Temple Portraits

For Maren and anyone else who is interested. The gal who did our class has a website - Poppyseed Projects. I know she is from Utah, so she could maybe do a class in your area or it looks like she sells the pictures and some of the supplies on her site. Good Luck! If I can do anything else, let me know :)

Romeo and Juliet part 2

Here are some pictures from after the performance of Romeo and Juliet. You may notice that Felicity is not wearing glasses. The "director" did not want her to, since they would not have been authentic. We have been thinking about trying Felicity in contacts anyway, so this seemed like as good a time as any. She got a trial pair last Friday and has been wearing them for a week now. She really likes them and is doing great putting them in and taking them out, but has already torn a little chunk out of one, so Shawn and I are still on the fence. Besides that, she has Shawn's astigmatism, so would require the more expensive version and they would be more than glasses.

Romeo and Juliet

The fifth graders at Felicity's school put on Romeo and Juliet last week. Around 25 kids participated and they have been practicing for about 2 1/2 months. It was an abbreviated version of course, but was the actual play. They all did an amazing job and a couple of the little actors were really, really good. During the day performance for the 3-6 graders, I even got a little teary-eyed. (The K-2 graders were not allowed to see it - suicide is okay for older kids though I guess...) Felicity played the role of Lady Capulet, Juliet's mother. She did a fantastic job and was a beautiful Lady! I think everyone had fun and grew from the experience, but were a little relieved when it was over - they put a lot of time and work into it.The other amazing thing about this whole production is that Shawn was the director. He was in drama in high school and took drama classes in college. He also really likes working with kids, and Felicity's teacher (who organized the whole thing) is his buddy, so he had an absolute blast! They rehearsed for 1 to 1 1/2 hours after school 3 days a week, so it was quite a sacrifice on his part to take that time off from work. We are very blessed that he is in a position where he can do that. It was a great time for he and Felicity to bond and work on something big together. I am so proud of them both!They had great parental involvement too - stage crew, lighting, costumes, etc. And the principal was so supportive and excited about it - he arranged for stage curtains to be purchased and hung (they arrived a day late though) and also arranged for a professional sound engineer to come and run the sound board and so the kids could have some good wireless mics.

Felicity all mic'd up and ready to go.Felicity posing by Juliet's balcony.

Shirt Redos part 2

The other day I busted out the sewing machine again to finish up Lydia's shirt makeover. My friend Becky used a reverse applique technique to add some dimension to the peace sign. She pinned some white knit on the inside of the t-shrit, behind the peace sign. Then she stitched around each of the inside sections of the peace sign. Then she cut out the front layer of the section to reveal the white knit behind it.Then I added a couple of buttons on each side between the phrases "peace please" for a little more dimension and color. I also cut off some of the bottom because it was really long and I thought I could use some of the extra knit for some embellishing.
I took a strip of the extra knit and sewed it around the neck line. I don't really like it and I should have done it like this shirt over at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar, but it will do. When Lydia tried it on, it was too short - I had cut too much off the bottom. So, I found an old white t-shrit, cut off the bottom, and sewed it on the bottom of the new shirt. Voila, instant layered look and since the white shirt is a little bit more snug than the pink shirt, it should keep certain "areas" covered in the back. I also took in the sleeves a little since they were pretty gape-y. While I was at it, I also used some of the fabric from Evie's new shirt, some pink tulle, some polka dot ribbon and a black button to make her a matching hair clip. It didn't turn out quite like I envisioned, but again, it will do and Evie seemed happy.

Thankful Hat

I should be making pancakes for my kids right now, but they seem to be fine so I'll post one more thing. A couple of weeks ago we had a FHE on gratitude from this awesome book that my friend told me about on her blog. One of the activities was to create a Thankful Hat and whoever was wearing the hat had to say 5 things they were thankful for. Lydia was in charge of activity that night, so this is her creation. We decided that during the week, anyone who was grumpy or complaining would have to wear the hat and sing a different tune. We didn't have to use it too many times, but it is still sitting prominently in our living room just in case.....The book is "Before they Turn Twelve: Helping Children Gain a Testimony of the Lord's Standards" by Deborah Pace Rowley. It has 18 lessons that are based on the For the Strength of Youth booklet that our church uses to teach youth about morality and godly virtues. We have done 3 of them so far and have loved all three! They have great object lessons and refer directly to the booklet. I ordered 5 of them from the Church Distribution Center so everyone could have their own to read from and mark in.

