Productivity

It has been a busy couple of days at our house. There have been lots of birthday celebrations. My grandmother (I tried to find a picture of us, but oddly couldn't find one..) turned 81 last week, so the boys and I had her (and my grandfather) over for lunch yesterday. I made chicken noodle toss with greens for lunch, and Mema brought my favorite sugar cookies with pink icing. She's quite a spry 81-year-old and we have been pretty tight over the years, enjoying many shopping trips to Pigeon Forge, long talks, and thousands of face-card games played. Except this one time... When I was in elementary school we took a family vacation to Colorado. One afternoon, we were visiting the giant sand dunes and my dad dared my siblings and me a certain sum of money to run down them (it is possible that part of the dare was that you could not fall down). Well, being the same lover of money then that I am now, I wasn't going to let the opportunity to cash in on the dare pass me by, so I took my turn. Well, I didn't make it; I ended up tumbling about half the way down, with a mouth full of sand. Apparently part of the dare must have been that no shoes were allowed, because I remember trying to climb back up the dunes barefoot, with the sand burning my feet and just crumbling underneath me so that I made no progress. I sat down in the sand, resigned to never make it out of the sand dune basin, and my grandmother just stood at the top yelling at me. I was not her biggest fan that day....

Today Sam got to attend his buddy Noah's birthday party at Giggle Bugs, a bouncy place. Natey cried as we left for the party, not understanding why he didn't get to go too. But, based on the looks of the house when I returned, he had his share of fun too. A duck costume was discarded in the "office", a chair had been pulled over to the medicine cabinet, bananas were smashed, wild crazy fun was had. Sam was so sweet to share the candy he got in his party favor bag with Natey. He is always good about sharing treats and snacks when he knows there isn't enough for both of them to have their own. It makes my heart happy.
After Noah's party, we moved our party-loving selves over to my parents' house, where we celebrated my dad's 61st birthday in true southern-style, with bbq. Sam ate a big bowl full of rice and pork barbecue (otherwise known as "chicken"). And Natey went home naked after getting choked up on a loogey and vomiting all over his clothes. Yes, a good time was had by all.

But the thing that kept me the busiest this weekend.....my Easter sewing project! To say that I'm proud of myself is a slight understatement. This is only my third sewing project since I got my sewing machine two Christmases ago, and my first solo attempt. That's right folks, I did these bad boys without any assistance, and I wiped out all three of them in about a day and a half. They are certainly not without flaw, and I broke 5 needles (one of them was even a denim needle!), but I'm now proficient at winding a bobbin, threading my machine, changing needles, and the basics of sewing. And, I'm quite pleased with the finished project: Easter baskets for my two boys plus one for my adorable nephew, Max.
Karen, I stole the idea of peeps and owls from you. Max's nursery is owls, so I knew I had to do that for him. And I love the way the owls look. I think his basket turned out the best.

Natey's basket is the peeps one; I still need to decide what to do for their eyes and noses. Sam chose the egg/bunnies basket. I hope they will enjoy these for many Easters to come.