I Made It!!

I did it!! I survived fifteen days with three of my granddaughters!!

I had planned to chronicle all fifteen days, but then we encountered computer problems. And who has time to take care of computer problems with three little kids running around?

Anyway, here are a few pics taken while the girls were here:

An evening at the park.

Ridin' the horsey, as Sylvie called it!

Hot roddin'!!

Watch out for those crazy drivers!

After the trip to the park, runaway bubbles!!

Day 5

A quick Day 5 update.

Boy, am I glad I had my kids when I was young!!

My hat is off to those of you who are in your forties with small children.

We have friends who have kids our ages . . . and have kids our grand kids ages! I can't imagine!

Anyway . . . other than being dead tired, everything is going fine. I talked to my daughter in India last night, and she is terribly homesick. She only has twelve days to go!!

I fully intended to update everyday, but we're encountering technical problems. Both laptops and my desktop were all down at the same time. Since my husband has to have a computer for our home-based business, he went and bought another laptop. And the "a" key won't hardly work. I mean, you have to push it about ten times harder and maybe it will work. So it's back to Best Buy tomorrow. I told my husband he better just get a new one . . . it's not good sign when you start having problems with a computer that's only a couple of days old!

Back to the kids. Today their grandpa took them out for ice cream and a trip to the park. They came home with a swimming pool and water balloons!! But it kept them outside all afternoon and I got a whole lot done.

Yesterday morning when I was leaving for work (my daughter watched them for the day), Nicole, the three year old, told me, "Grandma, you can't go to work. You have kids now!" It was so sweet! Then she told my son when he left, "Remember, Nathan; I love you!" Isn't she just the sweetest thing?

Well, I have to go supervise bath time. Grandpa is covering for me while I finish this post up, and there is just no telling what he will let them do!!

Day Three

Today is Day 3. Nap-time is just over. Sylvie is currently screaming because her six year old sister has decided not to let her wear her new flip-flops.

Oops!! Hang on!

Sylvie had another accicent.

Must find the puddle! We're regressing on the potty-training, I'm afraid.

We actually went to the mall today. Just to run to Old Navy to buy the girls some flip-flops.

Then we made it through Wal Mart without any mishaps.

Had to visit the bathroom, of course. Nicole, who is three, has to visit the bathroom everywhere we go! If I remember correctly, it's a thing with girls that age!

Right now, the older two are watching Princess Diaries, which will no doubt lead to another round of dressing up as princesses (and fighting over who has to be the prince this time!).


Here are a few pictures from Day 1:







Natalie dressed up as a Princess. That's the throw off my couch. This girl has an imagination, let me tell you!!














Sylvie with her tiger ears on.


Natalie and Nicole fell asleep during their bedtime story. Sylvie did too, but I had to put her in bed so I could take a quick pic of these two.




Day 1 held quite a bit of excitement for the girls. During the evening, we had a storm blow through and we had to run to the storm shelter. After it was over, everytime the girls heard thunder, they wanted to run back to the shelter!

Day 2 was a busy day with no time to post! We had another storm in the evening. It hit just as my youngest daughter was taking the girls home with her for a few hours. The girls got soaked while running for the car, which they thought was great, of course!!

Unfortunately, they didn't fall asleep during story time this time, so it was a bit of a fight getting them to settle down for the night.

I have to work tomorrow, so my daughter is taking a turn. Should be interesting. She always tells me that she is going to remain childless after she babysits for a while!! Says watching them is great birth control!!

15-Day Odyssey

My daughter and son-in-law left today for a 15-day excursion to India. They left minus the girls. All three of them.

So today is Day 1 of my 15-day odyssey with three of my four granddaughters! They are six years old, three years old and 21 months old.

As mommy and daddy drove off, Nicole, the three year old, was sobbing uncontrollably, Natalie, the six year old, was suddenly very sober and Sylvie just wanted out of her car seat!

So we came home to my house, put their clothes away, watered the garden, then made a trip to Sonic. This seemed to brighten their spirits considerably.

The next hurdle? Nap-time!!

Burlap Party

A week or so ago, Rhoda, over at Southern Hospitality (I LOVE her blog!) had a burlap party. I wanted so much to participate, but I had a wedding cake to do that week and about a thousand other things, so I just couldn't.

So this week, since I'm somewhat caught up (not really - just needed to do something fun!), I dedided to throw these coasters together using burlap.

I absolutely love how they turned out!! I made some for myself and my daughter.

On the first set (with the "T"), I didn't wrap the burlap around the edges. I didn't care too much how they turned out, so on the next set I wrapped the edges. They look so much better!

First, I used Mod Podge to glue the burlap onto a ceramic tile. I then used a stencil and an indelible black marker to do the monogram.

After it was completely dry, I sprayed on a couple of coats of polyurethane. That's it!

I also made the coasters above using a pretty napkin. It was a little more tricky, since a wet napkin does tend to tear a bit easier than burlap! But, still, it's a very quick and easy project.

Since I made these for my daughter and niece, I "gift-wrapped" them together with some red ribbon.

This idea was not original with me. I got it from another blog and did a post about it a couple months back.

Big Announcement!!

During the Memorial Day weekend, we had a big surprise. Our granddaughter, Emily, showed up at our house wearing a shirt with a message. She's going to be a big sister!!

I was busy cooking and didn't notice the shirt, so they finally had to tell me to read it. Our newest grand baby will arrive around the first of January. We're definitely thinking blue!!

We had her pose for this picture so I could show you the shirt - she wasn't too happy about it! And her skirt is missing - sorry!

She is so dramatic!

She wouldn't smile for anything. We worked with her for about five minutes just trying to get her to stand still.

Then her cousin, James, who is seventeen, showed up, and she instantly became a different person!! He simply told her to smile, and she did!! Not fair!

I chased her all over the place trying to get a good picture of her bow to show you!!




Her mommy makes these bows and supplies several stores in our area.

Since Emily's mommy makes bows, she is very rarely without one. She has got so used to wearing them that she notices immediately if it's missing. And she knows better than to pull them out of her hair!

One Sunday morning during worship service, Emily crawled under the pew to retrieve something she had dropped and knocked her bow out of her hair in the process. She felt for it on her head, looked around for it in a panic, and when she couldn't find it, she proceeded to yank the bow out of her cousin's hair (she's two months younger than Emily), who happened to be standing next to her, and stuck it on top of her own head!! Needless to say, it caused quite a ruckus!!

Emily's mommy is going to sell bows on Etsy in the near future. I'll post about it here when she does. She just has to get past the morning sickness first!!

Edwards/Jaeger Wedding

Over the weekend a couple who grew up with my children were married and I did their wedding cakes. I was just a wee bit nervous about it, since this was my first big wedding. But all went well and the bride and groom were happy. That's what matters to me!

The wedding cake was five tiers and three different flavors. I used a classic buttercream icing, smooth finish, then added dots. The bride didn't want a shell border so I hand-rolled fondant pearls. Loads of fun!! The roses are real.

The groom's cake was chocolate (buried under all those noodles!!). I used a real butter buttercream icing for the noodles. The "sauce" is strawberry jam, to which I added a very small amount of yellow gel and white coloring. The meatballs are truffles. The cake itself was chocolate iced smooth with a chocolate fudge frosting.

(The spaghetti cake was featured in a previous blog)