SEW much fun!

Look at the level of concentration on that face!

Little Miss O has been asking me to teach her how to use the machine for awhile now, but I wanted her to learn how to sew by hand first. I think that's super important to hand sew first since it's hard to see and comprehend what the machine is doing when you are placing different pieces together. One you do it by hand, it makes the machine much easier.

So, her she is, hard at work! She started with sewing straight lines. It takes some practice to get used to the timing- how hard to press the foot pedal, how fast to feed the fabric in, plus making sure you are lined up and sewing straight. There is a lot to do. 

Here it is!

All done and ready to go.

Look at that face. She is so proud of her apron. She wore it for an hour. And then asked me to bake an apple pie with her. Here we go!

We did some fun sewing in our Creativity Camps this summer at EmmaMade featuring Loops by Keri! In our tie-dye class, we dyed our fabric and then made bags from it! Only one of the children had ever sewn before and they were SO happy and proud of their work!

We did some fun sewing projects in our American Girl Creativity Camp too- the girls all made pillows and sleeping bags for their dolls.

Our next American Girl Creativity Camp is scheduled for Sunday October 5th from 3pm-5pm and we will be making all sorts of Back to School accessories for our dolls!

And after that class, from 5pm-6:30 pm We are starting up our Knitting Class for kids again! Perfect for kids ages 6+ for new knitters or knitters who want to learn more skills and work on projects!

For more info, click here http://www.123contactform.com/form-1028630/American-Girl-Back-To-School-And-Kids-Knit-Too-Workshops

Have a WONDERFUL Monday.

Craft on!

Cooking with the kiddos Barefoot Contessa Style

We often bake together as a family, but we don't cook together as much. That all changed with this cookbook book report they were assigned at school. They had to choose a cookbook, read through it and choose some dishes to make. Have I mentioned HOW AMAZING their school is?!

 My daughter had to choose 3 dishes while my son, who is older, had to make 3 balanced meals.  It was an amazing experience for them and they loved being in charge of the menu. And the best part- they tried everything!!

They chose Barefoot Contessa cookbooks to work from. Ina Garten's cookbooks offer beautiful photos, clear directions and is approachable, even for the under 10 set! This was fitting, as Barefoot Contessa was truly the first show my son really watched. He wanted to be a chef at 3 1/2 and even dressed as Mario Batali for Halloween that year, orange crocs and all. And yes, people knew who he was!

My daughter used her newer book, Barefoot Contessa: How Easy is That? My daughter loves to try new things, so she loved the creative items in the book.

 She choose couscous salad, which she liked, but we'll make next time with fewer onions.

Wild rice salad: which has oranges and grapes and pecans in it. Isn't it pretty?

BUT HER FAVORITE was the smoked salmon deviled eggs with caviar. Yes. This was her choice to make and her favorite, by far! But that's not the most impressive part...

 Just look at the photo she composed with my husband of her favorite dish. Looks like something you would see in a magazine, no? SO impressive. You can tell from the other bland pics that I took those. Ah well, food styling is not in my future…

My son used her Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, which I think is the first one. He wanted to make breakfast, lunch and dinner, which sounded great to me!

His dinner he made first and it was a doozy! Homemade applesauce,  fingerling potatoes, roasted carrots and meatloaf! It was all delicious!

For his lunch, he made roasted tomato basil soup and it was completely restaurant worthy! Gotta love a boy who can work a food mill right?

His breakfast was granola and though it was not technically difficult at all, he never eats dried fruits or nuts, so I let him have at it. And he ate it! It wasn't his favorite, but he ate it. Not to worry, we found someone else who enjoyed it very much, so it was all eaten!

I LOVED this project and so did they and I know we are going to keep it going. Just yesterday, after all this was complete, my daughter wanted to make cupcakes, so we did. Ina's red velvet cupcakes, although, we had to sub purple food coloring, so they were purple velvet. And we made them dairy free, but they were still delicious though! 

Thank you Ina Garten, for all the fabulous food memories! If you ever need some helpers for your show, we are close by (and we have some friends in common, which is kind of fun!)  

First Day!!

Ah, the first day.

It is so bittersweet for me.

We really have a good time together, these little monkeys and I, and as you can see, they are growing in leaps and bounds....

I tried to get a good shot of the two of them, but there was too much joking around, you know, giving each other bunny ears and all that. I decided I would take it. Blurry is good. Shows they are having fun together. Or it shows I am a bad photographer, but I know that already....moving on....

This one is completely self styled. Head to toe, that is my LMO. She makes me smile. 

There was no other choice for her, HAD to be her new Freckled Chicken Rainbow Dress! http://loopsbykeri.blogspot.com/2013/08/my-girl-loves-her-freckled-chicken.html

 Check out the amazing one of a kind creations of Holly Hester, the brainchild and designer or Freckled Chicken. http://www.etsy.com/shop/FreckledChicken  

If your daughter loves rainbows, Holly can make them one just like hers! Check out her new items for fall!! SWOON!!

Here they are arriving at school. I thought I could get away with meeting up with them for another year.

My MAP jokingly ran at me in "outrage" that I was there.

And then they went off to their classrooms. They may have pretended not to be thrilled to see me...

but they are both smiling in these pics.

hmmm.

Hope your first days went well!

School on!

Tons of Summer Fun- Courtesy of our Local Library

Hello Everyone!

The last few weeks of summer are always bittersweet for me. I have to say, I love having my kids at home. We have such fun together! They are inquisitive and spirited and are usually up for anything I suggest!

