january in february

Here we are half way through February and I'm just now finding the time to share all that we did in January. It was a very full month!

The sewing workshops geared back up and I had a blast getting to know some more blog readers who came to get their stitch on! :) It is so funny to meet people who live right here (like literally minutes away from me) who I've never met before, but made connections about things we share in common, including friends we both know.

And I always love seeing what fabric each person brings. I get so many ideas for cute fabric combos for dresses and clothes for the girls based on the inspiration from what others find and bring with them. It is funny, but you can pretty much guess a person's personality type by the type of fabric they bring to the workshop with them. I always have somebody who is super trendy and another who is very preppy traditional. But all of them precious and so fun to hang out with for a few hours on a Saturday morning.

This past month I turned my sewing room into a doll factory, as I'm learning the beauty and efficiency of fabricating in bulk. It is 10 times easier to make a doll when I've got all of the pieces already cut out and ready to be sewn. I'm currently raising money for an upcoming trip (more on that soon) so I hope to have more dolls ready in the near future as a sort of fundraiser.

I finished up these books...oh these books! I can not wait to pick them back up and start all over again. I'm forcing myself to wait until at least this Thanksgiving before re-reading them. They were a seredipitous find at Goodwill. Did you know that you can actually find great reads at thrift stores? Many of them are brand new too. Not these, but they were only a $1 and almost made a full set. I already had book #2, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, so now I have the complete collection. How in this world I ever made it through childhood without reading it I do not know. In all honesty, a book about a beastly zoo animal, a lady with a black pointy hat and a piece of bedroom furniture did not sound all that appealing at the time.

I couldn't have been more wrong. It makes me wonder what else is out there that I'm completely missing out on?? I devoured these books. DEVOURED. I bought them the week of Thanksgiving and finished the last one the first week of January. Seriously. That good.

The Lord ministered to me more through this series of juvenile fiction than anything else I read this entire past year. I realized half way through The Magacian's Nephew why I was so engrossed by them. Having grown up in the church, I can't ever remember learning about Adam and Eve, or Noah, or the Creation. These stories were always just a "given" but when Lewis writes, you get to hear the Truth with a fresh set of ears. Does that make sense? Oh I could go on and on, but I'll just say that they come highly recommended and leave it at that.

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Moving on, we were invited to one of the most precious birthday parties for a sweet little friend who belongs to one of my best friends from long ago. :) You have no idea how much I love this picture and that the fact that I get to watch my daughters celebrating the birthday of one my friend's daughters.

And what a precious little thing she is! Just like a little china doll.

Ava had a princess birthday party and we got to come dressed up as a princess! There is no better way to spend a Saturday morning with a 4 and 2 year old than to dress up like a princess and make flower wands and play Kiss the Frog Prince.

This was how Caroline sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl.

I think she got a little confused. ;)

what a stinker!

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January's weather felt like spring so we spent most every afternoon outside. Thank you, January, for a brief respite from the grey and cold!

We got to plant some cheery flowers ...

... and have quite a few outdoor tea parties in our playhouse that still needs to be painted.

Will's job was to build it and mine was to paint it. oops! Need to check that off my to do list before spring so I can plant some hydrangeas around the outside of the playhouse porch.

On the days that it has been cold, we've been busy inside building forts,

"swimming" in the tub,

and enjoying play dates with friends.

It makes me so happy to have my house filled with the sounds of little girls' play. This is one of the things I will miss most about this stage of the girls being this age. The mornings with friends filled with the giggles of playing dress up, tea party, and baby dolls.

And last is this random picture of Caroline's that marks a major milestone for her. :) She drew a picture of me the other morning that actually resembled a person! I think I've been completely "mommified" because I was SO PROUD of her drawing and displayed it up on the fridge for everyone to admire. I can remember seeing stuff like this in my teens as a babysitter thinking, yeah, big deal, so the child can draw a stick figure and his parent thinks he is a genius.

But now I have officially become "that parent"

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and guess what? I don't even care.

;)