Advent 2012

The tragic events of last Friday have served as a poignant reminder to me that nothing in this life is guaranteed. I am so grateful for each moment of every day with my precious boys. Here is how we spent our days this Advent season.

On the first Sunday of Advent, I went (all by myself!) to a wreath-making workshop at the Oregon Ridge Nature Center, one of my favorite places in this area. I was the only one who made an advent wreath - I dug through the boxes of stuff they had there until I came upon exactly 4 candleholders. It was meant to be.

Jude and Felix helped me set out the gorgeous Nativity set that Dan's mom made for us. They love those camels.

We picked up these discarded branches and trunk pieces for free when we got our tree, and they smell amazing in the woodstove. (I took the boys by myself because Dan is working so hard to finish his dissertation we decided he couldn't spare the time to come with us this year.)

 Making ornaments...until today these were all we had on the tree!

The handmade stockings are another amazing gift from Dan's mom...

 Henry, of course, has been making all kinds of Christmas-related art.

 Chocolate Thumbprints, Henry's favorite cookie and a Christmas tradition around here...

Most of us have been sick for most of the month, Jude and Felix worst of all. They are still pretty snotty/coughing/low fevers on and off. We've made the best of it with lots of snuggle time in our bed watching Christmas movies.

The other big project this month besides the Christmas cards was preparing gifts to mail to family and friends. We finally sent them off on Friday!

 We made Gingerbread playdough on Thursday. The boys, of course, LOVED it. I tripled the recipe so we could send some to our friends.

 Gingerbread for sale...

On Friday we went to the B & O railroad museum. Henry wrote a letter to Santa, we saw the holiday train displays, and everyone made some pictures.

 We had a wonderfully relaxing pajama day today. Dan baked up a storm, and I made Peppermint Bark for the first time! I also finished Felix's owl ornament, and we finally put the ornaments on the tree. Now I need to make ornaments for Jude and Henry, and finish a few other things.

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Catching up: Halloween 2011

Hello there, folks! Our days have been so full and passing so quickly these past several weeks, and I just haven't felt able to lose the sleep required to keep up with posting here. However, now that we are well into Advent (!) I have decided it is high time to get caught up with one another, lost sleep or not. So, for today, Halloween!

Henry was Captain America. I was able to use a few pieces from our dress-up trunk, an old winter hat, some hand-me-down clothes, with just a bit of white felt handsewn on for the details.

His preschool had a parade from the school over to the playground a couple of blocks away. They had a picnic with apple cider and pumpkin muffins.

Batman and Captain America, setting off trick-or-treating.

 Jude's costume was entirely from the dress-up trunk, just a cape and mask. Good thing too, because he only wore it for a few minutes.

He got these two lollipops at the first house we went to, and he clutched them for the rest of the night. He put all the other candy in his bag, but insisted on holding these. He had a complete meltdown when we took them away at bedtime.

Felix was supposed to be the Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is generally fitting for him, but that evening he was the Very Grumpy Caterpillar. He demanded to know why he was shoved into a ridiculous outfit and confined to the stroller instead of placed into his cozy, warm crib as usual.

We were joined again this year by our friend Mattie, who helped Henry pass out candy once he returned from trick-or-treating. Hopefully you can see our "spooky" decorations which Henry requested, as well as the jack-o-lanterns.

i've got my work cut out for me.

Like the naked butt? Jude is working on using the potty.

On the docket for this week: Captain America, Batman, and Caterpillar costumes, plus 3 monogrammed jack-o-lantern bags, if I have enough time.

What costumes are being made/acquired this week in your house?

spring pants for Felix

By now it's pretty obvious that most of my current inspiration and ideas come from SouleMama. I just don't have the time to follow a lot of blogs or read a lot of books, and right now I happen to be reading both of hers almost exclusively.

Her fourth child Harper was born the same time of year as Felix, so when I read how she covered his legs that first spring and summer with handmade, lightweight pants made out of re-purposed sheets and shirts, I decided to try my hand at it.

I used the directions from The Creative Family as a guide with two shirts I got at the thrift store:


Gaining confidence, I decided I wanted to make two more pair with cuffs. I used some thrifted sheets for the main pants fabric. For the cuffs, I used more of that wonderful bird fabric for one pair, and something else I picked up at Stitch DC for the other.

Here are my favorite two pairs on Felix: