Easter Dress

Easter is quickly approaching and, like last year, I wanted to make Allison's Easter dress. At first I was going to buy one- I saw this gorgeous dress at babyGap. It was $50! I couldn't believe it! It was so simple.

I was drawn to it because I love eyelet and lace. I found a few pictures of the dress and decided I could make something similar. I looked up eyelet material at Joann fabric and saw that it started at $15/yard- and that was for fabric that didn't look very good.

 While I was looking through the thrift store (to find my frame last week) I passed by the Women's section and saw this short sleeved blouse. It was $2 and while it was a little short on fabric, I thought I could make it work.

I lined the dress with some pink fabric left over from another project and I easily had enough eyelet fabric (with some creative cutting). I even had enough for a small headband. I used the buttons (and holes) from the front of the blouse for the back of the dress so I didn't need to add closures.

I wanted to add some detail to the belt so I made this little fabric flower. The belt has a velcro connector and I put in some belt loops on the sides to hold it up.

The dress was inexpensive to make and it looks similar to the first dress I wanted. I'm excited to get some Easter photos of Allison, hopefully the weather will warm up before then or I'll have to make a sweater to go with the dress!

Rain

Today was the end of the gorgeous weather we've been having. The temperature dropped and it's raining. If it was warm I'd send Allison out in the rain but instead we were stuck inside.

After letting Allison rip apart my cupboards and drawers, she needed a new activity.

I found a simple play dough recipe online and quickly made a batch. I divided it and made it in to four colors. Allison loved it (I brought in her water table from outside) but she wanted to take it all over the house. We don't have carpet so I wasn't worried about it getting stuck but I don't want to be finding it for the next month.

Nathan didn't have a lunch conference so he was able to come home for an hour and the three of us had lunch together. It was so odd to see Nathan when it's light out! Allison was very happy to have him home.

Little Man

My new friend, Lindsey, brought her boys over today for some newborn pictures. Lindsay has two boys, Luke, who is 3, and baby Landon. Luke was happy to share Allison's toys- although Allison wasn't as thrilled. Allison is starting to get jealous. Whether I'm cuddling a baby, or reading to another toddler at church, or someone is having fun with one of her toys- she is starting to notice. Luke loved her car (that we keep in the house) so was content while we took a few pictures. I say it everytime but I felt special to be asked- and I was happy to catch up with Lindsey.

 

KC Weather

Just have to brag on today's weather. Allison and I were outside all day in our shorts and t-shirts.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Allison had a rough sleep last night- she was up several times in the night and wanted to play. I held her and got her back to sleep each time but we were all tired this morning.

I also put Allison in this adorable dress/tunic so that added to her grumpiness.

I was able to leave Allison in the church nursery for a whole song (in worship) before she freaked. I was surprised at how much more connected I felt from one song. So maybe we're just going to take this one song at a time.

After a quiet afternoon we contacted our friends Kyle and Lisa and asked if they wanted to come over to Barbeque. We had sausages on buns, potato chips, veggies, and apple pie for dessert. It was very 4th of July.

We ate our dinner on our front porch while the girls played around us. Allison is very comfortable around our close friends and had no problem climbing all over Kyle (especially when he had a slice of pie).

After Kyle and Lisa left and I put Allison to bed I put the finishing touches on my weekened craft project. I saw this on pinterest and thought it would be perfect for Alli's room. Nathan and my prints were easy to get but Allison was rough.

I bought a piece of bristol board and cut it into four pieces so that we'd have four chances to get a decent print. They were all pretty smudged.

I found this frame at a thrift store (when I went to find a green shirt for yesterday's parade) and when I saw that my hand fit perfectly inside, I knew it was worth the $5 price tag.

Here is the final product. Our handprints, March 2015.

Early St. Patrick's Day

Nathan didn't get home until 3am but he wanted to keep a regular sleep schedule. He slept until 9:30am this morning, then the three of us headed outside to do some light yard work.

