Want to see a trick? WATCH!!!

So. Strong.

Her too!

And clearly John Paul needs more training if he's going to be my photographer...

This week we were a little crazy getting ready for Mass and I couldn't remember which twin's turn it was to go with us. I thought Elizabeth? Midway through Mass when she was face down on the floor blowing raspberries, I remembered that it was actually Mary Claire's turn. Whoops.

At least when she was blowing spit bubbles and trying to get me to pop them, it was a quiet activity?

This outfit is an oldie but a goodie - here are a couple pictures of the same one from the archives:

2-year-old Cecilia! 

Anyway, this skirt and shirt are one reason why I've been trying harder to purchase more woven clothing rather than knits in the past couple years - it just holds up SO much better in the long run. I've had that top since I was pregnant with Cecilia 5 years ago and it's still in practically new condition. And the skirt, also, is holding up great! It's not available anymore but this one on modcloth is pretty similar. And the shirt is H&M, obviously long gone since it's so old but I'm digging this one from Madewell or this one (only $16!).

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple for What I Wore Sunday!

Can we all just appreciate our immaculate walls right there? Thanks, twins. Magic Eraser can't touch that anymore...

But look above! I made a decoration! John Paul's birthday party was yesterday and even though:

Pshaw. @RosieHill425 and I just had a birthday party with 28 kids under age 9 :-P https://t.co/sOhtB4OPGa

— Andrew P. Hill (@SediaGestatoria) July 19, 2015

It actually didn't seem crazy at ALL - I got a surprising amount of adult conversation because the majority of the kids were just off playing on their own in the back yard while we all sat around eating and drinking! I think the most kids we had around at one time was only 23, since people were coming and going.

Meanwhile the neighbors were ALSO having a birthday party, but theirs involved a moonbounce and loud music... Luckily nobody noticed the moonbounce. And when Cecilia heard them shooting off fireworks she just told me, "Mom? I think they must know it's John Paul's birthday and they're setting off fireworks for him!"

Yup. That's what we'll go with.

(And here I am *finally* linking up with Erica for her Summer Stitching Stash Blast!)

Hope you have a beautiful and relaxing Sunday!

The 10-Minute Skirt {PHFR}

{pretty}

Cecilia begs to hold Peter ALL THE TIME now that she has reached the ripe old age of 4 (two weeks ago).  And she's supremely confident in her skills, attempting to carry him around the house and adjust his position constantly.  She's actually getting quite good at it!  I might enlist her to help me out by holding him while I make dinner...

{happy}

In 10 minutes!  Or less if you're lazy and don't bother pinning, like me...

THIS.  This is the easiest sewing project you will ever do.  And I hope you have daughters, or nieces, or neighbor girls that you can give these skirts to, because you'll want to make a whole pile of them once you make one!

I came across this pin a while back and new I had to do it for the girls - they're BIG fans of elastic-waist jersey skirts, but I had a problem...

1.  Jersey skirts aren't always easy to find (especially in colder months)

and

2.  It seemed ridiculous to pay $5-$10 for something so tiny and insubstantial!

I didn't want to make them from scratch, because I don't like the look of unfinished jersey and I didn't want to hem it...  So this was perfect!

I picked up some $2 shirts at Goodwill (and have since added some of mine that don't get worn to the pile) and started whipping up skirts.  No sweat!

Click this link for a full tutorial, but basically you just chop off the bottom of the shirt, fold over the raw edge to make a waist band, and add 3/4" elastic (you may as well just buy a giant roll of elastic, you're going to use it ALL the time!).  See how happy Mary Claire is in her new skirt?

As an added benefit, it fits great over those cloth diapers, which is more than I can say for most clothing!

{funny}

Take a picture of one twin, you HAVE to take a picture of the other!

{Real}

This is Mary Claire's default expression - she cracks me up, so serious all the time!

The skirt is a little long - generally I like little girl skirts to be above-the-knee, but she'll grow into it!

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {pretty, happy, funny, real} and Ana's Cabin Fever Creativity link-up.

