First High School Dance

Celeste just attended her very first high school dance and I can not believe how fast time goes (I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously???). She was asked to go by a friend/classmate of hers, Sterling. He asked her by bringing her this bouquet at school:

 Beautiful, Right? She was so excited about her plans, a group date with 6 couples to Monti's La Casa Vieja in downtown Tempe, and then the dance. Since they are all Freshman (and don't yet drive or date) the kiddos and parents all met at the Hayden Flour Mill for pictures, had dinner at Monti's (separately from the kids of course) and then drove them to the dance. Celeste and I went downtown early to do some photos for her "school" pictures. {in case you don't remember how I feel about school picture view here and here.}

So, here are a few of my favorite "school" photos:

 I know I'm not impartial, but dang is she beautiful!

Then it was on to the flour mill to meet up with her date:

 They exchanged the corsage and boutonniere.

 Celeste and Sterling.  

{He happened to match her dress perfectly, which was purple with blue iridescence, but all the photos picked up more blue! Go figure!)

The GORGEOUS girls:

 Angela, Taylor, Katherine, Celeste, Abbie, Kira

What a beautiful group of young ladies!

Kira, Angela, Katherine, Abbie, Celeste, Taylor

And the couples:

 Angela and Eric, Celeste and Sterling, Kira and John, Abbie and Nick, Katherine and Conner, Taylor and Shae.

Conner, Katherine, Eric, Angela, Taylor, Shae, Celeste, Sterling, Kira, John, Abbie, Nick  

Then they were off to dinner at Monti's, Senator's room:

 Celeste said she had a lot of fun at her first dance, and actually even danced! Yay!

She's at it Again

Sophie's definitely bitten by the sewing bug! She asks to sew quite often. She has also really enjoyed baking lately, and has twice searched the internet for recipes and made them all on her own!

So when I saw some really cute baking themed fabric at my fabulous place of work, ETC I had to get them for her. For the following projects I purchased 1/4 yard of 3 cute fabrics. I combined this with about a yard of yellow fabric and a teal fat quarter I had at home. This was enough to make all our projects!

First, I made her apron at a girls late night at my friend Denise's home. It turned out pretty cute even considering I had no pattern and my choice of beverage that night was a soy chai latte with Bailey's (if you haven't tried it, it almost had an eggnog flavor with the Bailey's and was toooo good!)

Anyway, here is the apron:

I wanted Sophie to be able to sew some projects with the left over fabric. We decided on towels and hot pads. After a trip to JoAnn's (for "Insul-Bright" and bias tape) and Target (for cute kitchen towels) we got started. The towel tutorial we found on, you guessed it, Pinterest. It has you cut the towels in half to make 2 from each, which we forgot to do on the first one {center of the photo}.

 We used no pattern for the hotpads but it is just a back fabric, batting, "Insul-Bright" and top fabric quilted together. The edges are then incased in double fold bias tape. That's it!

Here is Sophie and her new baking cuteness {she made the t-shirt at a summer kid's sewing class at JoAnn's}:

 We chose these to hang on our oven since they match the color. Don't hate me for it's retro, shabby look. You're jealous, I know!

 

The Hardest Thing I've Ever Had To Do...

...is say goodbye to this girl:

(This really does not seem very long ago!)

I have been feeling such a range of emotions, at the very top is PROUD. I am so dang proud of this girl for setting such a high goal and reaching it! I am also excited, amazed, nervous, a little envious, and also quite sad. I am mostly sad that this young lady will no longer be a part of my daily life, and I feel a hole where her presence is missed. I feel sad that when she next comes home she will be more like a guest in our home, and that feels weird. 

It is also very rewarding to see how amazingly well adjusted and independent she is! It is such an affirmation of choices we made in parenting. Now, I don't want to get all Time Magazine, "Are you mom enough" on you, but I made some socially tough choices in raising my children {extended breast feeding, family bed, attachment parenting, etc.}. I got a lot of comments from "well meaning" family and friends about these choices. Mainly, the view that if I parent this way, I would raise clingy, dependent children. I knew in my heart that this was not true, and I remember saying to Tony that we are doing the right thing {for OUR children} and that it may not show now, but just wait! Sure enough, here is a young lady ready for anything life has to offer. She is so mature and level-headed, I hardly worry about her. Maybe these "well meaning" people should have warned me that I would become attached, as I am having a harder time with this than Alexa is!

So, enough about me, here are some pictures of Alexa's new home:

 Her dorm, Clark Hall

 Her bed..

 Her desk and beautiful built-in bookshelves..

 Tony photo-bombed me on this one, Alexa in her room...

 Alexa and her room-mate, Katheryn.

And, our goodbyes. These were taken just as Tony and I were leaving:

 We are sure going to miss this young lady!

Sew Done

I have been doing quite a few sewing projects for Alexa and her big move, as I mentioned here . I made a quilt, all on my own, for the first time. It turned out pretty good! I bought the fabrics almost two years ago, along with a pattern for a queen size for Alexa's room. That all went out the window since it took me so long to make! I found a tutorial online and made a twin size for her to take to her dorm.

 It was a really easy pattern for zig zags/chevrons that used all square cuts, no triangles! I think it is so striking on the black background.

Here is a close up to see the beautiful purple quilting, and my not so beautiful machine binding with faux piping.

