vintage goodness in the mail

My cousin Jodi emailed me a few weeks ago, wondering if any of my kids would be interested in her childhood Barbie dolls that she was ready to part with. I assured her that one very lucky girl would be thrilled to take them into her care.




Stella didn't know anything about this package coming her way, so she tore into the wrapping of the mysterious package with her name on it, squealing with delight when she saw what was inside. She quickly set up in my room (where there was some open floor space and a door to keep her brother out) to explore the contents of her new box of Barbie treasures.




OK, she was hamming it up a little on that last photo. But you can see her great 6 year old vampire teeth so well in it! She is so cute with her new teeth growing in right now.


It didn't take long for her to get her brand new dolls from Christmas out and start trying on the jackpot of vintage clothing that Jodi sent. And I had to laugh when I saw the old and new dolls all nestled together when it was time to put them away. What a contrast between the two- painted on lashes and pink streaked mermaid hair, next to the real (if made from plastic hair) eye lashes and a modest blond bob.




Lyle was SO excited to see the little bag of stickers and other goodies that was included in this special package, with him in mind.



He stopped watching Speed Racer long enough to inspect and lay out the contents of his bag, and to plaster stickers all over himself and the furniture. And he REALLY likes Speed Racer.




Even the packing materials were fun!






Thank you so much, Jodi, for making their day! I am so grateful for the connection this blog has helped us keep with our relatives and friends far and wide, and it is so cool to receive something fun like that in return for sharing our lives with everyone here. Your dolls will definitely bring many hours of joy to Stella and I know that is exactly what you were looking for when you generously offered them. Thank you!!!

rainy day

It's super short, but we thought it was funny (and appropriate, since all we seem to have lately are rainy days...)

sleepy & super

A fairly recent development: Lyle does not take naps anymore, and instead goes to bed at night EARLY and EASILY. And doesn't wake up when you turn the lights on to take photos of him in his cute sleepy positions. :)








And here are just a few photos of Stella & Lyle's alter egos.

S H A Z Z A M !

hopscotch

Cold, windy day outside + masking tape + bean bags = hopscotch fun!

flashback.5

Some more random photos, this time they are pre-Lyle. And if you haven't seen them already, go check out the pics on Daisy's blog from the girls' trip with my parents. They are exploring in Florida and having a wonderful time! I am jealous (I've never been to FL) but enjoying the time as a mom of only 2 kids :)


[Daisy jumping]


[Hazel jumping]


[Stella in her star outfit]


[Daisy and Daddy]


[Jason & Hazel at the beach]


[One of my all-time favorites, Jason & Stella snuggling]

flashback.3

A few of our favorite video clips featuring Stella & Lyle.

lyle + stella

We have been crazy busy (do I say that all the time?) so I've been a little slack on the blog posts. So I thought I would throw up some recent photos real quick, and all I found were ones of Lyle & Stella. I guess I need to get those other kids in front of the camera more often!


As you can see, Lyle pretty much exists without clothing these days. He is learning to use the potty, so this makes things much easier for him and he prefers being naked anyway. He actually does wear a shirt a lot of the time (he will choose one and then wear it as many days as he can until I have to beg him to let me wash it), but somehow none of my photos reflect that.


More rain again today, which has foiled my plans for the Cleaning Club to help me wash the outsides of my windows. We'll do the insides and hope for better weather on my next turn. Hope everyone has a great Monday!

self video portrait

Just a little look at the magic that is Stella. She has been asking to use the Photo Booth program on our laptop a lot more since we upgraded and have video capabilities. This is just one of the many awesome videos we have found on there!


For anyone reading who does not know Stella personally, this video clip is a rare look inside her personality when nobody is watching her. We don't get to see this very often!

art supply makover

My kids love to draw. All four of them, all the time. And of course, our art supplies need to be sorted and reorganized from time to time because they just get messy when they are not put back properly.


We've been wanting to organize the crayons and colored pencils by color for some time. It just seemed like it would make drawing and coloring easier and more enjoyable. Plus, I am just a pushover for things arranged in rainbow order. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Sometimes I walk into a store where fabric or yarn or paint is arranged on a big wall in rainbow order and it absolutely takes my breath away! So, yes- I am a freak for color.


