Arkansas birthdays

Last weekend, I drove down to Arkansas to celebrate my Arkansas grandbabies' birthdays. Emeri and Eli have their birthdays two days apart!

They decided to do a combined birthday party with their friends. It was a jungle party!

Emeri helped her mommy decorate her butterfly birthday cake.

Eli's mommy made him a monkey cake and there were extra cupcakes with the letter "e" on them.

We decorated the house "jungly".

On Saturday, all their friends came to the party.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Emeri first, and she blew out her 3 candles.

Then "Happy Birthday" to Eli and his daddy blew out his candle for him so he wouldn't get burnt.

The children ate outside on the deck.

There were games -

feed the animals...

pin the tail on the monkey...

and all the children got jungle hats.

It was supposed to be a "no gifts please" party, but everyone brought gifts anyway.

YAY!! What a happy jungly day!

Happy "1" and "3"!

Card Table Playhouse finished!

I finished the card table playhouse for Emeri and Elijah's birthdays just in time for their birthdays last week. Their birthdays are 2 days apart and I will post about that another time.

Staci asked that I make the "card table" playhouse to fit their dining room table instead as they didn't want to get a card table. It is no problem to sew this house to whatever dimensions work for you. If the children are playing with it and it is lunch time, they can just eat inside the house!

This is the front door along with the mail box. They can put cards and letters in this mailbox. This is a great idea to teach children how to address a letter in a proper way. I guess most children just facebook or twitter or text anymore but it is so fun to get mail the old-fashioned way!! Hint hint - Nana loves letters from her grandbabies!

And because I didn't want to sew a "girl" play house AND a "boy" playhouse (although some wonderful grandmas would do such a thing), I incorporated fun stuff for both boys and girls in one. Here is the fire engine I shared on my earlier blog.

I sewed a "fire" that can be pinned on anywhere you want on the house. Someday Elijah will enjoy putting out that fire! When his daddy was little, he would use the hose from the vacuum and pretend to put out fires!

And the fireman can come rescue the kitty out of the tree. The kitty and all the apples are removable. I used sticky velcro but I sewed them on as well so that they would not come off in the future after many apple pickings and kitten rescues. You can put the kitty higher in the tree too by switching out an apple with the kitten. The apples can be placed in the basket. The kitty is stuffed just a little and has a bell around it's neck.

I made the trunk of the tree out of a towel so the bark has some texture.

Here is the window panel. I sewed curtains for inside the house. I have seen some playhouses where they actually line the inside and sew a fireplace and kitchen inside the house. That would be pretty cool but a lot of more hours of work! I do admit it was so fun to sew!!

You can teach a child about colors with the flowers.

The turtle is an iron-on.

I hope you have lots of hours of fun, Emeri and Elijah!!

Princesses

Some princesses came to visit today! Princess Ariel and Princess Belle

Hannah said that they were coming to visit the King and Queen (us!)

and their Royal Chauffer brought them (their mom).

Such pretty hair!

Princesses who love chocolate!

Then their Chauffer was off to take them elsewhere.

Another card table playhouse

Last March, I sewed a card table playhouse. You can look at it here. Next Saturday, my Arkansas grandkids will be celebrating their birthdays. Elijah turns one on the 27th and Emeri turns 3 on the 29th. I decided to sew a playhouse for them.

Jill was over one day and helped me.
My last playhouse is more girly, but this one will have some "boy" elements to it.
Panel #1 is done! Three more to go!

Treats Day

This afternoon I took the girls with me as I ran errands. Maybe we would stop at a park afterwards.

But first, a stop at

For this!

YUM!!

Next we made a run to the court house. We stopped to talk to my friend who works there. They are working insane hours getting ready for election. She said she worked until 11:00 last night! She handed the girls each a little American flag.

As we passed Long John Silvers, I asked Hannah if she had ever eaten there. No. Adam does NOT like fish so it didn't surprise me that they hadn't. I told her Grandpa Pete LOVES Long John Silvers. I said "What if you had never eaten ice-cream and you said you didn't like it. How would you know you didn't like it unless you took a taste?" "It is a gift I have of my eyes to look and know if I like food or not! Ice-cream looks good and it is!"

We called Grandma Lois to ask if she would like to go with us to Stonecreek Nursery in Hesston. She said she could be ready, so we picked her up and off we went to Hesston. I love that place! After I made my purchases, the lady gave Hannah and Sophia each a little tiny pumpkin!

We were going to go to a park, but Hannah said they would love to go instead to the Kaufman Museum back in North Newton.

"There is stuff I've never seen there!" Sophie exclaimed.

But when we got there, they had just closed. Too bad! Another day. The picture of the log cabin at their web site is a cabin that belonged to Hannah and Sophia's great-great-great grandma Mary Graber. They have some pretty cool things in that museum so we shall go some day.

Instead, we followed the path into the "forest" by the museum. Hannah was a little worried about bears or wolves but I assured her there were none here.

We did find hedgeballs, which the girls call hedgehogs.

Anyone know what berries these are and if they are safe to eat? We told the girls that if birds eat them, then they are probably safe. But we didn't see any birds eating them.

We found horses and they wouldn't eat them either.

Hannah fed the horses, but Sophia was a little hesitant. Grandma Lois helped show her how.

We gave the girls a lesson about barbed wire and how pokie it is and to be careful.

Although we didn't go to a play park, we did go to a horse park Hannah said.

"It's treats day!" she said. Yes, what a wonderful afternoon!

This past week I was reading Ephesians 2 in The Message.

"It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell us how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving us is his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! "

It's Treats Day every day with Him!!

Pumpkin patch

Several of the young families from church have gone to area pumpkin patches. Hannah and Sophia decided to make a pumpkin patch in our living room using pumpkins I set around the house for decorating.
Hannah made some play money.

"Nana, you can have this pumpkin for $100."
"Oh, that seems a little pricey."
"Ok. You can have it for 25 cents."

She also made a pamphlet that described the pumpkins in the patch.

Going to the pumpkin patch tuckered Papa out.

Hannah has been on this kick wanting to make her own money to put in her piggy bank. So I had some work for the girls, weeding and watering. They got very dirty.

Bubbles + hot tub jets = LOTS OF BUBBLES (and a dirty tub!!)

And squeaky clean girls!