Ninja Layla

What a lovely day!! The weather today is even better than yesterday! And, even though my kids have a minor cold, it was a good excuse to be able to sit out of some commitments and be slow. I've sewn, done laundry, made tea in cute kid mugs and poured baths with extra bubbles :)

I have some awesome pics of my awesome Layla girl in her Taekwon Do uniform! She had been asking for awhile if she could take "ninja class". She was invested, checking out books from the library, studying the moves of the Power Rangers and attempting them herself on a daily basis. Thankfully, there is a studio literally a mile away and so we signed her up. She's been taking classes for 5 weeks and is learning so fast, I'm super proud of her! Not to mention how adorable she is when she yells hiya and keeps up with the boys when they run laps!

I finally got some pics of her in uniform. So, Grandparents, enjoy :)

Victoria

We are getting a blessed taste of Spring time here in Colorado today. The crazy snow from last week is almost melted, the kids are playing outside with no jackets and with Daylight Savings coming up this weekend, it feels like winter may just be over. We'll see ;)


Natalie has gotten very into American Girl over the past year. We pick up the books second hand whenever we see them and she delves into the pictures and time periods of each character, even if the stories are just ever-so-slightly above her reading level for right now. I know the quality of actual American Girl dolls is superior to all the others, but we were not willing to shell out the $120 for one. A friend tipped me off about Tuesday Morning having some of the Target brand 18" dolls before Christmas and so I went and snapped up the brown haired, blue eyed doll for Natalie's birthday.

Seriously, she could not love this doll more. She dresses her according to whatever we are doing and carries her everywhere. She's named her Victoria. I am absolutely thrilled that she is so in love, because all my sewing time in February was devoted to sewing up several outfits. I had a blast making them and she had a blast styling Victoria for her photo shoots yesterday :)

 Layla chose the salon chair as a birthday gift from her and Kelby. I think it was a great choice :)

 Boot envy, anyone?? This was my first time sewing with leather. With the right needle, it went swimmingly.

 Her nightie and bathrobe.

 I made her a Colonial dress because Natalie really likes the Felicity character and we recently watched the movie from the library.

 I didn't make this next one, it's what she came in.

 And of course, a winter coat.

 A Summer dress...

That's all ... for now. I plan on making an Easter dress to match Natalie's very soon! Also before Christmas, I came across an 18" doll at Savers. She has blue eyes and blond hair and is the Toys R' Us brand, Journey Girlz. She didn't have clothes and her hair isn't perfect, but for $2.99, I bought her to save for Layla. Natalie and I are going to fix her up for Layla for Easter. I read some great tips online about doll hair maintenance and I'm going to make her a couple outfits. She'll look like new when we're done! Natalie's excited to be a part of the surprise and that they will both have dolls to play with together :)

I'd like to share, too, if you're waffling about which doll brand to go with--the main difference in quality between American Girl dolls and the other less expensive brands, is the hair. American Girls have wigs, while the others have plugs. BUT, when I read and researched that you can buy the nicer quality doll wigs online for as little as $10 (just google it, there are lots of places) and replace the hair pretty easily, that sealed the deal for me going with the cheaper doll.

Natalie's 8!

We had quite a birthday week for Natalie last week. This girl was born to plan parties, I thought she was going to lose her mind with anticipation for her party on Friday!! She had some definite ideas for how everything would go down, too. I think it lived up to her expectations, it was super fun. Everyone we invited came, so we had 11 girls. And Kelby, but he disappeared downstairs after awhile--too many girls for him ;)

Here are some pics of the highlights! I know it's a lot, but the girls got really into the photo booth and it was hard to choose :)

The washer/nail polish necklaces worked out beautifully. I'd link to the instructions, but they're all over the place and it's pretty self-explanatory anyway :) For snacks we made fruit kabobs and trail mix.

Natalie and I had a little fashion show with her new doll in all the clothes I made her so that will be up next!!

what Natalie made

I have shared some of Natalie's hand sewing projects here before, but months ago, my mom got her started on the sewing machine and there has been no stopping her! Well, there has been stopping her, actually, because she has rather grandiose ideas and if I don't redirect, she'll pull out my nice fabrics and start designing a ball gown or something equally extravagant ;)

But, as I was cleaning out my fabric stash (more on cleaning out to come), I came across a small bin of leftover squares from my nine-patch quilt and asked Natalie if she'd like to make a doll quilt. And so we did! She did all the sewing, I only helped some with pressing and rotary cutting the borders.

Ariel finds it quite snuggly, but I have a feeling this quilt will belong to another doll very soon because Natalie's birthday is this Saturday!! Which partly accounts for the blog silence, because I have been sewing up 18" doll clothes like mad, cutting out photo booth props and painting washer necklace samples with nail polish. Can't wait for the party!!

Cheers! :)

Do not grow weary

I would say this homeschool week was just short of an utter failure. Our weekend was jammed packed from Thursday to Sunday and so I had zero time to plan school for this week. When that happens, barely the bare minimum gets done and what we do manage is haphazard at best.

This morning I was discouraged. I had a lot to do today. School goes really well when there's nothing else going on, but add in anything else--a holiday, a birthday, a weekend trip,  illness, ministry commitments, co op, errands, a house in desperate need of cleaning-- and it can sometimes feel pretty impossible.

After spending some time in Scripture this morning, I began cleaning the kitchen and came upon this and almost cried...

Natalie always draws on the papers in the bulletin on Sunday mornings and this was in the pile from last Sunday. So see?? I AM teaching her something! Clearly not spelling, ha! But what's important is getting through. Praise the Lord :)

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. 

Galations 1:9-10