What We've Been Busy With....

This....

 She made a rather quick entrance into the world, arriving with the EMT's and a firetruck, in our now historic bathroom....

birthstory to come....

A Trip to the Zoo, and Jenny's Red Dress from a repurposed shirt

We went to the zoo. The kids were very excited, especially Isaiah, about seeing lions and tigers et al.

Alas, I was having painful Braxton Hicks contractions and wasn’t up to my usual photograph-a-minute self, thus there are just a few pictures. But they had fun.

Jenny being adorable at the admissions desk.

Isaiah and Daddy, Grandpa and Jenny before them. Leashes are a good way to keep your kid from trying to climb into the tiger pit....

There were old tractors there, half buried in rubber, for the kids to play on. I think they tied with the tigers as the kids favorite thing at the zoo. Jenny loved sitting on the tractor with Daddy.

She was quite unhappy when she had to get off to let another kid on. We call her farmer Jenny. She seriously seems to have that streak in her.

Isaiah on the BIG GWEEN TWACTOR!!!

He had quite a melt down when we took him off. We took him to the petting zoo to pet the goats. But he just kept begging for the BIG GREEN TRACTOR!!

 He then continued to melt down, completely unimpressed by the goats. He wanted the "bwock game" (he watches Josh play minecraft).

He was somewhat mollified by the playground with the giant pumpkin. Jenny ran in circles beating on a giant toy lettuce like a drum. There was also a toy barn.

He kept weeping for the block game, unimpressed with baboons and other animals, until he saw the tiger, who was sleeping. Just as Isaiah was staring at it through the fence, it woke up, and licked itself, before lying back down again.
"Big daddy tiger woke up! He wants breakfast!!"
After that he kept talking about how the big daddy tiger woke up, and that seemed to overshadow even the Big Green Tractor.

Aaaand, when we got home I looked at a newish red medium woman's 100% cotton red shirt I had, and decided Jenny needed a red dress to go with the felt rose I made her. I have NEVER been successful with sewing any kind of stretchy fabric before, but filled with nesting syndrome, I gave it a shot. It took 2 hours, there wasn't quite enough fabric in the skirt to make it as full as it should have been, thus pulling a bit when she played (in the future, I'm going to try to find XL shirts to do with with) but the neck binding came out surprisingly well (thanks to this tutorial), and the sleeve ruffles really worked.

Of Camping and Peter Pan Collars

So...we went camping. It was fun. The kids discovered pinecones. And dirt. And the wonder that is sticks. Jenny spent the first 20 minutes poking a pine tree with a stick. Every "hike" turned into 3 steps, pick up a stick. 3 more steps, swap it for another stick. 3 more steps, try to pick up rocks....

Of Peter Pan Collars.
This was my first dress-from-a-shirt experiment. Its far from perfect, but she's soooo incredibly cute. 

Breakfast at my house....

This was the second dress-from-a-shirt attempt.

 I was trying to snap cute pictures while she was trying to pull the flowers off the aloe vera plant. She has a taste for picking and harvesting things from bushes etc, even when the shouldn't be harvested. She loves picking the seed pods off the acacia bush and filling her little bucket with them, and twigs and small rocks....

 After I realized what she was doing, and chased her away from the aloe vera plant (she loves running away, laughing wildly) she bumped her hand. So she stopped, and demanded a kiss for it before she could continue. This is her holding out her hand asking "Jenny bonk hand" for a kiss on it.

 Here she is with a seedpod from the acacia bush (which she's allowed to harvest) being thoughtful.

And here is Mr. Isaiah, who was busily chalking "beavers" across the porch while I was doing Jenny's photoshoot.

Here he is another day, busily drawing beavers....