Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Helen for the Holiday


Charlotte had the entire week off of school for Thanksgiving and she and Toby enjoyed catching up on some sibling time and lounging in their jammies.  It made my heart super happy.


They also taught Jakey how to stay safe by walking on the furniture when the carpet turns into lava.


We ate a simplified Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday. Toby is the turkey leg man.


I made turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce shaped like a can (my personal favorite.)  It wasn't fancy but it worked.


The reason we ate on Tuesday was so that we could go to Helen, GA on Thursday.  We took our leftovers and headed to this little cabin in the Georgia mountains.


Charlotte brought along a notebook and pencil and discovered she loves drawing from nature.


Yup, Rob is THAT dad.  Saw some rocks in the middle of the Chattahoochee River and took Charlotte and Toby out there to explore.  


We hiked up to the Anna Ruby Falls.


They were very pretty and it was a totally do-able hike for the littles.


Monkeys in a tree.


This is what downtown Helen looks like.  I was excited to explore this Appalachian Alpine village, but it turns out it is basically a tourist trap.  Ah well.  We still ate German food (not great,) played at the playground, bought fudge, played mini-golf, and bought German salad dressing mix (Woo-hoo! Rob and I were just talking about how we were missing that.)  So it was a fun family weekend.


On our last day in Helen we drove up to the Appalachian Trail in the Chattahoochee National Forest to do a little more hiking.  We went straight uphill for nearly a mile and then decided to stop while the kids were still having fun.  We really want them to LOVE hiking, which means we have to take hikes that are short enough to be fun for them right now and not go until they get cranky.  That's our theory anyway.


On the way down we saw this in a tree over the trail we had just come up and which we now had to hike down.  It's a black bear.  It's not a large black bear, but that made me more nervous because maybe mama was around and wouldn't like us very much.  At any rate, we explained to the kiddos about respect for nature and quickly and quietly returned to the car.  It was kinda a great ending to our week of giving thanks for family, nature, home, and love.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 02, 2012

Project Runway - Christmas Edition

I was on Pinterest one day and saw a link to this blog- Craftiness is not optional.  On there are tutorials for making Barbie clothes and I was like, "What? I could make Barbie look more like the girl next door and less like the cocktail waitress from the corner bar?!!?  Sign me up."  Now, I know there are Barbie clothes in the stores- but not as many as you might think, and they are made of really cheap materials that tear easily.  (Trust me, I know, I've been shopping for them.)  And despite the marketing of Dr. Barbie, Archaeologist Barbie, etc., most outfits are either designed for Hoochie Barbie or Princess Barbie.  Ugh.  So, don't tell Charlotte, but this Christmas she will be getting some Barbie clothes made by MOM.



My first pattern choice was the "simple skirt." It is really easy, so I made eight of them.  Doesn't Tiana look like she is ready for the neighborhood 4th of July picnic?


This little dress is possibly my favorite.  All of the fabrics came from my scrap box.


I made four dresses total. The ones without sleeves took about 10-15 minutes start to finish.


I'm not great at doing the darts yet, and Ariel is not as.. um.. well endowed as some of the other Barbies in the house, but I wanted to make one gown out of red satin.  It's okay.  The satin was harder to work with though for sure.  I also made a top out of the red satin.


I love this one too.  It's a bit longer and I found a scrap of white eyelet in my mom's old sewing basket so I trimmed the bottom. 


This poofy skirt is adorable... if I do say so myself.  I used the last bit of white eyelet to trim it.  I would totally wear this outfit.


Some of the tops have darts in the to give them a more fitted look, this one does not.

Altogether I made 8 tops, 8 simple skirts, 5 poofy skirts, and 4 dresses.  I hope that Charlotte will like them. I had fun doing this project for her.  Possibly too much fun.  And I will certainly be more willing to play Barbies with my sweet girl in the new year.  ;)  


Thursday, November 01, 2012

An Incredible Halloween


Happy Halloween from The Incredibles!

Jack Jack gets into a LOT of mischief these days, but we worry about telling him "no" as we don't like when he bursts into flames... especially around the books. 

Dash is always ready to GO.  He ran from house to house when it was time to trick or treat this year.

Violet makes excellent force fields to protect us all from the spooks and "bad guys" out on Halloween night.


Mr. Incredible and I (In-Elastigirl) hope that you enjoyed our family Halloween costumes this year.  We had a blast dressing up together.  :)