play: a noun and a verb

On Thursday, Britton was in her first play!  The entire second grade put on the play "3 of a Kind" on Thursday evening, and did a great job.  Britton was in the chorus - you can almost see her below!

The play featured fun songs, and lasted about 30 minutes.  The kids have been practicing at school for months now, and they loved putting on the performance.

Britton and her teacher

Afterwards, we snuck up on the stage for pictures.  Barrett wanted to go into the houses, but I explained they were just props.

Then tonight, Britton had her first piano recital!  She's been taking lessons since September, and progressed pretty quickly.  

She played "My Carousel Horse" and was so poised during her performance.  Normally I'd rather smash a toe than sit through an entire recital (dance, piano, whatever) but the other kids played really well too, so it was an enjoyable evening.

The kids each received medals for their hard work throughout the year.

And they did work hard - you could hear it in the perfectly-practiced pieces, and see it in the relieved and proud smiles when they finished their performances.  

mother's day 2017

The only thing I really wanted for Mother's Day was to sleep in.  Not where the kids loudly proclaim, "We just want to see if Mom is awake!" outside my door as the hubs yells, "Don't wake her up! Come watch Paw Patrol!" I mean, really sleep in, where I don't wake up at 5:30 am (my usual wake-up call) or have a bursting bladder at 7:00 am.  And it happened - 9:18 am, glorious glorious sleep!

Then on to my other must-haves - kolaches from our favorite place, and iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts (but NOT kolaches from Dunkin Donuts because those aren't tasty at all).  Then home to run some errands followed by a swim in the pool.  A nice relaxing fun day!  And I got to enjoy my presents - a handprint bag from Barrett and a card and poem from Britton.  

The hubs surprised me with a gift card for a Thai massage in town (I had a traditional Thai massage in Thailand and it worked every last inch of my body to the point where I was jelly and after sitting in a cube for the last 8 months I really need another).  All in all, a great day with some fantastic treasured gifts!

barrett is four!

We decided to have a family fun day for Barrett's fourth birthday!  We started this morning with our traditional sprinkle pancakes, where Barrett eyed his presents.  After rushing through his pancakes, he was ready for opening!

Barrett was so excited!  We moved the presents to the couch to make it easier (and prevent syrup covering everything).

Barrett is in love with Paw Patrol, and Memaw and PawPaw got him the Paw Patrol Look Out, with Skye and Rubble figurines.

Aunt Jessica sent all Paw Patrol items - Snackeez cup, watch (you can see in his monthly picture above), books, and sunglasses!  We knew Paw Patrol would be popular, so the hubs and I got Barrett a rocket (Ronnie Rocket), books, and Thomas the Tank Engine underwear.  

Cammy sent a barn, truck, and farm animal set!  Barrett loved setting up the fences as a pen, "breaking up" the pen, freeing the animals, then having to go find them.  If that sounds familiar, yes - it was the plot of a Paw Patrol episode!

We're big fans of balloons around here!

After lunch we went to Altitude Trampoline Park, because Barrett loves it and Britton had a free pass from getting all As on her report card.  Both kids wore themselves out jumping for an hour, and then we ended with Icees for cooling down on the way home.  We rested a bit, then went into the pool to enjoy our warm weather.  After a pizza dinner (birthdays are pretty indulgent around here!), it was time for cake!

Make a wish!

Barrett was pretty worn out tonight.  We read all five of his new books, then I tucked him into bed.  I always tell him to have "sweet Barrett dreams," and tonight he replied that he would have "sweet Barrett birthday cake dreams"!  He's already dreaming about cake for breakfast - he is his mother's son!

a big boy bed!

I admit - Barrett has been in a crib for the last 3 years and 11 months.  Well, actually, he was in a rock and play bassinet for the first 3 months of life, but that's a little specific.  My point is, yes, we had an almost four year old in a crib.  Why?  Honestly, because:

we're lazy 

we thought he'd refuse to stay in a bed like his sister 

he never tried to get out!  

