Micki throws a Dora Luau/Beach Party and lives to tell the tale.

Monday is Claire's birthday, but today we had her party. She loves all things Dora, so a Dora birthday party it was! We decided it would be a Dora Beach Party/Luau because those were the decorations that were plentiful and cheap.

I got little to no sleep this week leading up to the party. It was a lot of work and Trent is away to Kenya for work. It has rained everyday this week leading up to the party. Today arrived warm and sunny. I was so thankful as I wasn't sure how to fit 10 girls, their parents and the two workmen working on our bathroom all into our house. Oh, didn't I mention we were having one of our bathrooms worked on? Don't worry, it worked out. It turns out that one bathroom was plenty.
Here's Kate helping me out. While I was getting the decorations put up this morning, she decided to throw our shoes and boots outside. Wasn't that so kind of her? Despite her help, I got almost everything done. A few parents stayed to help and the party was ready to begin!

Of course we had to go on an adventure to find Dora. Here's our Map. We had to find the sandbox, then the ocean, and then the tree. I gave each girl a purple backpack with items inside that would help them with our adventure. First we looked through binoculars to find the sandbox.

When we got to the sandbox we needed to find a magic shell to show to the mermaids in the ocean. Here's our resident toad. He is the keeper of the shells. The girls had little pails and shovels in their backpacks to retrieve their shells.

As we went on our way to the ocean we came across Swiper the fox! He wanted to take our magic seashells, but of course we said, "Swiper, no swiping!" He's looking a bit runny because we accidentally squirted him with the hose. I thought I would cry when that happened. All that hard work ruined so quickly. The girls didn't notice. On to the ocean!

Here is the keeper of the ocean. She and her mermaid friends are keeping watch over a secret treasure box!

Oooh it's dark in the ocean! It's a good thing we had flashlights in our backpacks!

We found the golden treasure box and inside were bracelets like Dora's!

We then had to follow the stars to the tree. (Sorry, no pictures. Just imagine blue shiny stars taped to the side of our house leading the way from the backyard to the front yard.)


Surprise! There was Dora waiting to give us a surprise. I left the pinata sign attached in case anyone thought it was the real Dora. Everyone grabbed a string and pulled! Dora was hiding all sorts of lollipops, laffy taffies and smarties!

Here's Claire with her backpack. She's done with the adventure.

She's ready to swim now!


We ate taquitos, pizza, little chimichangas, watermelon, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and M&M's. Those are Dora's favorites right?

Here's Claire not blowing out her birthday candles. Everyone else did it for her!

Since this was a Dora Luau/Beach Party we needed a monkey and a fun inflatable palm tree that doubled as an ice and drink holder.

Claire finished off the party by opening up her presents. What you don't see is 9 other little girls trying to help her rip the paper off!

All in all, the party was a success. I did learn a few things though. After all that hard work and planning the thing the girls loved the most was the pool. All through our "Adventure" they kept saying, "When can we go in the pool?" All I really needed to do is fill up that pool, feed them cupcakes and they would have been happy! I also put too many things in their backpacks and made our adventure a little too complex. They were juggling all the things they needed to use and it got a bit crazy. Still everyone had a good time and I'm glad we did it! Adios!

Kate is nuts for Nutella

Hi, my name is Kate and I like Nutella!

I especially like to eat it spread on a homemade waffle.

Just look at all that wonderful Nutella.

My mommy likes to eat Nutella on a banana.

Macy and Eleanor like to eat Nutella on a bagel in the morning for breakfast.

If we don't have any bagels, they'll eat it on bread.

Claire likes Nutella too, but she licks the Nutella off the bagel and leaves the bagel. That makes mommy mad, so Claire isn't allowed to have Nutella on a bagel anymore.

My daddy likes Nutella on bananas like my mommy.

My brother doesn't like Nutella. He doesn't really like a lot of things.

This waffle would be so much better if it just had a little more Nutella on it.

What do you mean I've had enough Nutella already?

Please? Just a little bit more.

If you give me some more Nutella, I will give you a big kiss!

I am so glad I'm not allergic to tree nuts!

More dreams, more sewing and one cute baby.

I dreamed last night that I was a guest at the ranch of Ree AKA The Pioneer Woman. It was awful. I was super shy. All conversation was tense. I kept thinking "Why am I here?" My children were there and they were bored (bored!) because no one was around to play with them. I was thinking "This is the dumbest thing I have ever done" when all of a sudden there was someone in the corner who was trying to pin up a hem on a skirt and they were having such a hard time. I went over and began to help and after that I was fitting in and having a good time. Weird.