Now, it's off to make some pancakes because my tummy is growling!

My Birthday Present

She doesn't know it yet, but this is what my mom got me for my birthday. I've been drooling over these temple pictures for awhile now, but they were too expensive for me - a couple hundred dollars. Earlier this month, my friend's sister came down from Utah and taught a craft class where we made these for a fraction of the retail cost. She had all the temple prints and materials. Since the Boise temple wasn't available I chose the Idaho Falls temple. We had to paint the trim for the frame, glue the picture to a board, add texture to the picture, then use a staple gun and a lot of staples to assemble the frame and attach the picture. Sounds easy, but it took about 3 hours (mostly for all the drying time) and my legs were killing me the next day from spending so much time kneeling on the gym floor of the church.A couple of days later, my awesome crafty friends got together and distressed and stained the frames - I love it! I love looking at it when I walk by and I can even see it from my bed. Right now I just have it leaning on my piano and I think I kind of like it that way, I may not even hang it.Mom and Dad, thanks for the birthday money and my beautiful temple picture for my home!

Shirt Redos part 1

And now it is time to start showing off the t-shirt makeovers my friend helped me with. These are the $1 t-shrits I started with (gotta love Wal-Mart clearance).

For Evie's t-shirt tunic-dress I started with this gray fitted tee with an image of a drum set on the bottom. Since the image was at the bottom of the t-shirt, I couldn't cut it to make it shorter, hence the dress. I did take in the sides and the sleeves a little so she wouldn't have gaping armpit holes. Then I took a strip of cute pink skull fabric and made a ruffle for the bottom. I will try to get a close up of the fabric - it is rockin' cute! SHe loved it and wore it all afternoon and to school the next day. We still want to find some dark pink or black leggings to go with it and maybe make a hair accessory with the extra fabric.

Rosy Cheeks

Well, I think we're all better now (for the most part), but I thought I'd post a pic of Lydia's Fifth disease cheeks just for fun. I know we have rosy cheeks around here, but these were crazy pink. The picture doesn't really do them justice.

Well, Lydia is home sick today. I'm pretty sure she ended up with Fifth disease, but went to school yesterday anyway. It was the day her class was going swimming and she really didn't want to miss it, and since she wasn't contagious, I let her go. Then this morning she woke up with what sounds like croup, so we kept her home to rest and drink lots of fluids.

Shawn didn't have to go to work this morning, so he let me sleep in a little, went to Felicity's class for me (he and her teacher are friends) and then helped me make 160 meatballs for a freezer group exchange tomorrow. I am so excited about this group! I can't wait to have yummy meals just sitting in my freezer waiting for me to reheat them. I like to try new recipes every now and then, but I definitely get in a rut and view the dinner making chore as just that, a chore, sometimes.

Yesterday I spent the morning and afternoon with my friend Becky who is crafty-awesome! She has been making over t-shirts lately and she was kind enough to show me some of her tricks. She has a craft blog here and an etsy store here. You should go peek at her craftiness! I have a few more finishing touches to add and then I will post pictures of the t-shirt redos :)

Knock on Wood

Monday and Tuesday passed by without any emergencies! Just normal routine stuff. It did take the girls until after 8 pm to get their homework and piano practicing done yesterday, but they got it all done. Today I was supposed to go volunteer in Jo's classroom, but their schedule has been interrupted this week due to a water safety course, so I was able to stay home and finish my book. Now to decide which book to pick up next. I think I have 3 on my nightstand and another stack of library books next to the piano. I am definitely enjoying this relaxing day! After school it will be homework, practicing, lessons and play rehearsal as usual.