cupcake picks from babalisme.  She's got lots of really cute matryoshka party downloads that are free.  Chris was really excited to help me cut them all out and tape them to toothpicks the night before the party.  

The children spent the majority of the party swimming, chasing the chickens, blowing bubbles, or playing on the swingset.  

I made this outfit for Katie to wear to her party, and I love it!

She was very excited for her cupcakes and to blow out the candles.

She was so patient and waited until everyone was done singing.

Several big blows later, wishes were made and the candles were blown out.  

She was a little unsure about the gifts at first.  She liked them, but she had no clue that she could open them and that there would be fun things inside.

She caught on quick.

Vanessa gave her perhaps her favorite item ever. . . A Disney princess microphone.

She looooooves it.

She performed for her people and got lots of applause, which she ate up.

She turned into a bit of a crazy Russian rapper, which was very amusing.  She sang her little heart out (and has continued to do so since we brought it home).

She also got her first bike!  She was a little uncertain about it, but climbed right up.  Teaching her how to ride should be interesting!

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated Katie's birthday with us!  I cannot believe my big girl turns six tomorrow!

Tuesday Twelve

1.  My attention to blogging has been very poor lately. 

2.  We're {finally} addressing our porch issue.  The porch has needed some attention for three years, you know since we freaking moved in quite a while.  

I've not taken any after shots, yet, but Chris has stained the floor a very nice gray and painted the risers a bright creamy white.

He's also removing the random 2x4 supports that were put on the base of each of the columns.  He's putting a block of wood under the center of each rail for support and trimming them out.  He does nothing halfway. . . it may have taken us some time to get to this project, but he'll do a great job.

We're currently debating about what will go on the porch when he's done....

3.  Katie and I took a quick trip to Massachusetts a few weeks ago.  We saw my BFF Michele and her family.  And yes, Michele and I purchased the same swimsuits for our girls and didn't know it.  That so doesn't surprise me.

Maggie is six months younger than Katie and about six inches taller.

4.  While we were in Massachusetts we saw my aunt and uncle and my cousin Sarah's little girl.  Katie LOVED the slip & slide they had.  Um, obviously.  And Em looks like she's auditioning for Zoolander.  I love this picture so much.

 5.  Katie was a champ on the plane.  She seriously acted like flying was an everyday thing for her. 

6.  We got to see our friend Kate and her TWO new babies.  They are delicious!  Katie and I were in baby snuggling heaven.

7.  My friend Jen took some fabulous photos of Katie and me.  She's so talented, and I love the pictures she got!

8.  We got to spend time with my Grammy and Grampy, which was fabulous.  My Grampy hadn't met Katie yet, and I think he was smitten.  Duh.

9.  We celebrated my birthday at the beginning of the month.  Jack drew me a card with everything on it that he wanted to buy me for my birthday.  He included a purse, lipstick, and a force field.  The three things that every mother needs.

We also celebrated Grampy's birthday!

10.  We had our last baseball game and our awards.

It was really sweet of the coach to include Katie in awards.  She was very excited, though it was hard to wait with everyone on the field until their team got called.  Waiting is hard!

I think this may be the year that Henry's number 5 gets retired.  He wasn't really jazzed about baseball this year, and I'll be surprised if he wants to play next year.

I got a little too much sun at the awards day. . . 

11.  Katie and Jack have started swimming lessons!

Katie is in the preschool level class, and she's doing great.

Jack is in level 1, and he's by far the strongest swimmer in that class.  He'll take level 2 during the next session to work more on strokes.

Lady K is also doing 6 weeks of therapeutic horseback riding through a {free} program.  It is amazing, and Katie absolutely loves it.

12.  I busted out my sewing machine and have been sewing like a madwoman.  It's all I want to do.  I wanted to call in sick yesterday to stay home and sew.  I started because I made a few things for Katie's birthday, and it's snowballed from there.

I made this skirt for Katie to wear on her actual birthday.  I'm going to make a little shirt to match.

And I made her this one, which I love!  Next up are a few gifts for friends, finishing off Kat's birthday gifts, and who knows what else.  

Have a great Tuesday!