Just in time, too...

About a week ago, I ran across the cutest thing ever.  A Tooth Fairy door.  Since we've only had two visits from the Tooth Fairy, I figured it wasn't too late to introduce this to the girls.  When I explained it, I didn't get much reaction, other than Isabelle looking at me like I had lost it.  That's kind of how she looks at me most of the time anyway.

Being the impatient type, I had to run out to Hobby Lobby Monday for supplies.  I'm certainly glad I only gave up fabric and yarn for Lent and not Hobby Lobby completely.  Because I'd probably be rocking in the corner sucking my thumb by now.


Looks like some goblin must have smudged the lens on my camera phone...

I had the scrapbook paper on hand for something else (certainly not scrapbooking) and I had an old board picture that a friend had given me that had started to peel.  I bought a doll house door and doorknobs and some paint.  I figured putting it on a board instead of directly on the wall was the way to go.  When I really thought about it, I decided that we would only put it up when TF was due for an appearance.  Otherwise I'd be making one every time we had a tooth fall out.  I know my kids.

I was just working on it slowly.  A coat of paint here, some Mod Podge there.  No rush.

Then today I had to speed things up.  We have a loose tooth.  We just were at the dentist yesterday (no cavities, hoorah!) and they never even mentioned that she had any starting to get wiggly, but sure enough, she came running into the kitchen in a frenzy to tell me her tooth was loose.  Not a "yay! my tooth is loose!" frenzy... we're talking panic.  Like she hasn't lost two teeth already.  I swear the child actually said these words to me... "But Momma, I can't handle a loose tooth!"  Yes, child, I'm sure you have so much going on in your 6 year old life that wiggling a tooth out is going to just be such an inconvenience.

She's such a drama queen.

So I finished the door tonight.  We probably have a good week of wiggling ahead, but I wanted to have it ready.


I'm glad I sew and crochet better than I paint =)


The Tooth Fairy Castle

I love it.  I think it's one of those special traditions that my kids will carry on with their kids.  I hope so anyway.

The door is tough to completely close, so I'm not even going to.  That way it doesn't get ripped off when they try to open it.  And, you know, so dear TF doesn't think we accidentally locked her out or anything.  She has to leave a good reward for this tooth that is going to cause my child fits of anguish for the next week.

DeGray Lake part 3 - the finale!

Unfortunately, after our first day at the lake, the weather decided to turn on us.  A serious bummer.  Spring has been really mean to us this year... teasing us with a nice day here and there and then plunging us back into the icebox.  I know that most people have it far worse.  This is Arkansas, after all.  I'm complaining about 40 degrees when other people are still shoveling snow.  And that's why I don't live above the Mason-Dixon line.  =)

The second day, after the kids had a nutritious breakfast of syrup with a side of pancake, we decided to go fishing.  I don't fish.  Here's the deal:  fish freak me out.  I can handle little goldfish, but once you get past 2 inches long, I really don't want to have any part of them.  I don't like to eat them, I am NOT cleaning them, and even though I don't like them, I do think it's kind of mean to hook them just to throw them back in the lake.  "Sorry I just impaled your mouth and half-way suffocated you, but it's cool because I'm setting you free now!"

I do enjoy everything else about fishing.  I think it's fun to cast the line in the water and just be quiet and relax.  So really, I don't even need a hook.  Just tie a sinker on my string and we're good.



The girls had all picked out Barbie poles.  Bill wasn't really thrilled that they picked out such girlie fishing poles since it was just inevitable he'd end up holding one of theirs more than his own.


But he's a man and can pull off fishing with a pink pole.


My little fisherpersons.

Olivia and Zoe got bored pretty quickly, and seeing that I didn't care to be out there to begin with, we went back to the room and left Bill and Iz to fish.  They didn't catch anything.


Although Iz says they caught 29 fish, kissed them, and put them back in the lake.

The rest of the day was spent driving around for the most part.  Olivia wanted to go swimming in the pool.  I had told her the day before that she could, but I really had no desire to take them to the pool.  Bill caved and decided to take them.


Why is he wearing a shirt in the pool?


Because it was COLD outside.

The pool was heated, but that only helped as long as you were IN the water.  Crazies, I tell you.  I stayed nice and cozy in my hoodie snapping pictures from the lounge chairs.  I'm crazy, but I don't like freezing my hiney off.

And that's about all of our adventures.  After two nights of not-that-great sleep, and not enough sleep for the girls, we had breakfast and were treated to about 30 miles of Iz screaming about the dress I wouldn't buy her at Cracker Barrel. 

I vowed never to take a vacation with them until they are much older, but I'm a glutton for punishment and have already started researching a fun family summer vacation. 

DeGray Lake part 2

One of the really cool things about the park was that it had a lot of planned activities that we could do.  The first night, we decided to go on the Sunset Cruise, which was a boat tour of the lake - at sunset, of course.  The boat was pretty crowded and we didn't quite anticipate the temperature dropping, so my little bugs were all wrapped up in a blanket for a lot of the trip, but it was really fun all the same.