The last few weeks we have done quite a bit of fun things and most of them have been because of our local library! We spend a LOT of time at our library during the year, but in the summer we are there constantly!  They have incredible summer programs for kids. Just this year, MAP was able to join their Mock Newbury Book Club, which he loves! What avid reader wouldn't love getting their hands on galleys of books that haven't been published yet? A reader's dream come true!

We can request books our library doesn't have from other libraries, which is perfect for when we get really into a topic and need more books! The librarians are always so helpful in suggesting new books and authors. It's just a magical place. Thank goodness for Ben Franklin and his idea of the library!

A few years ago I learned of the libraries Museum Passes. The library buys passes to many local museums and places of interest and then you can reserve and borrow them! What a find! We have really used them this summer!

We went to see the newly reopened Vanderbilt Planetarium! We watched a few of their new shows, toured their amazing grounds and had a picnic with friends! What a day!

We traveled into NYC with 2 friends and 8 kids between us ages 1-11 and took three subways to get up to the Guggenheim in order to see the magical exhibit by light art virtuoso James Turrell (that is a quote from my son by the way...)

When you walked in, the rotunda was all encased to be a part of the installation. It was magical. You weren't supposed to take pictures, but after we left, we were informed that some of the younger set had taken pics unbeknownst to us with their ipods/phones. whoops. And thank goodness, because look how beautiful....You lie on the floor and look up and see this....and the colors change gradually....it is so peaceful.

Just beautiful.

I wish I had been able to take a picture of our children all lying on the padded ground gazing up together, some of them holding hands.... This was the only shot I was brazen enough to take.

After touring the museum, we took the kids to Central Park. The were all walking together, a little way in front of us. They turned to enter the park and they stopped and let out an audible "Wow!"

They found this amazing guy, making ginormous bubbles with two fishing rods tied together.

You never know what you are going to see in this amazing city! We HEART NY!

And what is a trip to NYC and Central Park without a good rock climb!

One day we went to the Walt Whitman birthplace, which I had never been to before! What a surprise to learn it was across from the Walt Whitman Mall and that where the mall stands now had been Whitman's family apple orchard!

We toured the house. It was incredible to see the details and furniture of the time. However, only one chair was original to the house, but it is still worth seeing for the items that have been collected are in the style of the period, with lots of knick-knacks that were useful in those times. The kids really enjoyed learning about the time and asked some really good questions!

I LOVE the blue! And the wide planks. Swoon!

Here we are in the gardens with our friend. She and my LMO consider themselves practically twins since they were born less than 24 hours apart. They are both sweet and spunky and a ball to be with, so maybe they are?  

MAP is having a moment with Walt. Leave it to my boy to ham a picture up. 

Our last trip was to the Long Island Children's Museum (LICM for short) We have been going there for AGES now, but they are always doing something new and exciting! 

This summer, they hosted a puppet festival and we were THRILLED to see that our favorite Puppeteer, Steve Petra was going to be there! And not only was he going to perform a puppet show, BUT he would also be having a puppet workshop!! WOW! We were SO in! We grabbed another friend and off we went. 

The show was hilarious and the workshop was fantastic! My son was chosen to go onstage and got to work with Steve, which was hysterical! The next day, when I checked Facebook, there was the post from the LICM! And look who was on it!

Thanks for the amazing shows and all the laughs Steve! Hope to see you again soon!

WHEW!

I would NOT have been able to do all this with the kids if not for the library passes. They truly made our summer!

Looking at this I can see we really did a lot of amazing things together this summer. And it makes them going back to school tomorrow a little easier. I really do love spending time with these two. They are just so eager to experience things and open to learning and just a heck of a lot of fun.

Now, I have to go tell them to stop reading and put their lights off, AGAIN! Tomorrow, the bus will be coming!

Learn on!

A few busy weeks

I apologize for the lack of fresh conversation, but the last few weeks have been jam packed!!

The school year came to an end and as you fellow parents know, it is a marathon of events. Piano recitals, gymnastics expos, last day performances, parties and more! Too many to mention and show, so we'll stick to some highlights:

We had a family party in the rain and the cousins were having so much fun on the teeter totter that they got their Poppa involved! I love these pictures. They had such a good time together!

Both MAP and Little Miss play piano, so there was a piano recital.  I came downstairs to find MAP self styled and posing for me, all ready to go. Is it me, or is he channeling Tom Cruise in Risky Business?

Then his Nonnie got into the act.

And then Boomer photo bombed them! Silly dog!

Off we went to the recital. They played beautifully!

MAP insists on not having his music present when he plays.

Then we had field day! It was rained out the first time, but the second scheduled day was incredible!

Here is Little Miss O with her egg at the egg race.

MAP getting some major air during the sack race.

After the bucket brigade, the annual dousing of the students and the head of the school!

A very soaked MAP in his team t-shirt.

Little Miss having a blast! Love that we can see her missing tooth space. Such a rite of passage. : )

Then it was time for the last day. My two went all out fancy. Not my idea- completely theirs. It was raining, but that didn't deter them. They just asked for umbrellas. Aren't they the sweetest?

So that is why I've been out of touch for the last few weeks. It's been a whirlwind! Now on to fun summer activities! Crafts, knitting, outings and more! 

Stay tuned.

And, I would be remiss if I didn't give a Meow-out to the newest member of my extended family - this little cutie is named Pumpkin and now belongs to my little sister. (who will tell me to mention she is the best little sister, but as she is my only sister, of course she is the best!) Enjoy her! 

Summer on!