How to Teach Your Kids to Sew {PHFR}

{pretty}

These babies are getting so BIG!  And more adorable by the day :)

They were reciting all the animals from this book (seriously, they adore all of her books!) in the car the other day and it was hilarious, because there are random animals like "Quetzal!" and "Xerus!"  And of course my favorite Elizabeth pronunciation, "Wino-OCeros!" (for rhinoceros, if you don't speak toddler)

{happy}

We've gotten into a pretty good rhythm around here, which includes snack time at 10 that allows me time to get dressed if I haven't already by that point (and let's face it, I usually haven't...).  And that makes me pretty happy!

I just can't get over how big they all look sitting at the table together!  And eating off of plates!

Of course, usually snack time ends with Elizabeth trying to steal Mary Claire's food.  Or taking her plate into the kitchen, sitting on the floor, and declaring it a picnic.  Or dumping John Paul's food onto her own plate the moment his back is turned...  But sweet Cecilia always collects the empty plates and stacks them on the counter for me :)

{funny}

I was ordering some supplies from Amazon to make our own bug spray (because at the rate we go through it, it's GOT to be cheaper than buying the natural stuff!), but I needed something else to add to the order because every single thing was an add-on item (don't you hate it when your Prime membership doesn't actually help?).  So I remembered that I keep meaning to get yarn needles so I can let John Paul and Cecilia do some "sewing."

Well, they found them in the box and could not wait for me to find the other supplies I actually needed to let them sew (I was going to punch holes in felt and let them sew some patterns), so I found some remnants from a scrap bag I bought a while ago and got them embroidery floss.

They were SO happy.  Terrible at it, but happy.  I kept having to fix Cecilia's because she kept stitching on opposite ends of the fabric tube (they decided to make dresses for their baby dolls), and it was really hard to pull the needles through the fabric because the heads were so big (which is why we weren't going to USE real fabric!  Just felt!).

They are so. proud. of the finished product.

You can't even see how truly terrible those things are - there's an arm stuck through the seam and I cut another hole in each side for another sleeve because they refused to settle for "tube dress" or "toga dress" as a solution...

Cecilia has now told me that someday she'll get a sewing machine and paint it pink and make dresses for ALL her dolls.  Little does she know it, but there are pink sewing machines out there in the world already!

{real}

So there you have it - baby dolls in their "party dresses" - what party they're going to in see-through orange mesh dresses, I'm not sure I want to know...

Are your kids into sewing?  I told them that before they sew anything else, they have to practice with their lace and trace pets so that I don't have to babysit their progress!  But I don't think Cecilia will be satisfied with anything that isn't sewing her own doll clothing...

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for pretty, happy, funny, real

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: Easter Edition

{pretty}

We tried dying eggs for the first time ever this year (well, first time ever with the kids.  Duh.  I did not lead a deprived childhood, I dyed plenty of Easter eggs.), and I was really curious about natural dyes, solely because it looks so cool!!!

So we made some solutions of our own (and made it into a mildly educational experience, and John Paul was fascinated and so into it!):

And put the eggs in for about 6 hours (we tried brown and white, just to see the difference):

How lovely are those blueberry and cabbage eggs?  Love the purple and blue!

{happy}

We've had at least one Easter egg hunt per day since Sunday (pet peeve here - what is with the hunts on Holy Saturday?  Jesus is in the tomb, people!!!), and the kids are hilarious every time with their wild excitement!

Socks with sandals.  Absolutely my most fashionable child.  Today he wore plaid shorts, a blue polo shirt, a green argyle sweater vest, and a plaid tie.  I should have taken a picture...

Surprisingly, she and John Paul are pretty evenly matched when it comes to finding eggs, and they're always excited to eat the little animal crackers inside!

{funny}

Her little poses here crack me up...  She wanted to wear her Easter dress again on Monday, and since I hadn't gotten many pictures, I asked her to pose for some more:

The crossed ankles!  The lean!  I love it :)

Then we had to adjust the sweater...

And she wanted to show me how she prays!

{real}

I still haven't gotten good pictures of the twins in their dresses, but I'm thinking they'll be able to wear them next year, too...

Those sashes!

Seriously, do you see how long?  And this was AFTER I took it up another 3 inches or so...

I used this free pattern and had a LOT of help from my mom.  And I'm thankful that the Christmas fabric I got on clearance will be a lot easier to work with...  Smocked on top so all I have to do is add straps and hem (and maybe add sashes), instead of the pattern pieces and the lining and the everything and seersucker is HARD to work with, especially when you're just learning to sew!  