The girls had to wear life jackets, of course.

Another thing I didn't anticipate... "cruise" was a figure of speech.  We went pretty fast when we weren't idling in the water listening to the tour guide.

Zoe, for one, didn't mind one bit.

Neither did Isabelle.

Our tour guide was a riot.  He had a joke about everything.  Of course, my little family had to be a part of it.  As he walked past us, Zoe was kind of leaning over, and the butt of his gun (yes, he had a gun - not normal for a park ranger, but he was much more than a tour guide/park ranger) knocked the poor little thing in the head.

OK, so this is actually her being blinded by the sun, not after the gun incident. ;)

She wasn't hurt... she never even whimpered, but he felt bad and gave her a cookie.  Then joked the rest of the trip about how he just pistol-whipped a toddler.  I am sure she knew she was the center of attention and I think she kind of had a little crush on him afterwards.  

It was a treat to watch the sun sink into the lake.

I am used to being asked on a very regular basis (like almost every time we are out in public) if Olivia and Isabelle are twins.  They're practically the same size, despite there being 18 months in between them.  But it's just been lately that I've started getting the question "are they triplets?"  Two different couples asked us on the boat.  The twins remark I understand, but Zoe is noticeably smaller and (at least to me) younger looking than the other two.  I suppose I need to get used to it, because it wasn't the first time and certainly won't be the last.

After the boat tour, it was time for dinner.  We don't eat out a lot with the kids.  Expecting them to sit still for an extended period of time is a bit much at their ages.  But we didn't have many options while we were on vacation.  We went to the restaurant at the lodge and the were so slow that I felt like I could have driven back home, fixed dinner, and brought it back to everyone.  The kids were very antsy.

I told Izzy to make sure her spoon didn't move.  It worked for about 30 seconds.

We were there for over almost an hour before Bill even got his salad.  And that's it.  He just kind of stared at it... he couldn't very well eat in front of the hungry kids when there was no telling when we might actually get our food.

So, like a good Daddy should, he shared.  =)

That was our first day.  It was pretty chilly the next two days, so it's not quite as interesting.  I think I can squeeze all of that into one more final part.  

DeGray Lake part 1

When Bill and I were discussing taking a little vacation for Spring Break, I said - very adamantly - no cabins at a State Park.  That seems to be our go-to vacation and I wanted to do something different.  Well, it wasn't a cabin, but it was a State Park.  We went to the DeGray Lake Resort.

That's my kind of camping.

"Resort" makes it sound like we had some fancy, posh vacation, doesn't it?  The room at the resort was less expensive than a cabin or a motel room had we traveled to, say, Dallas.  They did have a spa there, but I didn't indulge.  I was wanting to after the first night of waking up every hour due to my back screaming - the bed was awful.  But I refrained.

Like I've said, we've been to several cabins in different State Parks.  We looked last night and there are a few parks we haven't been to due to price (the newer ones are super expensive, like $200 a night), but we've definitely experienced quite a few parks.  This was probably the most fun we've ever had.  Everyone was just crazy nice and accommodating with the kids and they had a lot of activities that we could have participated in like night hikes and such.  Not that we would have taken the girls on a night hike, but I was very tempted to go on the nighttime golf cart excursion through the golf course looking for nocturnal animals.  Mainly because I wanted to ride in the golf cart.

We got there a little bit early, so we did some wandering around while they got our room ready.

Very curious little people

It was almost hard to believe that we were still in Arkansas

She needed just about every rock and nut she could find

We took a little drive around the area, too.  As we drove down this one road, this clearing in the woods appeared and three or four deer were in this bright sunny spot having lunch.  I had to stop the MV and grab my camera.  The picture can in no way show just how magical it really was.

The view from our room  was really gorgeous, also.

Again, hard to believe we hadn't traveled farther than 90 minutes from the house.

OK... there is more to come.  Stay tuned!

A child after my own heart...

We got home today from our little mini-vacation.  Overall we had a great time... there were moments I was ready to throw all of them in the lake, but I am sure every family deals with that on vacation.  I'll write more about it later.  I have tons of pictures and stories, like Zoe getting pistol-whipped by the park ranger.  Fun times.

On our way home, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for brunch.  I was pretty surprised at how well-behaved the girls were while we ate, considering that they were little maniacs at every other meal and that they hadn't had enough sleep two nights in a row, but this went very well.  The problem arose when we were leaving and had to walk through the store part.  Isabelle found a dress she felt she had to have and we treated the crowded store to a show of tearing the dress out of her hands and me carrying her kicking and screaming to the van.  And then listening to her scream "I want an Easter dress" for about 30 miles before she calmed down.

Even when we got home, she felt the need to crawl up in my lap several times to lament the loss of that marvelous dress (which was really kind of ugly, if you ask me).  I assured her that she would be getting an Easter dress, but maybe she should draw a picture for me of what she wanted me to make for her.  So, she got my colored pencils (a treat... I rarely let them touch them because they can destroy a box of crayons over the course of a weekend) and some paper and set to work with her sisters.

