Back to School, Baby

Happy Dancin' going on over here! I love the first day of school, especially now that I'm not the one actually going to school :) Kaitlyn gets so excited the day before, all full of plans. And the morning of, she pops right out of bed and jumps right into getting ready for school. I love that, even on days like today where I wasn't fully ready to pop out of bed with her. My morning was a bit of a rush trying to fit it all in - the ABC pancakes that we HAD to have today since we did it last year

and making sure Kaitlyn signed the note on the treat for her teacher. Much as I thought about doing something super-cute I went with simple. Printed off a tag (printable found here) and attached it to a candy bar that I had Kaitlyn pick out on a quick grocery run yesterday. And then silly me forgot to make sure it was all ready to go last night.

And making sure we got a few photos before rushing out the door. Phew! Of course once we were out there we ended up waiting 20 minutes for the bus to show up. Turns out the list at the school was right and although they claim they didn't change the route, the pick up time is somehow later this year. I think it will take a couple more days of this before any of us will trust it though - bus times weren't very consistant last year and more than one child missed the bus due to someone thinking the bus being later a few times meant it was a permanent change. (don't get me started on bus issues - I'm not exactly happy with ours)

But once the kids were on the bus we all breathed a sigh of relief. And I ran home to finish setting up for my own back to school party :) A few of the neighborhood ladies were able to join me for a little brunch and a lot of chatting - so fun! It was a great opportunity to get to know a couple of the newer neighbors that I hadn't met yet. And you know me - I don't do a party without putting a little effort into it. So here are a few shots of the party set up
The drinks:

The table: I grabbed the floral arrangement from my bathroom and an apple from the fridge - easy!
The food table: I had the banner and everything left over from last year's party.

I went really light and easy with the food. Yogurt and granola (Sam's grandmother's recipe that we try to keep on hand), fruit,

and muffins. I've been experimenting with a few different recipes and have been happy to find some winners. Apple oat (perfect for school, right?), sweet potato (on a constant quest lately to get the kids to eat more veggies) and chocolate. You really MUST try the chocolate ones. They taste exactly like chocolate cupcakes (Kaitlyn says they're much better than the store-bought chocolate muffins) and all it takes to make them is a cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree (you don't taste the pumpkin at all, though you might if you tried a yellow cake mix instead of devil's food). I jotted down the recipe one day while watching Food Network, but I've seen variations of it all over Pinterest lately.

And that's pretty much it! The ladies were having so much fun they didn't leave until after lunchtime :) Then I took some of the extra muffins over to friends that hadn't been able to make it for the party and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with them. Pretty much a perfect First Day of School :) Tomorrow Ty starts preschool and *shocker* I am trying out a preschool program after all. Fingers crossed it turns out ok, though with all the prep work I already have I fully intend to still use that and rely on the program more for the social part for him and a little break for me.
I'll leave you with one more back to school photo. Everyone say awwwww......

Linking to:






Gingersnap Crafts Back to School Party

Argyle (Take 2)

I pulled out the crochet hooks again the other day and took another stab at the argyle hat - this time in more girly colors. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I think I've almost perfected my technique on the diamonds. Kaitlyn has decided that pink is no longer her color though so I went ahead and listed it in my shop.

*For those of you that would like the pattern - I'm working on it! It's my first time writing a crochet pattern and I want to make sure I get it right. I might even have one or two people try it before I'm confidant enough to post a tutorial here. I'd love your thoughts though - how does it look?

Linking to:

Argyle

I think argyle is adorable as an accent piece, don't you? I ran across an argyle knitted hat pattern a couple weeks ago and really wanted to make one. Except I don't knit. And have you tried finding argyle crochet patterns online? They don't exist! I was shocked. And annoyed. And after much searching I finally decided fine! I'll make my own pattern!

So here is my first attempt. What do you think? Not bad for an amateur, eh? I'm pretty pleased with it (despite the fact that there are a couple things I will change next time I attempt it) and Kaitlyn's in love. I may or my not keep this prototype but it's cute enough to list in my etsy shop, right?

After a few more practices I may or may not write up a pattern (for anyone that's interested. Is there anyone interested?). But for now I will tell you that I started off with a pattern I already knew and liked, then worked in the brown for the diamonds as I got to that point (I won't tell you how many times I unpicked the first couple rounds with the brown because I kept getting the spacing wrong lol). After the hat was completely finished I went back in with the lighter blue yarn and top stitched in the second set of diamonds. And viola!

Linking to:




Stories A2Z

Not Just a Housewife

Week in the Life 2011 - Wrap Up

Sunday was the last day of my Week in the Life project and I'm happy to see I did get quite a few more photos each day than the few I started out the week with. That was due in part to telling the kids I was trying to take lots of photos and letting them take the camera whenever they wanted to. I even let Kaitlyn take the small one with her to a sleepover at her friends's house. It also got easier as the week went on, in part because the end of the week was much more eventful than the beginning of the week. I'm still not sure how much I will take away from this year's exercise of trying to see the beauty in the every day but when I do take the time to sit down and pull it all together with my journaling and copies of my lists I hope I will be pleasantly surprised.

Here are a few of the shots from the rest of the week. Woke up early one day and decided to do my toes. Kaitlyn woke up when I was partially done and got hers glittered too.

Spent quite a bit of time working on crafts for my new "shop" on Etsy (woohoo!) I hope it takes off as it's already been a lot of work.

Made cornbread one night. The kids love it. But does anyone else find that this is the messiest bread in the world?! Every time my kids get near it I have crumbs EVERYWHERE.

Tyler helped me with the bathroom scrubbing this week. His favorite was shining the mirrors - it made me happy too as it kept him off the floor and out of my way so I didn't bleach his pjs.

This one is out of order - it was from Sunday morning. He had taken the motorcycle to Charlottle with a buddy while the kids and I were at Audrey's. He ended up being caught in a rain storm on the way home so of course the bugs and the mud had to be polished away as soon as possible. I totally had to follow him out to the garage to take a photo when I he came in to grab an old toothbrush, telling him I MUST document his craziness :)

Just a couple of my gladiolas chose to wait to bloom until I got back from Utah (we missed most of them :( ). Love the color.

Everyone in the pool at Audrey's - what a blast. We spent at least 5 hours per day in the water both days we were there.

Ice cream Sunday night after a long day at a birthday party and grocery shopping. We love that screen porch.

And here are a couple Kaitlyn took at her sleepover.