This past weekend Sonya was married. It was such a wonderful celebration and a very full weekend. Ian's brother and family were in town. We haven't seem them all together in over two years and the girls hadn't seem their cousins since Christmas. They all got along so well considering there were 5 little people under the age of five. Thank Sonya for having a casual beach wedding so our kids could play in the sand and water while you got hitched! It really all couldn't have gone more smoothly.
The dresses are the flower girl dress pattern from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing, my all time favorite sewing book. The fabric was all from my stash, the lace too. Sonya and I had fun picking out the combos and they all somehow seemed to suit the little girls who wore them.
The bow ties did not come together quite as easily. First, the fabric I ordered looked nothing like the online swatch so I had to reboot and went to Mill End while I was in MN. Thankfully two sweet elderly women were shopping at the same time as me and helped me make the fabric choice. Then the Martha Stewart pattern that I found wouldn't enlarge properly on my printer so I had to make a pattern using one of Ian's ties. Then! All the interfacing and precise cutting and turning right side out of four bow ties (one teeny tiny baby bow tie included in that) Ah!!!! It was a bit brutal and dramatic at times but they turned out! and those boys looked quite dapper if I do say so myself.
And the cooking? I only mention it because it was a crock pot meal that everyone seemed to enjoy so I thought I'd post the recipe.
Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff
5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (can be frozen)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken)
1 can of mushrooms
16 oz sour cream
1 pkg dry onion soup mix (like lipton)
put chicken in the crock pot, mix the rest of the ingredients and spoon over the top, cook on low 8 hours. Take out chicken and shred (most enjoyable done with a preschooler or two and many forks), return to sauce, serve over rice or egg noodles.
I opened it up to flip the chicken around in the sauce every once in a while. I halved the recipe for the sauce again, so made a 1.5 recipe for my big chicken breasts and it was perfect.
And dessert? This and this. It was too hard to choose.
Big. Fun. Stuff.
Then everyone left and the girls started preschool for the year. The first day went so well.
Despite Ainsley's nerves in the morning she walked right in after a quick hug from me, no more fuss. And Louise was so excited to be starting her day out on the playground with new friends. She even tried to comfort a classmate, Sadie, who was very upset to leave her mama. "It's ok friend, just be brave like me!" she said with an outstretched hand a big Louise grin. It was great.
Today I was told they both missed me a bit and Louise had her crank on in the car on the way home, but they're excited to go each morning and Ainsley's already sad that tomorrow is the last day of school for the week. I'll take it!
I've had so much fun with Felix these past two days. Yesterday I put him in the Ergo for the drop offs and left the car on a meter to walk up to our cute book store and toy store. I decided to treat us all to Apple, a book I've wanted for a while. Perfect for my tiny boy and the girls love it too. I just browsed at the toy store, really just enjoying looking and meandering because I could. T
Today we went up to the local yarn shop. I'm itching to get some fall knitting underway and apparently the five half finished projects I have in my basket aren't enough. Mainly, I NEEDED things for my boy. I'm wavering between being practical and just knitting him one sweater and hat or giving in to my desire to knit him two sweaters, a hooded jacket, and at least two ear flap hats (in addition to a little something I have up my sleeves for Halloween....SO EXCITED!)
For now I settled on a peacock blue wool for another baby surprise jacket. I loved his newborn green one so much, I hope this one fits him all winter!
In other making stuff for my son news he has two new pairs of quick change trousers. That big cloth diapered bum is blowing through the sizes and I was down to about 4 pairs that fit him well. Couple that with a very spitty uppy baby and we had a problem on our hands. New pants it is!
One is entirely flannel and the other is flannel lined. All of the fabric but one were from my stash, the plaid being from two of my grandpa's, Bop's, old flannel shirts that my Aunt brought me from their Wisconsin cabin. It's especially special to me right now that I'm using these shirts to clothe Felix, because my grandpa's health has been failing. I'd been saving these two particular shirts for just this purpose. Now every time I put them on Felix this fall and winter I'll think of my Bop, robust and alive up north, telling Bear Hunt stories and smelling of woods and dark beer. Upcycling can be such a special special thing.
And a bit more about that tiny Bop's plaid shirts turned cute pants clad boy? Well, he's sitting! Kind of. I about died of shock when I walked into the kitchen yesterday to find him upright in the bouncy chair, just hanging out while Ainsley chatted and sang to him. He was strapped in but not using the back support at all. It was crazy! So I tried him out on the floor and sure enough, there he sat! For a full half hour off and on he'd sit up straight and tall, hands on his knees, then teeter totter over after a minute or so. Today has been the same, lots of baby sit ups from reclined positions and sitting while holding my hand only. I could hardly bathe him tonight because he keeps sitting up in the little baby tub! Oh boy. He's growing up way too fast for my liking.
As a tribute to his new almost skill I decided to give him a taste of real food tonight. He's been pretty fussy at dinner time lately, desperately trying to swipe our food, licking his lips while he watches us eat. It's really rather sad and pathetic. So now that he can sit up straight I made him some sweet potatoes laced with my milk and tonight at dinner he ate an entire bowl full.
Wow. Lots of big stuff going on.
And of course, among all the big, is the little stuff. The everyday. It's still really hard to get out the door in the mornings. Our 8:45 role call tomorrow for school should be interesting. But really there's so much that's great too. I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm finding I'm able to get things done, things I want to do, things that need to be done. My big girls are so very big. Today while I made dinner Ainsley found a can of barbosol in the pantry and asked if she could play with it at the table like we used to. I took a deep breath and said sure, convinced it would end up a terrible mess. But my girls? they just played, then walked themselves into the bathroom, wiped off and cleaned the whole table all without me asking. It's almost heartbreaking how little they need me some times, but really nice too.
dinner tonight + pork chops
Life feels really good right now. Still super tiring, still not nearly enough time in each day, but really really good, and hopeful. Fall, school, schedules, open windows. These are all really good things.
Happy Wednesday friends!
p.s. a mama was peed on in the making of these photos
Your recipes look SO good! Especially the desserts! Can't beat Pioneer Woman!
ReplyDeleteLove what you wrote about upcycling your grandpa's shirts... so special!