Check out more Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

Look, I didn't mess this up!

 After my serious errors with last weekend's sewing project, I figured it was time to tackle something a little easier:

Sleeveless shirt that has never really been flattering on me...

But she proved months and  months ago that she can wear it better...

So off the hanger it came - sides taken in, makeshift sash thrown together, and she LOVES it!  It's far too big, but she'll be wearing it for several years to come, so I'm fine with that!

A Very Awkward (but still cute) Refashion

"So easy!" said Pinterest.
"You could do it in 15 minutes!" said the internet.

2 hours later (thank goodness for long baby naps!), the shirt from our Goodwill pile was refashioned from a shirt to a dress and then to a tunic and headband thanks to maaaany mistakes...

Before

After (I think the expression says it all!)

(Yes, that's a bunny tucked into the neck)

Mistakes:  First I sewed a sleeve on inside-out, and then I had to rip out all the stitches to get it off and ended up making holes in the fabric so I had to cut quite a bit off and the sleeves maaaay not be the same length and the shoulders DEFINITELY are not the same.  But didn't you know that Cecilia has very pointy uneven shoulders?  Totally her fault, not mine :P

Then she REALLY wanted me to make a headband out of the bottom, so I hemmed the bottom and cut off the excess and wouldn't you know it, by the time I was almost done I ended up making another accidental hole in the fabric, so I had to hem it AGAIN to fix that, which downgraded it from dress to tunic...

Would it have been smart to perhaps google "how to sew on a sleeve?"  Yes, oh yes it would have.  But I would have had to go ALL the way upstairs!

So there you have it.  Awkward.  But she LOVES it!

Don't laugh, Emily.

Next thing you know, I'll be whipping up matching denim jumpers for the me and the girls faster than you can say "Seton!"

What I Wore Sunday: Schoolgirl Plaid and My First Alteration!

Can I just say that I love plaid?  So I was really excited when I found out it was a "trend" this year.  I mean, when does plaid actually go out of style?  Never, in my opinion!

So I'd been on the search for a plaid skirt for months.  The problem is finding a way to wear a plaid skirt without looking like a Catholic schoolgirl, a serious challenge for me, considering I look a tad younger than my 27 (nearly 28!) years.

I found this skirt on ThredUp (there are still two available!) and even though it was a little large, I ordered it because the price was right and I thought maybe, just maybe, I'd try my hand at an alteration?  I like that it's not pleated and it's not a schoolgirl-ish plaid, so it seems a little more grown-up.


P.S. I have a special ThredUp referral link until the 28th of February - instead of the usual $10 coupon, they're giving you $15 to sign up through my link!  I especially love it for clothes for the kids, since there are tons of items for less than $5.

Soooo anyway, Emily inspired me to fix my sewing issues (seriously, I've been doing some REALLY dumb things because I'm clueless), and I used her latest Sewing Lessons post and took the skirt in about an inch at one side, super-quick and not the best job *but* I realized that it's likely that I'll want it back to the larger size for a bit next time I'm post-partum, so I didn't try very hard to make it perfect and I left the extra fabric inside so that I can rip out the seam when I want it larger!  There are darts at the back that are a little off-center now because it's a side-zipping skirt, and maybe I'd try to figure that out if I were taking it in for good, but for now I'll just pull a sweater over it and call it done.

Couldn't crop out this adorable photobomber!

Skirt:  Gymboree (yeah, grown-up sized...) via ThredUp

Sweater:  Express (ooooold)

Boots:  Same old, same old

Tights:  H&M

This kid was not the best during Mass, but I did LOVE his reaction to Father's homily about zombies - at some point he defined "Zombie" and John Paul turned to me, ecstatic, and said, "Yeah!!!  Yeah, Father!!!"

And now we're making toothpick and marshmallow constructions - John Paul is fascinated and hasn't eaten a single marshmallow (and he's OBSESSED with sweets) because he's working so hard to build!  I'm thinking it's time to find Andrew's old tinker toys...  Cecilia?  Well, she made a lot of "lollipops" for dessert tonight.

I do believe almost every little girl on the internet owns this jumper/shirt combo...  I've seen it on so many different kids!

Linking up with Fine Linen & Purple for What I Wore Sunday - check out more stylish ladies over there!