She isn't so fearless afterall

For those of you that know my Hannah, you will be surprised.  For those of you who don't know her, just note that this is very abnormal for her.

Last Monday, we took Chris' mom on a little day trip to Cannon Beach.  It was Rachel's birthday and she wanted to see some starfish , so we tried our best to deliver.  We looked up the low tide time and planned to be there about 2 hours before.  We tromped across the sand to the rockier area, in search of the requested starfish.  The water appeared to be coming in a little instead of going out, but nothing crazy.  At one point we had to walk a little higher to avoid some cold, wet feet, but not where we were running for our life.  This was when Hannah started wigging out.  I have never seen her so frightened and truly afraid that she was going to die and the interesting part was that there was really nothing to be afraid of.  Nobody had gotten a drop of water on them and we were not even close to the water.  I had to go back to the car with her because she was so upset and certain that she was about to die.  

The case of the missing toothbrush

As you all know by now, Elise is head over heels obsessed with a certain little blue train. (no, not the engine that could.)  If you want to be on her good side, as Jacob learned, you bring a train and talk tracks with her.  Because Lilly has been accepted into her world, she is either called Lilly Poop (it was supposed to be Lilly Lu) or Baby Thomas.  We have Thomas "panties" that are always worn backwards because why on earth would any true Thomas fan want the big picture of Thomas on their rear where they can't see it?  We have accepted a Train Table as our new coffee table because her trains get played with so much.  Tonight when she went to bed, a freak out about her lost owl pj's quickly came to an end when she saw a Thomas shirt to wear instead.  My impossible to photograph daughter will sit in front of the camera forever (albeit in her diaper) if she is getting her pictures taken with her train friends.  When she colors or needs to refer to a color, she uses the trains for reference.  This is great if you know all of the trains and their names, but otherwise you might be a little lost in the beginning.  Let's have a little test in honor of the lack of formal schooling that occurred in the Kang house this week.

Rules: No googling.  Post your answers in the comments and I will give you the key on Monday.

1. Elise's favorite goat at Grandma's was Diesel goat.  What color is he?    

2. Elise was angry at Hannah for sitting on her Percy stool.  What color was the stool that caused this mid morning meltdown?

3. Mommy saved the day by suggesting that she sit on the Toby stool instead.  What color was the stool that restored peace at Grandma's?

4. Chris keeps complaining that his toothbrush disappears on a daily basis.  Elise came to me today and said with much irritation, "Daddy took my Thomas toothbrush!"  What color is Chris' toothbrush?

5.  What color of toothbrush can we buy him that won't be connected to some Thomas character, thus preventing anymore thievery on Elise's part?

Half adorable baby, half borg

Once upon a time, I used to hate Star Trek.  My family would watch it and I would leave the room in disgust.  This was before I fell in love with this cute Korean boy who loved Star Trek.  That is all it took. :)  My first Star Trek movie was First Contact, that has Jean Luc fighting off the gross and slimmy borg queen.  I remember a scene that has Jean Luc (aka the ever so handsome, yet older than my parents, Patrick Stewart) instructing his crew on the in and outs of fighting the Borg.  One thing he tells them is that they have only so many shots before the borg adjust to their weapon and it will be useless.  This is where Lilly comes in.  She took a nap for two days in the closet and now my closet weapon is not effective.  She is back to refusing to sleep at all during the day, which is sad for her and me.  She really does need more sleep as I can't think that her 10 hours at night (which I am grateful for) is enough and I did enjoy a little bit of time in the afternoon to clean, cook or....sew. :)  Dang it, you cute little borg baby, you.

Side note:  When I see all of those people walking around with their hands free device in the store, chatting away to what appears to be themselves, they look pretty borgish too.  I find it a little creepy and I would think that anyone who has watched First Contact would too.   Random thoughts a la Sarah.

Whoo got more sleep than me last night?

At the Kang house, we have a rule that allows you to have a big birthday party on your even years and a family party on your odd years.  It is a fabulous rule because: 1. I only have to plan a birthday party every other year for the girls.  2. It simplifies 3. The even year/ odd year allows the girls to have big parties on "big" years (8:baptism, 12: They enter young women's at church, 14: They can go to dances, 16: They can't date and 18: They are NOT adults yet!)

The downsides to this rule are: 1. I had all of the girls 2 years apart (minus Hannah) so 5 of them are on an even year together.  5 parties a year vs. if I had split it up a little.   and 2. I am a sucker!  

This year Rachel is turning 11.  "Wait!", you say, "That would mean that she didn't have a slumber party last night."  Ah, but she did.  With us being in a new area with new friends, I figure birthday parties are a good way to hang out with friends.  I am a sucker, but at least I don't regret it.  Yet.   This started out as a small slumber party and ended up with 7 girls, which I consider kind of big. At least the noise level was big, right?  They had lots of fun being silly and when I went to bed at 2 am, it was still pretty loud down there.  I am pretty ok with the noise as long as it was "joyful chaos" instead of cat fights.  But there wouldn't be cat fights because all of Rachel's new friends are great.  Silly, but great.  I have felt zero regrets in moving out to Forest Grove.  I have been so happy with all of the friends that the girls have made and definitely feel like we are in the right place.  