What we did: purchased 2 Rubbermaid kitchen caddies on the clearance rack at the grocery store, along with one set of small jelly jars and one set of taller ones. We labeled the jars with the handy labels that came with them, and sorted all the pencils and crayons into them. Voila! beautifully organized drawing supplies.


This way, the kids can easily find the exact shade of blue they are looking for, or just check to see what different types of green are there before they choose one to use in their project. The jars are clear, so they can pick it up and easily see even the shorter pencils or broken crayons that might be of use to them. If the jar is too full, we just go through and purge out the ones in really bad shape or those with too many multiples.


And one more great development that came from this sorting project: we got a shiny new pencil sharpener. We used to have an electric one, but that had too many limitations: it only took one size of pencil, it got jammed fairly easily by broken leads, and it ate up the pencils way too fast- which is a major concern when you are talking about decent colored pencils, which are not cheap.


Here is how our broken and dull pencils looked before we got the new sharpener. The kids would just get frustrated because the pencils were so bad and we didn't have a good sharpener.


We went to an office supply store and picked up this all metal pencil sharpener- Old School style- and mounted it in the kitchen on the end of a cabinet where it is out of the way but easily accessible to the kids, as well as nearby where they usually are to draw at the dining room table. My friend Rachel said it made her feel all nostalgic just using it and I agree. We had one mounted on the wall in the basement growing up, and of course used them at school. You just can't beat the super sharp tip you get from this bad boy, and you can go slowly and do just as much as you need without wasting a lot of the pencil in the process. We are very pleased and highly recommend this piece of essential home equipment.


And I just love the fact that my kids get big thrills from super sharp drawing pencils. Sigh.

stella's birthday

Some of you may have noticed that Stella's birthday came and went without a post from me. Yikes! Well, my excuse is that I was busy putting together a fabulous party for her- the first one she has ever wanted! She knew exactly what she wanted (a pirate party!) and she sat down and made a list of eleven kids she wanted to invite. So we put a lot of effort into making it a really great day for her and her friends. I have a LOT of pictures, so settle in with a mug of something yummy, and I'll tell you all about it :)

The invitations

These were an even bigger hit with the kids than we had thought! Some of them found their bottles waiting in their mailbox, while others with bodies of water nearby were lucky enough to find their bottle at the edge of a creek or pond (what wonderful, cooperative parents our kids' friends have!) We even had one who dug her bottle right out of the sand at the lake. And then Stella was thrilled one afternoon to receive one of the bottles back with a reply from some of her guests! These were so much fun for everyone.


We had seen this idea several places on the internet, and we got extra elaborate with it. We printed the text on parchment colored paper in an extra pirate-y font, then crumpled them all up (which was a LOT of fun), flattened them back out, and burned the edges with a lighter. Then we rolled them up scroll style, tied them with twine, and stuffed them into clear glass bottles (from the Yoo-Hoo binge I let everyone go on so we could get the bottles) with sand and a few seashells in the bottom. Then we stuck a cork in the top (regular wine corks- we had a few lying around...) and labeled them on the side with the kids' names. The labels were on the same paper, crumpled and burned, then stuck on with double sided tape. They were hand written though, because I didn't think to have some printed out. I got pretty good with my calligraphy skillz by the time we finished all the labeling for this party!


Stella helped fill the bottles with sand and stick the messages inside.


And here is what they looked like inside:


You can read the text a bit easier here. We got the wording from combining several ideas we saw around the internet. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but don't forget to use your pirate voice in your head while you read this- the effect is much better. :)

The decorations

Daisy & Beatrice helped me cut out all of these wonderful little skull & crossbones to make flags for the doorways- they turned out so great!



We used our Halloween tablecloths to decorate the table, but added a red cloth in between. We sprinkled some skull and bones confetti around as well as some gold coins, and the girls each painted a little treasure chest to put out. We gave a little plastic skull a nice pirate-y bandanna and set Stella's message bottle out as well. It turned out great! We also had black plates and skull and bones napkins, thanks to the Halloween stuff being out in the stores already!


