A Few Dresses, A Shotgun, Forks, And A Happy Mother's Day

Sorry this post might seem a little scrambled, because I'm sort of updating over the past few weeks.

 A couple of weeks ago, the week after Easter, the kids were really sick. It's always a bummer when they are. Although, they seem to have more energy and go crazy when they're sick versus when they are well. (This could just be cabin fever though) But with the kids sporting colds and fevers, we had to stay in for the week. I took the time to finish some of the projects I wanted to do (and was supposed to be done with by that point to begin packing). I seriously have a ton of fabric so I wanted to make Chloe a few more dresses and, of course, headbands to go along with them. That, and I've been having a lot of fun making them. (If you want the tutorials for these you can go to my other blog)
Here are the ones I made during the week (sorry if these aren't that great of pics, she's constantly running away so it's hard to get a good one):
This one is her flapper ruffle dress (I used the curtain left over from the photo booth from Jed's party)


This dress is a play dress for her

 (She loves to pick up sticks and she always has to have whatever she's holding in both hands)

This last dress was made from the left over fabric from her first birthday. I made this one up on my own, so it didn't turn out quite how I was hoping it would. Sadly, I think this was a wear once dress, and unintentionally kind of a fairy meets Barbie pink dress (I didn't make the headband.) You can't really tell from these pictures but there's flowers inside the top of her dress too.

 (front view)

(back view)

This skirt is what I wish I made for her for Valentine's Day. It's big on her right now, but she'll have time to grow into it, so maybe next Valentine's Day? : )

For my birthday my brother, James, wanted to take me shooting because I have never been. It wasn't until that Saturday that both of our schedules finally worked out. Elijah was also feeling better by the weekend, so we decided to take him so he could at least enjoy being outside. We had a lot of fun too. Elijah was a little hesitant in the beginning because of how loud the guns were. We made him wear ear protection, but after the first shot he didn't want to be near the guns anymore. Luckily, there was a river down below which he enjoyed playing in. Jed also was able to shoot his gun for the first time. Jed had re barreled the gun himself, so I never let him shoot the gun before. I only let him this time but it was after my brother tested it out weeks before to make sure it was safe. Elijah, in the end, decided he wanted to shoot the rifle. After he went through his first round, he wanted to keep going. Unfortunately, we only had enough bullets for him to shoot 3 rounds. But he had so much fun, and now is really excited to go camping next month so he can shoot some more.

Chloe has been learning to feed herself (you might remember that she used a fork for the first time at her birthday party) and these past few weeks she's really mastered it. She is so cute to watch! She loves to feed herself using a fork. She makes sure to fork all of her food, and tries so hard to get everything onto the fork, even if she has to stick the food on using her other hand. She also learned to drink from cups. We still can't trust her to walk around the house with an open cup because she still spills it all over the place as she tries to run, but with every meal she now drinks from an open cup. (I know these might seem like small achievements, but I just love watching her do them) Even with using the fork, she still ends up messier than if she picked everything up with her hands and shoveled into her mouth. lol

(she even wipes her face after she's finished eating)

I also wanted to add a Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful and amazing mothers (and future mothers) I know. I am so grateful for all of you and the great examples you are to me and just wanted you to know that I admire all of you and have learned a lot from each one of you. I hope you guys enjoyed this day.

I also wanted to show off my kid's gifts. Jed had them paint pictures for me. This is Chloe's first painting.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!