We might have been a little traumatized by Britton's journey into sleeping a la bed.  When she climbed out of the crib we instantly went to the bed, and it was a never-ending struggle to get her to stay in that damn bed.  So Barrett never tried to escape, and he loved the snuggliness of his crib, and frankly, he didn't mention wanting more space.

But then he saw the big beds in his books and wanted one, so when Memaw and PawPaw came to visit over Easter, we dragged them to furniture shops.  See, Barrett's room is small and we figured he would want a daybed so it's snuggly like a big crib.  Then I checked online for daybeds with dresser drawers underneath so we could get rid of his dresser and get more space - space-saving AND storage - a win, right?  Except everything online seemed iffy and I didn't want to spend a ton of money to have to return MDF junk.  So we went to the furniture stores, and found some cute beds!  But nothing was exactly what I wanted (because one I get an idea in my mind, like a daybed with storage, I get tunnel vision).

We walked into the next furniture store and saw............the treehouse bed!  Storage - not really.  Daybed - nope.  But, it was so much fun, and I figure that trumps function.  Plus, it's a treehouse bed. The kids liked it, and we were sold.

It came with rolly storage boxes for underneath the bed, but I like the clean look without them.  The boxes wouldn't have replaced his dresser storage so they went to the garage.

Sheets are a fun blue and orange fish design from Poppy & Fritz.

Over Christmas, when everything in the free world was on sale, I stumbled on Pottery Barn Kids putting my absolute favorite bedding of all time on a ridiculous sale with free shipping.  I couldn't resist.  Barrett hasn't actually slept under the quilt yet (he still sleeps on top of the quilt with his blanket keeping him warm).  But it looks great, so all is well.

93 months old

Britton has a fantastic month of firsts this May!  She's about a month away from the last day of second grade, and it seems like while life is winding down it is simultaneously speeding up.  Britton's second grade play is in two weeks, and she's been practicing like mad at school.  She is in the chorus, and will be singing multiple new songs, which she readily sings for us at home.  Then, two days after the play, Britton has her first piano recital!  She's memorized her song, and now she's practicing (when I remind/cajole her).

Britton was super-jazzed about making clay bowls in art class.  She's been (mostly) patiently waiting for her bowl to be returned from the kiln, and it finally arrived today!  I love how it turned out - each student independently designed their own bowl, and the patterns and "B" are perfect Britton!  I'm proudly displaying it in the kitchen, and I won't let her use it for food (mainly because I don't want it broken, but also because I'm not entirely sure it's food-safe!).

Likes:  her new bike!  She shot up a couple of inches and her old bike was too small!  

Dislikes:  realizing she's played at the park with her friends all evening after dinner and now has to take a bath and go to bed and doesn't get to watch tv 

mother's day pillow

When we went to the International Quilt Festival in October, I picked up the wool felt appliqué pattern "Around the Garden" by Wendy Williams from Australia.  In fact, I met her and she even autographed my pattern book!  The quilt is ambitious, to say the least:

Whew!  All hand-embroidered, this quilt would definitely be a (long) labor of love.  I didn't want to jump right in with the quilt, so I decided on a pillow!  I bought a light box from a lady who used it in her film shop (before retiring), ordered some wool felt, and picked out my favorite houses and trees.  I started with the penny "flowers", picking random colors of felt and embroidery floss.  I added the bumble bee for fun, and the french knots to add even more color.

                            

Then I put on the houses and felt trees.  I used either a running stitch or whip stitch for the houses, windows, roofs, and doors.

                                           

I then quilted the pillow cover in a loopy free-motion quilting pattern, then used a stem stitch on the middle tree's trunk.  I added "leaves" of orange, magenta, and yellow, with hot pink embroidery floss.

                           

The backing is a home decor fabric plaid I picked up from Joanns, and the piping is green cording.  I added a zipper to the bottom, to make removal and washing easier.

  

Barrett gave the pillow a snuggle-test before we shipped it out to Cammy!  Britton made my Mother's Day card for Cammy, who is a connoisseur of original kiddy art, and Cammy received them today.  I think one day I'll try my hand at a pillow made entirely of the pennies - they are so cheery and happy!