Back to the party.  There was lots of twisting, snorting and all sorts of spoonerificness.  Rachel decided on owl cupcakes, a la Hello Cupcake, which we still love dearly.  Cupcakes rock, but they rock even more when Elise calls them bupcakes.  I think bupcakes might even taste better than cupcakes.  Overall, a very fun evening.  Now it is off to planning our fairy soiree for my other odd numbered birthday. (Although Autumn deserves hers because her even birthday was cancelled last year due to selling our house and an 8 month pregnant mom who was VERY stressed.  I'll make up for her.  This birthday is going to rock all of fairy realm.  Big time. )

for the birds

In the midst of packing up our old house, my sister gave our family the coolest present ever.  Because of the moving, living in a dungeon of a townhome and other craziness, we are just know getting to enjoy it.  For anyone who is trying to think of a cool present for a family with young children: Pay attention.  In the last week, our family has enjoyed this present more than any toy out there.  And it would make an adorable gift basket, to boot.  She included a bird feeder, a bird watching book and a bird whistle.  

It took a week for the birds to start coming, but once they found us, they have been ripping through the food.  With the help of Birds of the Williamette Valley, we have started our bird watching adventures by finding many a dark eyed junko and rufous sided towhee. (we are new to this and I am sure we will slowly start recognizing different birds with the help of our little guide)  All of the girls shout in glee when they see the birds dive in to get some bird feed and we love watching the birds wait on the fence for their turn to eat. (They have a little line system.  They must have gone to kindergarten or something to learn such order!)  

Below is Hannah's own "bird trap".  While doing school with the older girls, Hannah came in to tell me about her outdoor adventures.  I "listened" like I sometime do, but my ears perked up when I heard something about a fire and catching birds.  What?  I clarified with her, "What are you going to do with the birds once you catch them? Eat them?"  She started to think it over and quickly decided that the fire would be to warm their wings since it was so cold.  Note to Chris: Maybe we are watching too much "Man vs. Wild" with the kids?  It turns out that the bird seed in the trap was much enjoyed by the birds and I think they are thankful to Hannah for not adding the fire feature.  Whew.  

Note to dad: I double checked and they are definitely rufous sided towhees, not the red breasted nutchatches.  Maybe we just have better bird feed than you. :)

Two sweet quilts for two special babies

I just finished making these matching baby quilts for two very special babies.   These were free motion quilted (Thank you, Heidi, for teaching me this wonderful skill!) and they were my first quilts to do a mitered corner binding on.  Thanks to Bend the Rules, I have learned that for a vintage, worn look you simply skip prewashing your fabric.  My favorite part is washing a quilt because it looks so loved when it comes out of the dryer.  Kind of like putting the outlet covers back on and removing the tape after painting a room.  It is the final unveiling of your masterpiece. 

My other cool little secret?  The binding was made from some cute crib sheets that I happened across at the Goodwill Outlet.  I had tried to find a fabric that I really liked for the binding, to no avail.  Rachel pointed out the sheet to me and I knew they would be perfect.   

Just one more cool secret, okay?  I used to think that I hated quilting because I could never get the final quilt top and backing assembled without bubbles.  Then the ever so famous Heidi introduced me to 505 Basting Spray, which, quite frankly, rocks.  It makes for a pretty close to perfect quilt sandwich.  You may be thinking cheap thrills, but you are reading someone's blog who gets excited about a spinach smoothie.  What did you expect?  (By the way, we've been adding carrots and orange juice concentrate.  Very tasty, even according to Hannah!)  I just loved the final result of these quilts and when I think of the precious babies that will be wrapped up in them, I love them even more. 

life altering stuff here

My darlingest Lilly, how I love you!  My fun little visit with my sister, Rachel, just came to an end.  It was packed full of Twilight fun and chatting, but the best part of her visit was completely unexpected.  Lilly's crib is in the guest room and since we think our guests will enjoy their stay more if they aren't taking care of Lilly all night long, we normally move Lilly's crib out while they are here.  This tend to result in sleepless nights, as Lilly smells me near and won't sleep as through the night. (And expects to eat all stinking night long!)

So I shook things up a little for Aunt Rachel's visit and moved her crib into our closet instead of our room.  I figured out of sight, out of mind.  What I did not figure into the equation was the darkness of our closet, which resulted in Lilly sleeping in a whopping 2 hours later in the morning.  And I hate to even mention this in fear of jinxing the whole bit, but *she took a nap today*! (Warning: Do not read out loud.  Maybe that will prevent the blog gods from hearing this and ruining all of my nap time fun that I have planned for the rest of the week!)   For those of you who are unfamiliar with our day to day happenings, naps have been nonexistent in Lilly's world.  This results in no free time for me and a very tired Lilly.  It appears that darkness is my friend and "Napping Queen" is Lilly's new middle name.  Let's just cross our fingers that this keeps up.  Pretty please with a cherry on top?