I've finished the muslin of a bridesmaid dress I've been working on and it's perfect. I hope to cut it out in the next couple of days and sew it up. I'll share the pattern, materials, etc. in a future post. My friend is letting me enter the dress in the fair! It was my first successful full bust adjustment. Now I want to really get sewing on something for me.
And as promised, one cute baby.

Eleanor is a hippie chick.

Today was hippie day at school and here's Eleanor all ready to go. I got the kerchief, necklace and button (it says Green is the new black) at Target. Eleanor tie dyed the shirt last summer for the fair. You can't tell, but her pants are bell bottoms. Ben and Macy dressed up too (well Ben just wore a tie dyed t-shirt) but I didn't get a picture of them before they had to go to school.

Pillowcases

Do you see that big pile of fabric? Those are all pillowcases waiting to be sewn. There's at least 120, maybe a few more. I've sewn one. I've been cutting and ripping and matching and buying and this is what I have. Unless we get a bunch of donations or we come across some money, we probably won't make the 365 because it's just too expensive, but 120+ is not bad! I even had the cub scouts (in Ben's den) make pillowcases for their craftsman badge. They'll keep theirs. Macy and Eleanor have picked out their fabrics and Ben wants to go shopping for his. This will be their first year to enter "You be the judge."

I'm not sure if I'll win for most sewn. I hope so, since none of the pillowcases I've cut out so far have really just grabbed me as a big vote getter. Not too worried since it's all for a good cause and that's why I do it!

I'm glad to say the pillowcases have also helped me get out of a sewing funk. I'm working on a muslin for a friend who will be in a wedding and I did my first successful full bust adjustment. I've bought a few patterns and hope to work on those soon. I've also started making headway on all those boxer shorts I've cut out for Trent. Now if I could only get further along on the girl's smocked dresses. Seems for every step I make forward, I go 3 back!

Spring Break Day 5-Duckpin Bowling

Today we went duckpin bowling. I had never heard of duckpin bowling until I moved to the Washington, DC area. I've only been three times and that includes today. It's a lot of fun.

The first difference between duckpin and ten-pin is the size of the pin. As you can see, the pin is about 1/2 the size of a ten-pin.

The pins are set up the same way as in ten-pin bowling.

The second difference is the size of the bowling ball.


As you can see, the ball is much smaller and much lighter. Claire can easily hold the ball which is about 2 pounds. There's also no finger holes.

You wear bowling shoes just like with ten-pin. These are Trent's. He wears a size 13.

The final difference is you get to roll the ball three times for each turn. If you knock down all the pins the first try, it's a strike. If you knock them all down with the second ball, it's a spare. If you knock them all down with the third ball, it's a 10. If after three tries there are still pins standing, you must not be a very good bowler. Just kidding! Your score for that round is the number of pins you knocked down. In duckpin bowling it is much more difficult to knock down all the pins than in ten-pin. That's why you get three tries. No professional Duckpin bowler has ever achieved a perfect score of 300. That's how hard it is.

Duckpin bowling is still more popular in this area than anywhere else, but even so there are only a handful of alleys still open. The one we visit reminds me of when I used to go bowling with my mom a long, long, time ago.

The most modern thing about this alley is that the computer does keep score for you, although you have to punch in your score after each turn. When we first came here, I marched up to the counter and said, "Something is wrong with our computer. It's not recording our score." To which they said, "You have to punch it in." Oh! Then we noticed that the pins weren't getting cleaned up between each ball. I went back up to the desk and said, "There's something wrong with our lane, it won't clean up the downed pins." To which they patiently said, "You have to step on the pedal after each ball." What pedal?

This pedal.

Then we noticed that after we had rolled our three turns, the lane wouldn't reset. We went up to the front desk and they asked, "Did you press the reset button?"

Ben is pointing out the reset button.

That was our first time. Today went much smoother. We just forgot what we needed to do to sweep up the knocked down pins, but after a quick reminder, we were on our way.

Between turns, the girls spent their time and quarters buying little trinkets by the front doors.

Kate and Trent helped keep score.

Ben tried his hand at the "A Winner Every Time" game. He only won candy that he's not supposed to eat because of his mouth expander.

And the winner of the day? Eleanor!!! She did a great job! Tomorrow we go to the pool. Indoor, of course!

Spring Break Day 4-Lunch with Dad

No pictures from the restaurant because I forgot to bring my camera (and I don't usually take pictures when we go out to eat). I was holding Kate though and wearing the same jacket so just pretend the above picture is in a Chinese Restaurant (instead of a creative dance class) and Kate and I are surrounded by Trent and our very well behaved and hungry children (instead of little girls wearing tutus). We had a lot of fun and the food was yummy. Afterward, Trent went back to work and we went to a park for a little while.

Coming up tomorrow-Duck Pin Bowling.