New Patch!

Last night I had ANOTHER pair of my son's pants that needed a patch.   After my super cool monster patch, I decided to do another one.  Only this one is slightly different.  I'm kind of, sort of starting to like doing these patches!

Patches

My 5 year old son burns through jeans like a hefty bag full of rottweilers would.  It's insane.  At his school they are not allowed to wear jeans with holes in them, so this presents a little problem for me.  Either buy new jeans every two weeks or start patching them up. Being the thrifty mom that I am, I started patching.  After patching and re-patching some 10 holes throughout the last couple of months I decided to get a little creative with my patches.  Behold the monster patch!

I just put red fabric behind the hole to patch it, and then added some teeth and eyes.  I think it's pretty snazzy myself.  The boy seemed to like it too.  I guess  I'll be making monster patches from now one.

Hats and Glasses

This is going to be a quick little post so hold onto your skivvies. Lilly got a pair of fake glasses for Easter and wears them constantly! I couldn't help posting this picture because it is just so darn cute! I hope she doesn't get sick of these because chances are this girl going to have to get glass for real in the future.

Also, I crocheted this hat for a friend who wanted it for their newborn baby.  I haven't crocheted in years so I must say I'm pretty proud of this.  Cute huh? Who knew sock monkey hats would become so popular?

Knitting and Eventual Heartbreak

Lilly had been asking me to make her a cute little sweater like her brother's Frog Sweater. I found a sweater pattern by the same lady who made the frog sweater pattern.  It's for a bumble bee, but Lilly decided she wanted pink and purple instead.  So now it's some kind of lovebug, I guess.  Anyways, she picked out this cheapy yarn with sparkles in it, which is good since this story  does not end well, and I started knitting.

A sweater takes me awhile to knit since I only have time at night while I'm watching TV.  That girl just kept on pestering me, asking when it was going to be, was I done, can I finish it today.  So, with all this encouragement I decided to stay up late on Tuesday night and finish it as a surprise. (That's the end of the knitting part, now on to the heartbreak.)

I was so excited to show Lilly her sweater the next morning.  She squealed with glee and put it on. I took her to the mirror to show her how she looked in my knitted masterpiece.  She took one look at herself and said she wanted to take it off, and that she didn't want to wear it.  I didn't cry, I took it in stride and said, "Well, maybe you can wear it as a jacket today.  It's suppose to be a little chilly."  She ran off without replying.  When it was time to go, she told me she didn't want to wear it, and walked out the door to put her shoes on. I think she could tell she hurt my feelings because she came back inside and and told me she loved it and that it was beautiful, she just didn't want to wear it. I told her thanks, and then continued to try not to cry.

I was able to get her to put it on one more time later in the day so I could take these pictures. I think the sweater turned out really, cute, and maybe she will grow to like it. Or maybe not.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who has every knitted something for someone and they didn't like it, but man it kind of sucks.

Here it is in all it's unwanted glory.

I love the antenna. You can kind of see the sparkles in the pink yarn.

Lilly wanted flower buttons.

"can I take it off now"

Make this Today!

Holy Moly Canoli! I just got the new Ree Drummond cookbook, Food from my Frontier and decided to try some of the recipes.  Ok, that's dulling it down a little.  I got the book, screamed like a little girl, and then neglected my work whilst I ooooed and awwed over every page. I have her first cookbook and use it at least once a week.   As you probably know I am kind of addicted to Ree Drummond's Blog Thepioneerwoman.com go there just once and your life will never be the same.

So on Thursday I made the fabulously delicious apple dumplings featured in the book.  Here's the crazy thing.....they are made with Mountain Dew! Yea, I wasn't sure what to expect when I tasted them, but let's just say they are so addicting and wonderful that this is the 2nd batch I've made.  I don't feel right giving you the whole recipe since the book just came out this week, so go get the book and you won't be disappointed.  I also made the fried chicken tacos for supper and they were delightful I just forgot to take pictures. I was to busy stuffing my face!

Even the boy will eat them! He doesn't eat anything!

Chicken update: all four of our chicks are doing great, though I think I might have three roosters and one hen! What horrible luck.  Aren't they adorable? This is Princess.

Chicks!!!!!!

Isn't this a fantastic picture of a just hatched baby chick? Lex was transporting it from the incubator to the brooder.

We rushed home from work on Wednesday to find that two of our baby chicks had hatched early! The other two were soon pecking their way out of their shells.  Hatching chickens is something every family should do.  My kids were so amazed and awed watching those chickens hatch.  We had candled the eggs throughout the incubation process and they saw as the chick developed and grew bigger in the shell, until Wednesday they were finally ready to enter the world.  I'll admit I get as giddy as the kid do.  There is nothing sweeter than baby chicks.

This year we decided to hatch a different kind of chicken then we did last year.  We ordered 6 Barred Rock chickens.  My kids call them Zebra chickens because the adults have black and white striped feathers.  As chicks they are mostly black with a couple of yellow spots on their heads and wings.  If you thought yellow chicks were cute, you aren't going to believe these! I don't have any pictures right now of them with their feathers all dry and fluffed up, but even my husband who is a chicken hater, could not believe how cute they are! 

This one was the last in the group to hatch. Lex named it Kazoo

This is Lilly holding Princess. (Lilly named it)

Lex snuggling with Ally. (Lex named this one too)

Me holding Tinker Bell. (Lilly named this one too.)

Little Ballerina

This week is National Lutheran Schools Week at my kids' school, and today is hobby day.  My daughter decided she wanted to dress like a ballerina, because next year she gets to take ballet classes.  I put two adorable little sock buns in her hair and she was the picture of cuteness. I had to post the pictures.  Enjoy.

I don't know where she learned it, but that girls sure loves to pose!