an afternoon, told (mostly) through pictures

When the weather is as perfect as the last few days I really look forward to pickup from preschool. The school has the ever popular "climbing tree" plus an endless field for the kids to run off the last of their energy and is just what you want for a nice picnic... That is, if you actually pack one. Which I did not, because I need to go to the store. Anyway, so Megan drops Finn off around 9:45 on Fridays and the kids play- today they were proud parents to two pink puppies "daddy, our babies are kweyeing!" and Finn would answer "OH NO! Wets go get dem! It ok babies!" Until it's time to hop in the car and get Norah. These two were on a roll today, double trouble for sure. 

Thing 1: Hear no evil                                Thing 2: See no evil  

 

They were Great White Sharks and Lelania was eating Finn :)

 

 Then it's time for the climbing tree! Lola is just starting to dare to climb. Getting down is a little trickier but she solves that by loosening her grip and swinging her feet off the branch and basically free-falling...

Spiderman, Spiderman

Time for a snack break

Over to the field. We lucked out and a friend brought mini bagels to tide us over until lunch.

As you can see, the girls are all about the tutu's and dresses.

Dancing is just better with a flouncy dress!

Swinging sticks will earn you a few minutes hanging out with the grown ups.... Even if it was  a sword fight and "it juss happen!" when you accidentally hit someone.

After a great time in the sunshine it was time for lunch. We met Meg at Panera and the kids were very pleased :)

The best ending to a big day is passing out on the floor...

I have to tell you- a little bit after I took this picture I think Lola was sleep walking. She sat up so I took her in her room to get her jammies on and she walked just outside of her door and started talking gibberish and then cracked up. When I brought her back in and laid her down to get dressed she rolled over and was instantly asleep. So weird!

Ugly hamper turned.... not so ugly hamper

This little beauty used to live in my closet. It's a cheap hamper from Ikea, $9.99. I finally have a decent sized closet and this was just killing too much space. The more practical place was in the bathroom but I couldn't put it in there so plain looking and especially not with the nice lipstick Lo got on it when she decided to play in my makeup (on a high shelf that she dragged a tall stool to reach). So out of the blue I just thought up a quick way to give it a mini makeover.

So you will need:

Scissors

Glue gun

Sewing machine (though I bet you could skip the sewing if you wanted to)

Fabric at least one inch bigger than the length of the hamper and 4 inches longer the width of the top flap 

First things first- pick a fabric you like. I happened to have that plus it coordinated perfectly with my bathroom. PS that shower curtain was such a great find- $5 at West Elm!

1.Measure your hamper- mine was 26.5 inches by  19.5 inches so I cut my fabric 27.5 (26.5+1) inches by 23.5 (19.5+4 inches= 1 inch for seam allowance, 1 inch to overlap under the top flap and two inches to go down the back of the hamper.

2.Sew a quick seam around the fabric, you only need to fold it over once- this is just to make it looked finished.

3.So you should have something like this. If you are awesome enough to iron your fabric first you will probably have better finished results but... I'm just not that awesome.

4.Now the "cheating": Hot glue the wrong side of the fabric DOWN on the UNDER side of the top flap of the hamper. I did a line down the edge (as shown) and then one straight line the length of the flap, then another line down the other edge.

5.With the right side of the flap and wrong side of the fabric glue a short line on the edge- just like you did on the under-side.

6.Still working on the very bottom of the front of the flap- glue a small line in the middle. Then repeat step 5 on the other end.

7.Keeping the fabric as even and straight as possible glue halfway up on one side. Then repeat on the other side.

8. Finish gluing the rest of the way up, repeat on other side.

9. Now that the fabric is attached to the top it's time to glue it down on the back. Hold the flap down taught. Place a line of glue down the back edge of the hamper (should be about 2 inches to reach the end the fabric- just eyeball it by pulling the unattached fabric on the back down while holding the end of the flap taught as shown below)

10.Carefully glue the fabric down along the back of the hamper. There should be a small lip of fabric on each side as the "lid" of the hamper is a bit wider than the hamper (so it sits on top instead of falling in). Just glue the lip to the side on each side of the hamper.

AND VOILA! Finished product.

11. Stand back and marvel at your work. Now go do your laundry, we all know you have been putting it off. (And men: it's NOT cool to throw your dirty clothes BESIDE the fecking hamper!!!! That "lid" weighs as much as a feather, just lift and throw. *cough*EDDY*cough*)

Conversation among 3&4 year olds

Overheard on the way to preschool this morning between my niece and nephew

Finn: mommy has a cold cuz her eat too much.

Norah: nooo she didn't eat too much! Maybe she just didn't wash her hands.

Finn: yea her eat too much- her eat a whole car!

Norah: (condescendingly) Finn.... She would need a bigger mouth to eat a car.

Duh!

"winneye"

Winnie was unaware that she was NOT in fact a dascshund and therefore would not fit in the dascshunds' bed...

Dressing to impress plus a teaser

Lola likes to look good even when she's relaxing at home because:

when you look good you feel good!

And how to turn this ugly hamper into something you can actually leave out and free up space in your stuffed closet- ok, my stuffed closet anyway :) tutorial coming tomorrow!

lipstick stains courtesy of Lola's two year old days

Stylin'

You can't say it's not unique.

Just relaxing, watching Oswald

Out for a quick stroll with the pups, fashionable shoes are always a must!

Never Fails

Sometimes it feels like I lose things before they even leave my hands. All I wanted to do was make some knee-highs out of old tights for Lola.... And I had the perfect dress for her to wear with them today but I set them down and promptly lost them. 

Lola decided that the dog crate is a "washing machine".... I suppose that will be a fun Saturday afternoon... Since I need to do some cleaning up, hopefully I will find those dang socks-to-be. 

I was hoping to sew up said socks real quick while I was baking this:

An Apple German Pancake. The apples are cooked in the pan on the stove with a lot of butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg.... Oh it was so good. Once the apples are tender you pour the pancake batter over the apples and toss it all in the oven. The directions said to cook it in the oven for about 25 minutes but my pan must have been super hot or something because I burnt the bottom and I only cooked it for a little less than 20 minutes. It was still delicious. If you want to give it a try- it's SO simple- click here. If I had any powdered sugar I would have added a little dust of it but it didn't need it. I'm making my way through my favorites on foodgawker.com. Last night we had a cheesy mushroom chicken that was divine and the day before I made the jelly roll pancakes and potato soup, all of which I posted about here. What to try next???

Anyways, this is what happened when I presented Lola with her breakfast....

Yea, she hid under her table. Talk about ungrateful! She tasted a bite of apple but said she didn't like it. I don't believe her because she didn't act like she didn't like it- when she tasted the lunch her dad made her she drooled and gagged, now THAT is disgust.

My life is nothing if not consistent!