we have a winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who left a comment. I'm glad you like the apron and I loved your ideas for summer fun. I've even already done some of them! And the winner is . . . . . . .

Casey! (who I'm guessing is really Amanda).

Any of the rest of you who want to make this apron and live nearby - you can always borrow my pattern :)

the apron

Remember when I told you I was going to start this apron? Well - it's done! And I LOVE it! And I thought it would be fun to have a little giveaway! So if any of you lovely readers would like one, please enter a comment on this post to win one (in your size) exactly like mine - reversible and everything! In your comment tell me about a fun summer activity we could try. I'll take giveaway comments until July 19 at 11:59 pm :)

If you'd like to make your own apron, the pattern was relatively easy to follow. I would suggest buying one. I made a few little changes (no ruffle on the bottom, changed the casing on the top, no pockets) so mine's not exactly like the pattern.

And thank you for all the comments on the bedwetting post. I'm sure we'll get through it, but why does pee have to smell so bad! I really don't want our house to be the pee house.

the pee house

Sometimes I feel like I live in the pee house. Boys are just not that clean with their bodily functions. Mine sometimes hit the toilet bowl, but usually not at night.

Speaking of night. I don't want to make any of my kids feel bad, but I need a little help. Sam and Charlie are still both wearing pull ups. The expense is getting annoying, but besided that, they wake up wet (sheets, clothes) most nights - even with the pull ups. And I wonder if they can learn how to wake up when they need to with pull ups on.

Do any of you have any experience with boys and night training? I think Sam may have some sort of disorder that makes it very hard for him to wake up at all in the night. I asked the doctor about it and he said they just grow out of it at a certain point, but he's almost 7. Charlie went a week with only wearing underpants to bed (about a month ago) and stayed dry. But then he started wetting again and wanted pullups again. I think after these ones run out I'm not going to buy anymore because I'm always changing peed on sheets either way!

Finished a quilt!

I finished binding this quilt yesterday while watching the Tour de France. Yay! It's been on my list for a while now and it's finally done!

This time I even impressed myself

I've always wanted to learn how to silkscreen. Until I do, this will have to work. I've had this idea in my head ever since I saw this tutorial. I tried to get it ready in time for Father's Day, but hey, I'm only 3 or 4 weeks late . . .

Thankfully Dan thought it was just as cool as I did.

p.s. thanks to Casey and Janiece for helping me with the images (as I have no clue how to do anything on photoshop).

Summer Art Projects

I always have a few great ideas for summer. This summer I thought I'd do an art project every week. Dan and I came up with a few good ones and then I was going to search the craft blogs. (which I have not yet done.)

This week (the kids have been home for over a month) we did this one.

Freezer paper stencils on tee shirts

The assignment:

Choose an animal that makes a good sillhouette. We used tracing paper and Ranger Rick magazines to find some good animal shapes. Some worked, some didn't. We spent quite a few days on this to find just the right image. (Jack was set on a sea turtle so we found one on google images.)

Trace the shapes onto freezer paper. Jack traced his own, I retraced Sam's original tracing and then did it on freezer paper, and I just did the whole thing for Charlie (except finding the fish he wanted).

Choose a color for the shirt and the paint. We did this a few weeks back when we were at Old Navy. I also already had a few colors of fabric paint the kids could choose from. I got it at Michael's. I'm sure you can get it at most craft stores. You're looking for something in a bottle or tube (but not puffy paint).

After that we just followed the tutorial. Pretty easy (especially if it's really just the sillhouette).

Now I'm thinking of all types of projects using this technique: throw pillows, more tee shirts, framed pictures.

What great things are you doing this summer?

what happens when there's no tv or video/computer games for a week!

Yes - I am a mean mom! The kids were out of control with summer TV time and weren't helping me around the house. So I took everything away for a week (including the game Dan had just rented). Besides people getting along nicely and being creative - I also got more help with cleaning the house. Maybe I'll take it away for the rest of the summer :)

Timpanogos Cave

Dan had the day off on Monday, so we decided to take the guys up to Timp cave. It was pretty cool. If you've never gone, you should check it out sometime. If you haven't been for 20 years (like Dan and I) you should also go. (In the photo Charlie is hiding behind me because he did not want to be in the photo. nice.)

It was a little bit of a hike - 1 1/2 miles uphill, an hour through the caves, and then back down. They say it's about 3 hours total. But I don't think they're counting on a (nearly) 2 year old who's trying to get out of the backpack the whole time and a 4 year old who whines the entire way up and down (and in the cave when he had to go to the bathroom.)

Also - I ought to mention that Sam was a champion hiker. He did not complain once and he thanked us for taking him when we got down. What a nice guy. I can't say the same for anyone else.

But it was fun, and it was beautiful. And I'm sore.

The boys are watching a chipmunk. They all froze when they saw it so that they could then catch it. We got up to the top with 20 minutes to spare. Thankfully there were a bunch of chipmunks around to entertain them.

more sewing

Hello again. I've been trying to sew some more. Here's what I've been working on in the last few weeks:

This shirt. It's made with Simplicity 3681 (I shortened it into a shirt) which I've made 4 times now. It's a great pattern and fairly quick. I've had the fabric since last summer, planning to use it for a shirt or skirt. I like how it turned out. (I had Dan take a few shots that included my head. I must have a really weird head, because it looked really weird in every picture.)

I made 3 pairs of pj pants for Charlie. The boy is almost as tall as Sam! Sam and he wear the same size of pj pants (almost) and Sam is unwilling to give any to Charlie. Charlie is also unwilling to wear any that used to belong to Sam. So he got some of his very own. Sorry - there's no picture, but I did use up some of my stash! (Including some brown fabric which I had cut a dress out of but never sewed it up. It's really ugly for a dress, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but it was also at least 6 years ago so . . .)

I've also been quilting my red and white quilt on the machine. Should be done sometime soon . . .

Next on the sewing list is to make this apron out of this fabric. I'm so excited about it! Isn't it cute?

photos I found on my camera that I didn't take.

there were at least 15 different views of this lego truck. and isn't the horse lovely? nice photography somebody.