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Our Holiday Weekend

Our weekend was lovely & relaxing...yet when Jesse and I reflected on it this morning, we realized we actually packed a lot into our 3 days of freedom:

~ went to Torrey Pines state beach and walked along the shore
~ went back to the beach in our actual beach attire so we could play in the water
~ Jesse took the girls to the park
~ started (and finished!) several projects
~ had family bbq at Nana's to celebrate the 4th
~ dropped by Graham & Leslie's 4th of July get-together
~ watched fireworks from Grandma Nina's
~ went out to breakfast with my Dad (all of us)
~ went for 3 two-mile walks (just me)
~ got assaulted & made 911 call (just Jesse....it wouldn't have been a complete holiday weekend without SOME law enforcement contact!)

So here's the highlights from our weekend:

(Minus photos of our 2 beach trips, which I chose to enjoy instead of play photgrapher)

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Our party was smaller than usual (The 5 Howards, Nana, Uncle Ron, Grandma Mariann, Uncle Victor, Aunt Roxanne) but we had just as much fun as usual.



For a special dessert, we had "wamp-ums" (demonstrated here by Grandma):


It's a wooden stick w/ a round wooden piece at the tip. You take a pillsbury dinner roll from the frozen pack, and mold it onto the tip of the wamp-um stick thingy. Then you cook it over the fire:



When it's done, it's puffed up and cooked just like a regular biscuit, but there's a space in the center. So then you put some pudding in the space, top it off w/ whipped cream, and voila:


It was really delicious! It tasted almost like an eclair.
Mallory gave it the stuffed-mouth approval:




We played a sentence-scrabble-type game:


I don't know if all of our sentences were grammatically correct (in fact, I'm sure most of them were not), but that made it even more fun:


After the game, we had the East Family 4th of July Tradition:
Homemade vanilla ice cream:

Also delicious!

For the fireworks, we had been debating for a few days over where to go to watch them. Then Victor & Roxanne suggested we go over to their place because they have a perfect view....just a few blocks from the spot where they set off the Spring Valley fireworks.
So we drove over there and sat in their driveway. It was a great show...I love fireworks!
And it was as if my camera preferred watching from Victor & Roxanne's as well, cause it took some pretty nice pictures (as opposed to the blurry blobs it usually takes):


And on another note:
I'm hooked.
On sewing.
For the past few nights, I don't even know what my kids have eaten for dinner. Or if they've brushed their teeth. Jesse handled all that stuff because I was busy making & creating.
Thursday night I made this:


It was a dress that I had bought, which when Mallory tried to wear it to church last week we discovered it was much too small (didn't even cover her bum!). So I cut it up and added some Michael Miller fabric that I've been saving; I didn't know what to do with it because it wasn't enough for a total project, but I loved it so much I didn't want to throw out the scraps. So now it's still a wee bit tight thru the chest, but at least it's long enough to be worn several more times. Then I plan on giving it to some other little girl who might enjoy it (and fit in it!).


Then Friday night I made this:


And Saturday I made this:
Here's a close-up of the pleats on the shirt:


And the decorative stitching on the hem of the shirt:



And my model whom I only had to bribe w/ a popsicle to pose for these:




I love it. It's so soft and nice...although it is 100% cotton, so the wrinkles are going to be a b!@# but that's ok.

And then this I made through-out June, and had finished a week or two ago. But I go so frustrated with it, that I folded it up, stuck it in our hall closet as high as I could, intending never to bring it out again. I didn't want to look at it anymore because everytime I did, it was just a reminder of something I started and couldn't finish.
My first quilt:



And guess who fixed it, and saved it for me.
Who else?
Nana.
She took it and evened up the edges, fixed my half-assed attempt at sandwiching the batting correctly and smoothing it out, and then...
...when I told her I'd stuffed it in the closet because I was frustrated that I couldn't finish it....
....she made me bring it over and (while she was watching my 3 kids, mind you), she did the binding.
When I looked at it, folded neatly in her garage yesterday, ready for me to take home, I almost cried. With the binding done, it looked like an actual quilt! I was amazed.


The back:

The binding (thank you, Nana):



The girls cuddled together without fighting long enough for me to capture this:



If you notice that Mariah is absent from my look-what-I-sewed photo-shoot, here's what she was doing instead:

I know when you see this picture, it kind of breaks your heart and it seems cruel that she was stuck inside like Cinderella while the step-sisters and step-mother were outside smiling it up and taking pictures.
But if you knew what she did to deserve going to bed early (8:00), you'd understand!

:o(

1 comments:

Arissa Stidum said...

You guys sound like you had a blast! I'm so jealous...that's the kind of 4th of July I had hoped to have but you know the people I live with...love to party. Lol. I love your outfits....too bad I don't have a girl for you to make dresses for! :)

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