Lollapalooza Pants

Check out Bryce's new wardrobe! Thank you to Natalie for aptly naming them Lollapalooza Pants. They look perfectly comfortable for crowd-surfing or jumping into a mosh pit. I found the pattern for these recycled t-shirt pants here. I had originally planned on making them for Kari, but after a long week of Pharm D interviews, I was clearly tired and made too many mistakes along the way, despite it being a terribly easy pattern. This was fortunate, because Kari wanted absolutely nothing to do with these pants anyway.

Natalie and I got together Friday night and sewed like a couple of little old ladies at her new house in her fabulous craft room. It was great to have time solely devoted to sewing. It was a little slice of heaven!

In other updates, Bryce never did have croup, as we had suspected earlier. Amazingly, I was probably too proactive in getting Bryce to the doctor early, since it amounted to nothing. Instead, he fevered on and off for three days and wound up with a fantastic smoker's hack and runny nose.

Kari has officially wrapped up swimming lessons and has one remaining basketball lesson. Four of Kari's classmates from school are in lessons with her, so she feels comfortable going each week, and her skills keep improving too. Saturday they took the last 15 minutes of class to put all their learned skills together and play a game. I should have taken video. It was one of the funniest things you'll ever see. I'll try to remember to take video this Saturday.

Week In Review

Wow. What a busy past few days. We've had a whirlwind of activity and people through the house it seems, but the more the merrier! It has been most memorable.

First off, Grand-MO arrived early in the week. Kevin had arranged for the she and I to attend the Purdue-Wisconsin game. She hadn't been in Mackey Arena to see a game since it first opened back in 1967. The game was wonderful and it was great to see the Boilers win.

Aunt Laura arrived on Thursday for a weekend getaway. We don't get to see Aunt Laura very often, so this made for quite a special weekend. She showered everyone with gifts and just dug in like a regular member of the house- laying some remnant carpeting, carpet cleaning, and teaching me some sewing machine maintenance. The best part was that we were able to celebrate her birthday with her!

Kari got to play hooky from school on Friday.

Lunch at Windsor Dining Court

Birthday breakfast tea party complete with chocolate muffins

Aunt Laura was also able to help me with a sewing project which I'll debut soon. It was such a fun weekend; we hope we can do it again soon!

I Only Pretend I'm Crafty

I follow some craft and sewing blogs quite religiously, so it's no surprise that I've got more projects I'd like to do than I actually have time for. But, I was able to complete a couple this weekend while Grand-MO and Aunt Laura were here.

First up is this upcycled sweater vest. It was surprisingly an easy little project and not overly time consuming. I wasn't brave enough to attempt the V-neck (I know my sewing limitations) but the finished product looked quite, quite professional!

This next project is not an idea from any one particular place. But, I was inspired by whom the gift is for. My best friend from high school, Amy, is about to have Baby #3. Photography and documenting events and occasions have always been super important to her. I always appreciated that about Amy. And because I know she loves to document the important milestones in her kids' lives, I decided to make monthly onesies for her. I corresponded most of the shirts to the month's major holiday. This was quite a fun project I was able to complete using my Silhouette.

They all turned out really well and will be a gift to use throughout the whole year. Big sisters Abby and Emily are also getting t-shirts to wear to the hospital. Amy, I sure hope you're not reading this!

Happy Valentine's Day

from 47906. Kari took off for school with her Valentine treats for her classmates and for her teachers and administrators. The nifty bags for her teachers came from a free download at The Farm Chicks.


Bryce and I stayed home to experience our first encounter with Croup. Since we had no prior experience with it, we decided to be proactive and were fortunate to get an appointment today with our regular pediatrician. While diagnosing croup is not a certainty, doctor's orders included sitting in a steamy bathroom each night and digging out the humidifier. Oh, and no daycare until Wednesday. Ok, we can handle that. Fortunately, he's in good spirits and otherwise acting like his normal, 18-month old self.

Text Messaging

Kari is four quickly going on 14.

Snow, Snow and More Snow

We had an interesting week here in West LA (that's for you, Uncle Mark!) Purdue, in a rather unprecedented move, cancelled classes for Tuesday and Wednesday after getting a combination of ice and snow accumulating to about 8 inches. We took advantage of the time at home playing with the Clawson kids outside.

Yes, poor Bryce is in the pink snowsuit again.

Thursday afternoon Kari and Bryce headed down to Indy to spend the weekend with Gran and Beep Beep. It's a particularly special weekend for Gran, celebrating the Big ##. She's not telling, and neither are we! We haven't heard much from their way so we know they're having a great time.

Without the kiddos around, I took advantage of cleaning out and organizing the pantry the minute I got home Thursday evening. It might not look like much, but it feels wonderful.

Before After

And now it's snowing again. I believe we're to get another 1-2" this weekend. I saw this online yesterday and couldn't agree more.

47906 Weather Update

Kevin is out shoveling right now. He's a bit fanatical about a clean driveway, and for that, I'm always grateful.

I couldn't get a good picture, but the precipitation right now is out of this world. It's raining kosher salt:

Easy-Peasy Pajama Pants

In preparation for the cold/snow/ice storm approaching, I have been thinking about things to keep us all warm. Bryce and I were doing some shopping at one of my favorite stores, Menards, this morning when I stumbled across this:

A fleece blanket for $1.98. Despite its claims, I was not at all confident in its superior quality, nor its durability, but I couldn't pass it up for the price and knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I recently saw a tutorial on making simple pajama pants and thought this was just about at my sewing ability. So, while Bryce took his nap this afternoon, I got to work. I was surprised to find this really was an easy project, and also, thankfully, quite a forgiving project too. Now don't look too closely; they're certainly not perfect, but good enough for the amount of time I had, plus I know the recipients' standards aren't overly picky!

I love that I was able to use the natural hem of the blanket for the hem of Kari's pants. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough material going in the right direction to do it for Bryce's, but I was able to incorporate it into his waistband.

And, so for .99 cents each, the kiddos each have a new pair of pajama pants. I told Kari she could wear them to school tomorrow to "celebrate" the snowstorm.

Birthday Weekend Wrap Up

Wanted to share some pictures from Kari's birthday weekend. It was filled with family, food and friends. Kari mentioned several times, "This is the best birthday ever!" It was really neat to see how excited she was over everything.

Getting ready for ESPN Gameday.

The gang's all here!

Opening gifts. Kari got a cash register to complement her kitchen and grocery cart. A big hit.

The Chinese theme continues with the cake. Bryce after his bath.

Pancake Sunday

Kari brought treats to school on Monday.

Kari with her classmates and teachers, Miss Mary and Miss Holly.
Shortly, I'll post pictures of the Chinese birthday party.

Movin' On Up

We put Kari's bed together today. This was my bed growing up, and my grandmother's bed growing up. It's a little over 100 years old. I taught Kari how to climb up on the bed using the iron side rails as a step. The bed is about up to her chest.

College Gameday at Purdue

ESPN's College Gameday is here at Purdue. What an experience!
People were super fired up.





Oh, and then as we were driving by Ross-Ade, we came across this:

Some sort of a polar plunge. They were giving out t-shirts to the participants. I don't care if the t-shirt was weaved in gold, I still wouldn't do it.

Kari is at her first basketball lesson at the YWCA. This afternoon is her birthday party. More posts to follow.