Here is what she gave me:



She said that the sleeves aren't really poofy (and if you look at the other people, their heads are pretty sunk into their shirts, also - they were made with stencils by the way) and the X's are supposed to be bows.  I'm really impressed.  And it actually isn't that far off of what I plan on making for Easter dresses anyway, so I'm fairly sure I can make her happy.

I think we'll do this more often.  When I was younger, I wanted to be a fashion designer, so wouldn't it be just awesome if at least one of my kids had the same love?  I'd never push them into it, but I wouldn't discourage it for sure.

I should be packing...

... but I have been crocheting (and now blogging) instead.  We're going to Lake DeGray tomorrow for a little mini-vacation for Spring Break.  There are 3 Barbie fishing poles lined up by my back door.  My husband wasn't all that thrilled with the girls' choice in fishing gear.  After all, the chances of him using them more than the girls are high.  There will be pictures.  =)

I don't fish, myself.  I'm sure I will end up participating, but my dream is to kick back and relax with some yarn and a crochet hook while "the boys" fish.  My brain has been doing it's thing, mish-mashing up things I've seen to try to come up with something fun to make.  You would think I would take the opportunity to work on my Babette blanket or Zoe's stocking or the Jester.  And more than likely Babette will be joining me, but tonight I went in search of a daisy.  I have a skirt idea brewing that involves a daisy.  I found a really cool granny square design to try out. 



I am not 100% happy with the center or the petals.  I love the way the rest of it works up.  But I might play around with the flower itself to come up with something that makes me happier.  Most of this was Red Heart yarn that I don't mind playing with and potentially wasting.  I was gifted quite a few skeins of RH and I need to do something with it.  I definitely wouldn't try getting my kids to wear it.  I might as well go sew up some sandpaper sheets for them to wear while I'm at it.  ;)  Isabelle complains if there are too many seams in her clothes.  Such a sensitive child.... when she's not beating the mess out of her sisters.

OK, I need to quit obsessively listening to Shinedown and staring blankly into space and throw this laundry in the dryer and get to bed.  I can pack tomorrow morning.  Because I haven't argued with the girls over their wardrobe in, oh, several hours.  I'm in so much trouble when they are teenagers.

I do love being a geek

I think I amuse myself more than anyone else does.  I don't know if that's good or bad, but most of the time it makes me happy, so I'll say it's good. 

Today is the first day of Spring Break.  I had planned on getting the girls in the backyard digging up our garden (or worms as the case maybe for them) but I needed to go to the bank and Bill needed to sleep, so we just left the house for the afternoon.  I realized as we got to Big Lots that I forgot my wallet, so we had to go retrieve that and since I really was only going there to kill time, I decided to head to Hobby Lobby instead.  I swear I didn't buy any fabric or yarn.  It was tempting.  Sooooo tempting.

The girls and I wandered around and we were in the wood aisle when Isabelle told me to look at what she had found.  Leave it to her to find a giant pair of wooden scissors.  The girl who has cut all their hair more than once, not to mention half her dolls' hair and other items, finds the giant scissors.  I thought it was so funny that I bought them.

Normal sized fabric scissors to show scale.

I haven't quite decided if I'm going to paint them, stain them, or Mod Podge them.  But they make my heart super happy.

Remember the giant doily?  How I wanted a giant crochet hook after seeing it?  I almost have it all figured out.  I'm going to use styrofoam.  I found some tubes that are almost the right size.  Just a tad too skinny.  But they'll work if I can't find anything else.  I'll sand down the end of it to look like a crochet hook and paint it silver (probably).  Then I'll have giant scissors and a giant crochet hook.  Now I'll need some knitting needles (a friend of mine suggested sharpened dowel rods with knobs on the end - although my mother gave me some pretty monster knitting needles she had) and a sewing needle.  Maybe a giant spool of thread.  But then I'd need a giant ball of yarn.  And what on earth would I do with all of that?  Maybe I should leave out the thread and yarn.  Definitely a time when my crafting ADD will come in handy.  I'll get bored with it long before the thread and yarn. 

I have an affinity for giant things and miniature things.  Something I could care nothing about normal sized becomes amazing to me if you change the scale just so.  Take a tanker truck for instance.  I don't care about trucks and I don't really think toy trucks are all that cute.  But this made me squeal with excitement on Saturday:

Seriously, I want that in my back yard.

And speaking of my crafting ADD, I'm having a really hard time pinning myself down to work on anything because I have so much I want to do.  By the time I'm ready to start a project, I have so many other things I'm dying to do that I no longer want to do it.  I need to finish up some baby shower gifts, like now.... the baby is due in a little over a month.  And I still haven't started my friend's dress.  I found a tutorial for turning a purse into a camera bag that I really want to do and I have Easter dresses to make and a birthday present for Isabelle to make.  I should have given up sleep for Lent instead of fabric and yarn.