Room To Grow

We're back from a week of holidays at the lake, so I'm finally getting around to posting the nightie test-drive pictures taken just before we left! Week-at-the-lake pictures to follow in the not too distant future.

Meredith was very pleased with her new nightie! It looks so sweet on her, though there's plenty of room to grow. If I hadn't put the lace around the neck already I'd have taken it in a little, but there's no way I'm picking the lace off!

Her hair seems to be growing just as quickly as the rest of her, this summer!

Enter the naked little brother for his turn at "cheese".....

And a final photo, whose blurriness must indicate I hadn't had QUITE enough coffee by that point in the morning, just to show how much more room to grow there is! Who would have thought that my girl was about the same size as a pillowcase?!

Pillowcase Nightgown

I've been reading a bunch of craft blogs lately, wishing I had more time to try some of the projects these crafty mamas think of! One of the popular projects is pillowcase dresses. They're lovely summery dresses made from real pillowcases. Some of the most beautiful ones I've seen are created from the kind of vintage pillowcases I remember sleeping on as a child. I think every woman received sets of these hand embroidered pillowcases as shower or wedding gifts. I set out to find some pillowcases to try my hand at the dresses and thought this would be a simple first project for my niece who wants to learn how to sew.

While I did find some pillowcases to fashion into dresses, this particular pillowcase really caught my eye. It's that rich feeling old cotton with a delicate lace detail at the bottom. I thought it over for a few days and dreamed up a cool summer nightie I wanted to try to make.

What started like this:

Now looks like this:

I can't wait for Meredith to try it on!

I can't believe my eyes!

Meredith made lots of progress with her two-wheeler over the weekend at camping. Every weekend we practice riding without the training wheels, which generally involves either Dave or I running behind her, proving just how out of shape we are by how quickly we get winded!

This weekend she continued her practice. Up until now we could only let go for a second or two before she lost her balance. On Saturday, Auntie Kim helped her practice a little and taught us a new way to keep her safe without helping her so much. The secret seemed to be to stand on one side of her and hold her upper arm, not stand behind her and stabilize her from side to side. Within minutes she was biking 4 or 5 feet on her own before tipping and needing some help. By Sunday it was 12 or 15 feet. And tonight, she biked up and down our street like she'd been riding a two-wheeler for months!

Pure glee!

Marshmallows!

This weekend was the inaugural roasting of the marshmallows at camping. Dave was the safety patrol and kept everyone from falling into the fire!

Well worth the wait!

Aaron was thrilled to get his turn, and reverted to the trusted combination of saying and signing 'hot' at the same time to express just how HOT the fire was!

Cost of the camper, the gas to get back and forth all summer, the seasonal camping permit?

More than we care to add up!

Watching Aaron taste his first roasted marshmallow?

Priceless.

Milestone # 687

No, Aaron did not suddenly learn how to eat an ice cream cone without creating an entire load of laundry.



Meredith learned how to tie her shoes!

Or, more precisely, Meredith learned how to tie a bow using the lace from a lace-up game flip-flop shoe which she is now wearing as a shoe since she tied said bow!

Some proud, she is!

What a difference!

We're settling into the routine of summer around here: weekdays in the city and weekends at the camper. It seems like I'm always unpacking or packing something, but it's really enjoyable in the end. Well, except for the part on the highway where Aaron says "all done" and we're only 20 minutes from home. I'm particularly enjoying having our weekday evenings free to play in the yard before supper, head to the playground, or pollute the local wading pool. :)

This past weekend was the annual Falcon Lake Fair, something Meredith has been eagerly anticipating since last year's fair I think. At some point in the day she said to me, "This is the day of my dream!" What a kid! I managed to take not. one. picture. the. whole. fair. day. No pictures of their delighted faces on the rides, no pictures of their sticky mini-donut fingers.

All photographic hope is not lost, however. The kids each had a turn with the camera on the weekend.

First Meredith captured Daddy leaving the camper:

Next Aaron snapped a timeless shot of our picnic table, err Meredith.

And Meredith captured Aaron trying on her new hairband and channelling Stevie Wonder, all at the same time.

We thought it would be a nice idea to get an ice cream cone to start off the ride back to the city on Sunday. We probably won't do that again. What a difference three years makes in a child's ability to eat, not wear, an ice cream cone.

The last word on D. A. D.

I'm feeling rather proud of myself these days.
I started a project when Meredith was just little that became a special Father's Day tradition. I took pictures of Meredith holding the letters D and A and lined them up in a three photo frame so her letters spelled out DAD. I can't take any credit for the idea, I read about it on a parenting site when she was just little.

The first year I printed the pictures in black and white and it looked pretty artsy.

The second year I borrowed our neighbour's backyard (our neighbour might as well be named Mr. Green Thumb) and took some very colourful cute pictures of Meredith and it looked very cheerful.

The third year, Aaron was about 6 weeks old when Father's Day hit, and I didn't even pick up the camera. :(

Last year I took some cute pictures of the kids and never got them developed.

Things were NOT heading in the right direction with project-DAD-frame. So this year I hustled them off to the playground, and brought the letters along.

Then by some miracle, I got the pictures developed.

Then even better, I put them IN the frame....after I dusted the two years of accumulated dust off of it! So here's the finished product and the images Dave chose for it:









I'll try to add a few more of my favourites from the day once Blogger's uploader starts cooperating again. Too bad I didn't remember the pics all needed to be in portrait orientation BEFORE I started taking them....