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(

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