 Allison was exhausted by lunch and went to sleep without even a whimper. Nathan wanted to get some more sleep and I took advantage of Nathan being home and I headed over to the church to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade. St. Patrick's Day is a really big deal in KC. The main parade is on Tuesday and it is wild (I went once and that was enough). The kid-friendly version is held the Saturday before and it passes by Wornall Road Baptist Church. I arrived at 1:30pm and managed to score a parking spot in the church lot! I was grateful because it was packed.

Here are some photos I took at the parade.

 

 

 

 

 I loved my time at the parade. I wandered around by myself, taking pictures, listening to conversations, just watching people. It was relaxing and I was thankful to be out on my own.

When I got home from the parade both Allison and Nathan were still in bed! Allison slept for 3 1/2 hours! That fresh air must have really done her in! At 5pm we got ready to head to JM and Jill's for dinner. Nathan came upstairs just as I was coming out of our room and I noticed that we were both wearing pink - and so was Allison.

 Neither of us would compromise and we decided that JM and Jill would think it was funny. We took a few snapshots of our pink family.

We had a wonderful (and long overdue) visit with our friends and enjoyed Chinese takeout from a great place by their house. JM and Jill have two grandson's and Allison loves playing with all their toys.

Around the House

I've been baking a lot lately.

So when I noticed that every now and then, I'd have a pool of wet ingredients on my counter I didn't get what was happening.

Today I found these slices on 2 of my favorite mixing bowls.

I have no idea how they cracked but they look like fine slices. I thought about trying to remember which 2 (of 3) have slices but instead I handed the bowls to Allison to use to dig in the backyard. I couldn't deal with another egg yolk counter.

Our neighbors had their house painted this week and each day Allison and I sit at the fence line and watch them work. She loves when they repaired the woodbeams and had several ladders around the house.

I thought it was interesting how they painted the entire house and then came back the next day to remove the paint off the windows. Lois (our neighbor) said the house was very dark for those 24 hours!

Martin and Marlene sent Allison an early birthday present last week- a new sound system. This stereo has CD, MP3, and cassette. Marlene knows my love of thrift stores and there are always kids tapes for next-to-nothing there.

We've been taking the music outside and listening to one tape after another. Allison loves music and move her feet and the "Little People" tape I found at Maj-R-Thrift last week is her favorite.

ZOO

I'm very fortunate to have friends who will share their family zoo pass with me.

A zoo pass is $44 for our Missouri friends but $100 for us. It's built into their taxes so it all works out but it's still a big expense. The pass is for a family (2 adults and kids) and I've been mooching off of my friend April for years.

I met with 4 women from Wornall at 9:30am at the zoo. The zoo is only 15 minutes (and a near straight shot) from my house so I was able to get packed up and feed Allison a big breakfast before we left. As is usual, Allison was wild, ran (far) away, climbed to high, didn't listen, blah blah, all the regular stuff. But I was determined to have a good time.

It was 25 degrees so I was wearing my capris, a tank-top, and SANDALS! I can't believe this is MARCH!

We walked together until noon and we all stopped for a picnic lunch. Allison stole food from the people we were with and some from strangers. Allison kept running away from our lunch spot to try to steal food from a family that was also eating. I repeatedly ushered her back but she kept sneaking away. I chased after her for a fourth time and when she tried to grab a little girl's juice box, I grabbed her hand and told her that "we don't take food that doesn't belong to us." And the girl's mom turned to me and said, "you don't have to be so hard on her, she's just curious." I was so thankful that mom could explain my child to me. It was super helpful in curbing my frustration with an unruly toddler.

After lunch, two members of our group headed home and I decided to see how long Allison would last without a nap. We made it through all of Africa before I realized it was 3pm! She usually sleeps from 1-3pm. She was doing well but she started to fuss on the way home.

Allison wasn't interested in the animals (except the penguins) but it was still a fun day with friends and we were able to enjoy the amazing weather. Allison's favorite part of the day was the train ride. She refused to sit on my lap and wanted to ride all by herself. She really is a fearless kid. When the train stopped in the kangaroo section (to give visitors an up-close look) Allison tried to make a dash off the train. I got her before she could get her feet on the ground but then she was angry that she couldn't go play with the animals.

She's the wild one.