In Which Matthew Turns Nine

Oh, my...the sweetness of this little guy!

He may be a little bit bigger, but he's just as sweet!  Happy birthday, Matt-Matt!

Little Things

Miss Prim sipped her tea and nestled down into the store room armchair. She too believed in the value of the little things.  Her first coffee in the morning drunk from her Limoges porcelain cup.  Sunlight filtering through the shutters of her room, casting shadows on the floor.  Dozing off over a book on a summer's afternoon.  The look in the children's eyes when they told you about some fact they'd just learned.  It was from the little things that the big ones were made, it definitely was.

 The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

News of the World

Hello!  Long time, no see!  I regret that I have missed weeks worth of stories and accounts of the happenings of daily life here in Spring Valley, yet the Tyranny of the Urgent combined with the Expectations of Christmas and the General Operations of the House have left little time for writing. 

Instagram has become a lot more attractive for relaying daily life; it's just so easy.  But hashtags and short sentences don't allow for telling complete stories, full accounts of memorable moments. So if only for my own amusement and as a digital scrapbook of sorts, I will write.  More often, I hope. 

The Dirty Dozen

Oh, this crew.

I am so thankful for The Cousins. 

With clusters of boys and girls, there's always someone fun to play with and they all get along so well.

Here's to family!

Fishing with Grandpa

Fishing with Grandpa is a given, at least to these kids.

They equate Mississippi with ponds, but the drought left our regular fishing hole dried up so we had to change venues.

 
The upside was a boat;

 the downside was that these fish aren't quite as desperate as the ones the kids were accustomed to "catching." 

 Jonathan got a large mouth bass right at the start then the catching slowed down considerably.

 
And despite my fears and reservations, Doug managed to take all the kids out on the water without anyone going overboard (I was the sole landlubber).

 

While the fishing wasn't great, there were also small frogs to catch which was ever so exciting.

All-in-all a good day to be out by the water.

Thanksgiving Antics

What a beautiful day to celebrate Thanksgiving!

 

It's always good to be out-of-doors and this wild crew had plenty of energy to use.

There was biking and basketball,

races on foot and on bike,

swinging and shooting,

working up an appetite for a lunch time feast.

The Pie Feast

Thanksgiving and pies just go hand-in-hand so why not host a celebration dedicated to this humble food?

 Years ago we attended a weekly co-op that held a Pie Feast the week before Thanksgiving.  It was simple:  bring your own lunch and a pie to share.

It was always fun to participate, and it's one of those things we've missed.  So after reading a reference to another Pie Feast last week, I decided it was time to host our own.

A simple message out to our church small group, a trip to the grocery store, and the baking began: savory (tomato pie featuring the last of our vine-ripened crop and a cottage pie) and sweet (apple, coconut cream, and chocolate whoopie pies).  Others brought chicken pot pie, pumpkin, pie and sweet potato pie.

And it was a roaring success!  Our little house was a full-to-bursting with some of our favorite people, feasting on good food and catching up on life.  Yet another time of gratitude in this Thanksgiving season!

Trick-or-Treat 2016

October 31 was a sweet day for our family.

Earlier in the month the kids started tallking about costumes, and three wanted to be vending machines.  I wasn't too thrilled about having three large boxes hanging about so I suggested that they all choose a particular candy.  They agreed (with the requirement that I buy them that particular candy/treat).

Our neighbor then mentioned that she was making matching costumes for all five of their family, and I thought, "Well, I can't let her show us up!"  The challenge was on to come up with something for Doug and I to wear as well.

I jokingly told Doug that it will go down as the year that I stayed home from church to make Halloween costumes.  It's true, but only because we were all battling a really bad cold.  I actually ended up taking Andrew to a walk-in clinic Sunday morning (with one craft project in my bag!).

Here's the run-down on costumes:

Naturally Doug had to be a Sugar Daddy - he's a good sport.  I snagged this remnant of yellow fabric at Wal-Mart on Saturday along with red felt.  It was just a matter of cutting out the necessary shapes/words and using fusible webbing to quickly iron it on (think, 4:30 Monday afternoon).  For me, Jelly Belly was the perfect way to laugh at myself.  Also last minute, I stitched up some pieces of clear vinyl on Monday afternoon and the boys blew up small balloons to fill up my costume.  (I did drop many during our walk through the neighborhood - I could improve the construction).

Construction-wise, Andrew's probably turned out the best.  I carefully enlarged a Snickers logo, cut out the letters in fabric and fused it to some plain white fabric.  I made a border with red and fused it to a brown pillowcase.  I plan to restitch the seams so it can be used on his bed.

Here's a great example of free!  Stephen's no-cost costume is big on creativity - Doug freehanded the logo, I painted it by moonlight, and Stephen added the final touches to the back.

Simplicity at it's best.  We chose felt based on an existing shirt, and then made a small round pillow with a simple enlarged logo on the front.  This will also live on his bed.

Jonathan wore the twin pillowcase to Andrew's with simple enlarged and fused letters.  It's shiny and fun, and I will stitch it back so he can continue to use it.

Josie received the biggest blessing from our day at home.  I had planned to make simple painted cardboard circles, but I really thought a sphere would make a more authentic Tootsie Pop for our Toootsie.  So we embarked on "one-day-paper-mache."  It was a very warm day with a brisk breeze that quickly dried our layers of newspaper and flour glue.  I gave it a couple of coats of purple spray paint, and when it was dry, I added the white logo.  It was perfect!

 

And then there was The Kiss.

 

I just wanted to squeal everytime I looked at her - she was just so cute!  This simple costume was made of another remnant of fabric (sides stitched with a hole left for the arms, simple gathered neck with elastic; I didn't bother to hem the bottom).  I then made a simple paper cone and covered it with leftovers from Jonathan's costume and added a paper "Kisses" from the end and taped it all to a glittery, silver headband.

Cost of supplies: $25.98
The joy of friendly competition: Priceless!