It’s been a busy week in our house, but it was lovely to take the time to celebrate our Penelope Tess. She is now 5 and I am totally stunned that my baby that took me by surprise is now a kid! I can’t imagine life without this girl- she is absolutely adorable (and a firecracker) and is one word “happy”.

On the happy note, she was thrilled to get these fairies (our first Barbie-like dolls, Ellie never paid much attention to them). It’s so much fun to shop for a 5 year old and a complete challenge to restrain oneself!

It’s become a tradition to hang photos of the birthday kid. I love looking at these shots, but it’s also very bittersweet. Seriously, how fast can time fly!

We invited 4 other kids to the party and had a ball making crafts for about an hour…where are the photos? Um, I forgot! We made fairy wands with lots of glitter, paper flowers and shrinky dink “fairy” pendants.

We also played “pin the wing on the fairy”. The girls totally loved this game and played for about 15 minutes, which is an eternity for a bday party!

I had a lot of fun planning the food and just made it simple. AND they ate…something most kids never do at a party! If I could stick it on a skewer, I did and the girls thought they were fancy. PERFECT.

Penny’s cupcakes were the best. I made them from this book again…BUY this book, it’s the best. We made the “white out cake w/ milk chocolate frosting”. YUM

I love this girl.


Okay, so the last time I posted I was bragging about my lovely daughter and her debut as a solo violinist…

Here’s an update of the month:

* Enjoyed the beginning glimmers of Spring and denied the few days of snow and freezing temperatures.

* Had a lovely visit with my sister and her kids. Unfortunately our kids Spring Breaks did not line up, we still managed to enjoy our time with shared meals, hikes, playing games and just being together. (my parents pictured with all their “grands”)

* Ellie managed to read all the Harry Potter books in 3 weeks and is actually re-reading them now. Yikes.
I finished reading The Book Thief (LOVED) and I’m almost finished with The Piano Teacher (it’s OKAY).

*I finally completed Penny’s quilt- sorry this shot is so boring, but you can see what it looks like. I thoroughly enjoyed hand sewing the binding on…and was so happy to see Penny thrilled to receive an early birthday gift.

*I filled out a job application that took a lot of my focus away from regular life, but completed it in 3 days and I’m just waiting…oh, it’s to be a part time Art teacher…actually at the high school I attended. I would love the position, but consider myself lucky that I love what I’m doing now too. Speaking of which, my schedule has increased and I will be baking more…so, that will probably mean you will see more baking photos and less sewing, but…

*…I do have a few sewing projects (always have to!). I am loving this simple sun dress I made for Ellie and plan to make more and just tank tops. It’s McCalls 5419 and you can make something in less than an hour- no hemming, no buttons or zippers and totally my thing.

* I have also been pretty distracted with Facebook, THE BIGGEST TIME SUCK, but my guilty pleasure. Want to be my friend? My husband has over 300- I guess he has an advantage over me with being a teacher ( a cool one, you know).

* I’ll be posting later this week. It will be filled with fairies, cupcakes, and a very happy almost to be 5 year old.