Tea party photos!

A great big thank you to everyone who came to the tea party. The girls were so well behaved and just delightful to have over. We snacked on mini PB&J sandwiches, Cheez-its, grapes, and drank pink lemonade from real tea cups. They each got to take home some girly supplies like rings, necklaces, and feather boas. The girls also made headbands with ribbons tied around them but I didn't get any pictures of these. I think they had a good time making crafts and snacking but most of all they just enjoyed each others company and playing with toys!

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Enjoy the photos below.

Is it time for them to get here yet?!?!
All the lovely ladies (except for one who came a little later)

Candy necklace maker

Everyone made candy necklaces, although not all of them made it home (wink, wink)

We made hand stamped butterfly cards

Tissue paper flower making in progress...

The happy party hostess, Ella

We made tissue paper flowers (long time blog readers might remember these from this fall's post. Click here)

Playing with all the dolls

Ella's bed tent was a popular place to be!

Cuppy-cakes!

Gotta love a little cuppy-cake snack!

Just because everyone left doesn't mean that it's time to stop crafting according to Ella!

It was a motley crue

The line to get to the top
Our crew (you figure out who's who--they're too bundled to describe)

Myles is on his knees, Luke's in the red coat, Ella's in the pink hat facing the camera, Aron's pulling the kids, and Robin's walking in the red coat and blue hat.

Robin in the red, Myles in the blue with the glasses

L to R: Myles, our buddy, Hunter, Ella, and Luke (another friend, Abby, was there but isn't in the pic)

Myles' birthday was on Saturday (Happy Birthday, big guy!!). We celebrated with a tasty little meal, cake, ice cream and tubing at a semi-local tubing park.

The spoils of V-tine's Day

The best part of the Valentine's Day parties when I was little was always sitting on the floor eating your Valentine's treats and looking at your cards.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't get any pix of Ella's Valentine's Day party. Sorry!

That's Amore!

Luke's in the front listening ever so attentively to his buddy, Miss Lori. You may remember Miss Lori from posts like this.
Where's your hand, Miss Lori?

The largest game of musical chairs I've ever seen. Luke's on the right side, 4th one down. As a side note, he has a little crush on the little girl in the striped pants and pink shirt who is the first one on the right side. He made her a special Valentine.

Here's Luke losing in the final elimination of his class musical chairs (I don't want to say anything but I think he got robbed. There may have been an elbow thrown and the woman running the music may have stopped it right as Luke was on the back side of the chair and the little girl was right in front of it. I'm just sayyyyy-ing.)

Here's the little girl he has a crush on again (striped pants and pink shirt)

Luke's a ladies man. Here he is with all the girls in his class. (The crush is the one hugging her bag of goodies)

Last Friday, I went to 2 Valentine's Day parties--one for Luke in the AM and one for Ella in the PM. Luke had a great time playing musical chairs with the kids in his class along with the craft stations. There was even a guest appearance by his fave story hour librarian, Miss Lori (note to Grammie: you are his favorite OVERALL librarian).

Good times...good times...

Snowbound: A stuffed animal making tutorial

What to do on a snowy day like today? Make stuffed animals with the kids? Welllllll.......OK!

Draw an animal on a sheet of paper that's around the size you would like the finished product to be.
Cut around the line with about 1/2 inch to spare (give or take)

Pin your paper to some material and cut it out.

Cut it out and remove the paper.

Do the same thing with another piece of material but flip it over this time.

Now you have two to sew together.

Grab a thing of coordinating ribbon.

Pin loops wherever you want. This is an elephant so my loops are doubling as a tail. Don't want loops? Don't put them on.

Sew the loops on. Note: make sure that your loops have the closed end pointing in. I know it looks weird but trust me.

Loops sewn on.

Pin with the right sides in and the wrong sides out. Sew around the edges leaving about a 3 inch section NOT stitched together. You'll use this hole to turn it right side out. Make sure you push out the pointy parts of project really well.

Rip up some polyester batting

Enlist the help of a stuffer assistant (aka Ella)

Stuff until you can stuff no more

Stitch the open part closed.

A snow storm tutorial--The finished product

Ella's is an elephant (although it looks somewhat like a pig, too).

Luke's is a dinosaur.

And there you go!

Total time from design to finished product: 1 hr

Put me in, Coach. I'm ready to play...today...center field

Venturing Out Into the Wonderful World of Athletics

She's the pink-laden kid bouncing the ball
Yup, in the pink

Tying her own shoes before practice.

I told her to look tough and athletic so I could take her picture. This is what she produced.

Ella had her very first basketball practice tonight. She was a little leary about it but once she was there she had a great time. She's probably the least aggressive kid I've ever seen but she does have some decent ball handling skills for a 6 year old who hasn't played very much (if that makes any sense at all). We realized about 15 minutes before the practice that she had absolutely no athletic attire so this was the best we could come up with--pink yoga pants and a pink t-shirt.

Little ballerina girl

Ella's ballet class is busy preparing for this year's recital. This year, she'll be dancing to Fireflies by Owl City. Think lots of twirling around and being girly. Yeah, that's a big surprise.