A cozy, of the most lovable kind

As the only girl around here, I try to temper the sports, truck crashes, sword fights, and wrestling matches with the softer, kinder, and gentler things whenever I can. One of the things my boys like is having their "friends" close by. Kidster #1 's friends all stay on his bed, and he will choose one to sleep with depending on the day.

Kidster #2 has a few friends on his bed too, but Baby Bear is his love and will sometimes come along with him for the first hour of the day, or make an appearance before bed during our book time.

And then there's Snoopy.

As the youngest of seven children, Hubster was very attached to his Snoopy and treated him very much like how Baby Bear is treated today. He has been through his fair share of tug of wars and even had his arm torn off. Once we had kids, Snoopy reappeared from Grandma's basement and has been enjoying a (slightly) less stressful life here with the boys. However, being 40 years old he is not without some medical conditions.Every time I would try to patch a hole to keep the stuffing from falling out, a new hole would be created. The fabric just wasn't holding anymore. Faced with the possibility of putting Snoops out of reach on a shelf, Hubster asked me to save him. And since Hubster never asks for anything, I knew I had to at least try.

For details on how I did it, see Snoopy's Ravelry page!

It's quiet, mostly

I am sitting here reading blogs. The kids are in bed. Hubster popped over to his brother's house for a few minutes. Through the monitor I can hear Kidster #2 softly snoring. Then I realized that he's probably peeling paint in there since I have the monitor turned most of the way down! Ahh, the great thing about having a pool in your backyard on a hot summer day is that you never have to worry about your kids having trouble getting to sleep!

Summertime is the best time for...

new cool haircuts...

vacation... (yes, that is my MIL and no, there's not a Freudian message here. The kids? Well that depends on the day.)

trying something new...(tons of fun, btw)

A 4th of July parade that was just too hot to be any fun...

well, for the grownups...

a birthday complete with a trash truck cake and lots of garbage bags...

plenty of pool time...

And I'm right in the middle of a very serious project, more to come on that.

So can you see why I haven't been able to keep up lately?

New Pattern preview!

I'd like to be able to say that the reason I have been quiet is because I have been squirreled away busy working on my new bag pattern. Unfortunately that's not entirely the truth.

Summertime activities have taken over. Kidster #2 is already out of school for the summer, our pool is open, and the days have been so nice that I find it hard to stay inside.

The good news is that playing outside means more knitting time than usual. And there is a new bag pattern coming!

I love quickies!

Well who doesn't?

My last few projects have been nice, quick knits! But not just mindless either, I learned a new technique. Bobbles. They were surprisingly easy, but I was glad to practice them on a not so important project, if you know what I mean.
I have a boatload of this cotton that my neighbor gave me last summer. I was going to dye it, but that is another one of those someday projects. So when my mother in law started complaining about the price of Swiffer cloths, I did what every knitter does. I thought for about half a second and said, "I can knit those!". In her somewhat skeptical, non-knitter voice she said, "and they will work as good as the Swiffer ones?" I gave them to her this week, so we will have to wait a bit to see what the verdict is.

The first pattern is available here on Ravelry or from Birdysknits directly. I modified it only slightly by purling the first and last three rows to ease the curling edge.

The other one I made was just 65 stitches knit in garter until it fit. Even though there was only minor sewing involved, I think if I make more I would knit the other one just to avoid it :).

Ok, who isn't getting the biggest kick out of the fact that this yarn is the EXACT same color as the Swiffer???

Friday Fill-Ins

1. This picture never fails to make me smile.
2. I'm looking forward to Saturday (it's my birthday!).

3. Kidster #2 playing with Hot Wheels is what I'm listening to right now.

4. Potato salad must have no celery in it!

5. Pumpkin cheesecake muffins was the best thing I ate today.

6. Today is the most beautiful weather day we have had!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a Little League baseball game, tomorrow my plans include going out to dinner for my birthday and Sunday, I want to plant in the garden some of the things hanging around in pots, but it might rain!

Get yours: http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/

Underwater on a rainy day

The Under the Sea birthday party was a success. Well, as much of a success as having 14 kids between the ages of 4-6 stuck inside on a rainy day can be!

Luckily I had spent some time decorating our family room. I just didn't trust the weather folk who kept telling us it would clear (which it did, 20 minutes after everyone left). The bottom half of the walls were covered in craft paper so the kids could draw fishy things and sign their names.With kids everywhere, getting a good picture was hard. And since I didn't get parental permissions to plaster their kids' faces all over the internet, you'll have to make do with backside shots and the occasional mug from kidster #1, the birthday boy.

We made fishing poles out of shovels, went fishing, and used the fish we caught to "stick the fish in the ocean".

I made flippers for each of them (how do you like the fish on my head? Ha!)and then goggles and snorkels rounded out the attire. It was supposed to be a scavenger hunt, but I didn't want kids all over the house so I sort of just handed everything out. (Bummer.) We swam like our favorite fish and had a few other swimmingly fun games before cake and presents.

The birthday boy was happy and that made me happy.