I have also now finished all of my summer Sew-N-Go class kits. The whole summer series was travel items. Alexa chose the Eiffel tower and purple fabrics for hers. (Sorry about the poor pictures. Bad lighting +no flash and slow shutter speed made them a little blurry!)

 All the finished projects.

 Passport wallet, coin purse, MacBook cover, jewelry roll-up.

 Make up case with brush storage flap/lid, tissue case, mini notebook/calculator cover, mirror, mini case with Q-Tips.

 Pencil case, mini clutch, luggage tags, travel pouch with clear vinyl front for air travel carry on items.

And the final project, a large bag with exterior and interior pockets and ultra-suede bottom with "feet". This bag is large enough for her computer and books.

And just to brag, Sophie has been bitten by the sewing bug. After her successful kids sewing class....:

 

 she had been bugging me to do another project. All on her own she Googled "easy dog shirt instructions" and found a mini PDF pattern. After helping her enlarge it to fit Sadie she chose fabric and tulle, cut out her pieces, sewed them, sewed on the tulle skirt, ALL ON HER OWN! I mentioned she needed to hem the arm and neck holes. She said she wished we had bias tape (like what is on her apron) because that is easier. So I ironed some wide grosgrain ribbon in half and she sewed that around the raw edges. And here it is as modeled by Sadie:

 

School Lunch Drama

I don't know if it's just me, but my kids' school lunches have always caused drama. We pack our lunches as TPA does not have a school lunch program, and although Ward does, the food is HORRIBLE! {Think the worst, store brand, TV dinner, well these are worse than that!}

Last year was a fail. Neither girl likes sandwiches a whole lot, and Celeste down right refuses to eat them. So most days they took an Uncrustable and snacks (granola bars, apple sauce, CheezIts, Pudding cups, cookies, etc). See what I mean? FAIL!

I am determined to make this year better. I want my kids to eat REAL food. So where did I start? Pinterest of course! We got some ideas and a good place to start: square freezable lunch boxes and sectioned containers. 

This makes it easy to give them a variety of good foods.

Here is what week one consisted of:

Main dishes: -homemade tri color pasta salad with red peppers, cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, feta, and Trader Joes "Soycatosh" (soybeans, corn, red peppers).

-Toothpicks with rolls of Boarshead roast beef and Muenster cheese 

-Mini English muffin pizzas

Sides: -Home made banana bread made with applesauce in place of butter

-Smoothies made with bananas, mango, pineapple, apple juice and plain Greek yogurt (frozen, so by lunch time they are still a little slushy!)

 

-Chips and Salsa

Drink: Frozen Capri Sun (the worst part of their entire lunch!)

And guess what? They ate it and LOVED it! Success!

This week we are repeating the pasta salad, roast beef, chips and salsa, pizzas and smoothies. We are making pumpkin, raisin bread instead of banana, adding hummus and cucumber slices, Cuties, and Sophie is going to try mini whole wheat bagel sandwiches. 

Sophie's lunch

Celeste's lunch

Wish me luck in keeping up with this new routine!

(Un)Finished Projects

Does anyone else have bags of items bought for projects that you've never gotten around to? Piles of fabrics intended for greatness? Just me? Well this weekend was the time for finishing those unfinished projects!

And man does it feel good!

The girls were inspired by a super cute monkey quilt at my work and really wanted one. My answer was "no way, how about a pillow?" Celeste ran with that idea, changed it up to be a sock monkey, found a drawing to use as a pattern, chose fabric, and came up with this:

 Of course Sophie needed one too:

Anyone remember Celeste's  Minky monkey blanket and Pillow?

I have also made Alexa and all black Minky pillow, so of course Sophie needed one, too. She chose some remnant Minky from my work, and we made this:

 Another half finished project was a ruffled circle skirt Celeste chose the fabric for about 2 years ago. She said she did not want it anymore, so I finished it up for Sophie:

 I have finished all of my collected Sew-N-Go projects of travel items(8 so far, I think?) for Alexa to take to college with her. I will post those later when I get her quilt back from the quilter(made with fabric I got almost 2 years ago, sheesh!). That's right, I made a quilt all on my own, for the first time!

And because we were not busy enough, we did a Pinterest Sunday project, Moscato Cupcakes. My favorite wine in yummy cupcake form:

 I must say I am feeling quite accomplished, if not a little burned out! Now we are off to pick up Alexa's graduation thank you cards from the printer, another item checked off the list!

 

20 years

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I've posted. It's been busy since Lexi's graduation now that the kids are all home from school. Earlier this month I traveled to Nebraska to meet up with my boys who were working in Iowa. It was a fast trip full of antique shops, visiting family, and meeting a precious new grand-niece. My intention was to drive home with Tony but we stayed too long, so I flew home with the boys. Due to a missed connection we were put up in a beautiful embassy suites for the night and bumped to first class for the return the next day. Michael says he wants to travel that way from now on as he can fit in the seats!

 Then, last Friday Tony and I celebrated our 20th anniversary! Hard to believe, I know. We went to one of my favorite places to eat for lunch, House of Tricks, in downtown Tempe. Then to a movie. Boring, we're old, whatever. 

But, that evening we went for a family bike ride on our new beach cruisers. I am happy to say that we have only missed one night of riding in more that a week. It has been so nice, and that has been with all 6 of us (plus friends most nights, too). I hope we can keep it up a while longer, however the boys are back to work this week, so we'll see. 

So here's to more family bike rides and another 20 years!