We picked the cookie cakes up from the grocery store, where they did the lettering and the borders but were unable to do the skull and bones because they said they couldn't draw (wrong profession, maybe? could we get someone who can draw to work in the cake decorating department?) so I talked them into giving me a little icing so I could do it myself at home. I was in a rush so it's not my best work, but it looked pretty good and they were just going to eat it anyway. We also added gold plastic coins to the borders for an extra touch of pirate treasure goodness.


We also had balloons on the mailbox to greet our guests.



The party

As the kids arrived, I had Stella stand outside the front door where the pirate flag was hanging and took their pictures. This was the first group to show up, and I got lucky to get this one shot before Stella abandoned most of her pirate outfit ("It's too hot!") She had been wearing it around the house for several days before the party, but the heightened emotions of the big day made it all too much. So we quickly came up with a pared down version before the next kids arrived, and she was comfortable for the rest of the party.






I realize now looking through that I missed one of the boys in these photos- sorry Yonah!
Everyone looked so great in their costumes- it really helped set the mood for the day to see how much everyone had gotten into it!

After they arrived, the kids went in and got tattoos applied if they wanted them, and got to choose a pirate name tag too. This is the one other thing that I missed getting a photo of. But we had name tags with silly pirate names made up for the kids to choose from, and Hazel did the temporary tattoos wherever they wanted them. Some of the kids were into this part, some just skipped it altogether.


Then we moved into the kitchen and did a quick craft project. We made little pirate ships based on the idea we found here. They were a little tricky for small hands, and the moms needed to help a little with gluing the sails to the toothpicks, but they turned out really cute and I think the kids had fun. The craft also served the purpose of occupying the earlier arrivals while we waited on the later ones, so that we were all able to begin the first game together. The ones who got there late just took the craft home with them to do later.


On to the games! We passed out some little loot bags I made up ahead of time to each of the kids. I used black fabric that I had on hand for the bags and purchased just a half yard of piratey fabric to make a patch for the front of each bag, so they were really cheap! The bags had a little tag with their name on it so they could keep track, and each one had a plastic eye patch for them to wear.


We went outside to the front yard and had a big coin hunt- Daisy had sprinkled gold plastic coins all over the yard and the kids just ran around picking them up and adding them to their loot bags. They had a blast! We had gotten a bag of 400 gold coins at Party City and it turned out to be a great amount so that each kid had a good little supply in addition to all the ones we used for decorating.



The first thing they did when they got back inside was to dump out their bags and start counting their loot!


Then it was time for cake and ice cream. We sang to Stella and watched her try to blow out the trick candles. She also tried to act like she was surprised when they came back on, even though she specifically requested them- ha ha!




We also had fruit and cheese cut up, with some skull and bones party picks to spear them with. The drinks were "sharks blood" with cherry kool-aid ice cubes in sprite, which looked great in the skull and bones cups we found at the party store.



Finally, it was time for the big scavenger hunt for the treasure chest. We made up the clues ahead of time and got them hidden around the yard.


You can read all the clues more easily here.


We assigned Hazel to be the official reader for the hunt, since none of our party guests are reading yet. She did a great job reading the clues and giving gentle hints to help them along.



When Stella grabbed the treasure chest out of the cabinet it was in, she went straight to the middle of the floor to open it. It only took a second for the mob to surround her!





The chest was something I picked up at Hobby Lobby, and it was filled with a bag of chocolate coins for each kid, plus a gold pirate earring and a party blowout for each. The presents had also been moved to the same location as the treasure, so we opened them as soon as everyone settled down with their chocolate coins.


Stella got some wonderful gifts from her friends- several really great books, lots of fun paper dolls, a new umbrella, and some pens and notebooks too. She was thrilled!


After she was done opening gifts, we told everyone it was time to walk the plank! Jason had set up some different sized boards on the front walk for the kids to balance on, which turned out to be really fun. After that they all scattered- climbing the trees and playing around the yard. It was a really great way to end the party.





WOW! That was a lot to cram into one post. I really wanted to document all the details of Stella's big day because we worked really hard to make it happen for her and it went off without a hitch. Thanks so much to all the kids who came to celebrate with us and to the moms who stayed and helped out- we had a blast and it would not have been the same without every one of you!