First day of school

Summer is gone, and as of yesterday I have 2 kids in school full time. FULL TIME! I have dreamt of this moment for years! Oh, the free time, the glorious free time! My house will be clean! I can bake! Lunch with friends! Think of the things I can sew! Somehow I never factored my job into this. In my mind I am a stay at home mom. In reality, it just means I have to juggle my work schedule and I see my kids a lot less. WAY less exciting than my dreams...

All ready!

Eve has been ridiculously excited for school to start. She told me "I am pretty much all grown up now!" All grown up? Apparently, all day kindergarten, is right next to moving into a dorm in her eyes.

Eve was up at 6am. She ate, picked out her outfit, and even let me do her hair! No arguments! And this was before 9 am (her preferred time to wake up)

Sitting in circle (with pretty hair!)

The anticipation to start school was only heightened since Aurora started last week. And since going into second grade is pretty darn exciting too, here is a peek at Aurora all ready for her first day.

curled hair!

Ah, my kids are cute! Even cuter when they allow me to brush their hair. They seem to gravitate naturally towards looking like homeless urchins. This year we have agreed to look our best for school everyday. Do they come home looking like urchins? Without fail, but at least there is a 45 min period at the beginning of the day where it appears that they are not totally neglected. That is enough for me.

And now a PSA. When naming your children, test out how it sounds with your last initial. Several months ago I found out there would be another Eve in my Eve's kindergarten class. I was a bit disappointed. Being a Nicole born in the late 70s meant that there was almost always another Nicole in my class. I went by Nicole N most of elementary school. I never liked it. I wanted to just be Nicole. I was sad that Eve wouldn't get to be just Eve, she would be Eve L. And then it hit me Eve L. Say it out loud...again...AHHH!!  That was a sad and humorous moment, I mean let's be honest, it fits her! Luckily, Eve is actually her middle name. So while she still doesn't get to be "just Eve", at least she isn't "Evil" She is Sandra Eve at school.

Likes and dislikes

This has been a rough week. Rough enough that even though the last month over all was a decent one, I didn't really want to blog. So I decided to make a post of a few likes and dislikes from the last week. I like to end on a happy note, so I will start with dislikes:

*DISLIKES*

1- Home improvement projects on my 100 year old home:

The windows on the back of my house need to be replaced....obviously, we also need to paint. On an up note, Jeremy said we could try out red. I have been wanting to paint the house red since we bought it!

2- Saying good bye to my parents:

My parents are headed to South Africa for about 18 months on a mission for their church. They are in the training center now, and will leave the country in a week. Honestly, I have been ignoring this. I will say final goodbyes on Saturday.....I'm not going to think about it.

3- Saying goodbye to pets:

Last Monday, our 10 year old pug, Kunjou, passed away. Dodee (doggy) was Aurora's first word. The hardest part has been watching Charlie, our other dog. Kunjou was his best friend.....a friend he spent almost every day of his life with. It has been a hard adjustment.

Ok, now to fight the sad:

*LIKES*

1- Ranier Cherries:

Why oh why are you almost twice as expensive as regular cherries?? I love you so much....nom nom nom nom.

2- Free Easy Bake Ovens:

We had a family reunion about 10 days ago. We have one every other year, and it coincided nicely with my parents' mission. While there, my sweet niece Alcy decided she wouldn't need her easy bake oven at college. Aurora and Eve were the lucky recipients. We tested it out today. LOVE!

3- Child Labor:

So finally, this parenthood thing is paying off! We had a work filled weekend and the kids helped. If you could see behind the camera here, you would see Jeremy and I taking a breather on the porch directing the kids. I wonder how soon I can get them to do a decent job on the bathroom...


Let's end with a crafty collage, ok? July was a bit more crafty than the pictures represent. I started knitting a wrap. Knitting takes a long time. WAY longer than sewing, and I could not get a decent "in progress" picture. So, I will leave you with the 6 quilt blocks I never ended up posting last month (yeah, I am never going to mention blogging twice in a month again. It never happens.....saying it out loud makes it even less likely) and the few sewing projects I finished this month.

What a month!

Wow, July 2nd already? I think time is progressively moving faster and faster. What else would explain the fact that one week from today I will be THIRTY-TWO years old? I have sailed past the 20's and am comfortably in my 30s now. Not that I am saying I am old, quite the contrary, I still feel very young.....well except, that for the first time in my life I need a solid 8 hours of sleep to have any hope of functioning the next day week. That came out of left field. Oh, the fact that I am finding more and more trends to be ridiculous. VH1 is full of crazy pop music that sounds the same, and what is with bed head being the "in" hairstyle for all young male stars. Those crazy kids......LOL I don't really say that. Really. I am cool, young and hip.....I just can't pull an all nighter anymore, and I laughed out loud when I heard U2 on an oldies station. :)

Enough of that. I have been productive this month! Wanna see???

So, that is: Three birthday shirts (one with a coordinating drawstring bag in place of wrapping paper), Twelve quilt blocks (actually 11, Janelle wanted to make one of the ticker tape blocks, and I obliged her), Two flannel name blankets, a reversible purse (teacher gift), One and a half pincushion caddies, and a knit hat and bootie set I forgot to photograph before gifting.

You may notice there are only six quilt blocks in there and I claimed to have done 12. Well, six of them are a surprise, so, I will hold off on uploading those pics.

So that is the crafty update. I fully intended to give a family update too. There was so much happening this month....There was the end of the school, my fabulous BFF Janelle came for a visit, movies were seen, and we attended the royal event of the season......but you will have to wait. I might even do something unprecedented......I might blog again!

For now, I have to assume the persona of responsible business owner, and paint the daycare. SO FUN! Have you ever seen the daycare?? Perhaps that is something to look forward to for July. :)

Pictures to share!

This month was (as predicted) much more productive. Most, if not all, of that productivity was forced. I do like to sew, but really, my hobbies have taken a back seat. Parental obligation to the rescue!

Sharks

Eve modeling Aurora's spider costume

Aurora's class put on an opera. I made a few costumes and a lot of props (btw anyone in need of a GIANT pink glittered egg? Really, free for the taking). The kids were so cute and they LOVED their costumes. I was really surprised by how many of the kids thanked me for making their props and costumes. Such sweet kids. Both the shark and spider were really simple to do (just modifying a hoodie and a t-shirt) but they did the trick. I have to admit, I really liked making the costumes! That being said, Eve is being a spider next Halloween. ;) Speaking of Halloween...

It is also the end of the year, and my kids have had some fantastic teachers. I volunteered to help the kids do something in Eve's preschool class......I am a one trick pony, so we did a quilt. I had each child draw a picture on a piece of fabric with fabric markers. I took the drawings and incorporated them into a quilt. Anna (Eve's preschool teacher....at the awesome hippie school my kids attend all the teachers go by their first name) is one of a kind, and this fabric is just her. She loves spiders and bats, plus, she keeps her house decorated for Halloween all year round. This quilt will fit right in.

I had plenty of time to make this quilt, so naturally, I crammed the bulk of it into a weekend.....one where we were also obligated to attend a class camp out. :) It was worth the sleep deprivation though! Anna taught 1/2 day in Aurora's  kindergarten last year and Eve's preschool this year. She means a lot to us, and I will miss being part of her class. She cried when she opened the quilt. I think she liked it. (one teacher gift down, one to go)

Now that Aurora has seen it is possible for me to complete a whole quilt in less than a week...and not just any week, a busy week...she is DEMANDING I finish the birthday quilt that was intended for her 6th birthday. Yes, she is 7 1/2. *sigh* I guess I need to get back on that parental obligation bandwagon. I mean really, how do I say no to this?