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If You Build It…..

Over the weekend we had a little party because….

And Mr. Soon-to-be-Six decided this year he wanted to have a lego birthday party. So that photo was the front of the invitation with the party details on the back. I’ve been keeping a Pinterest board to keep track of all the great ideas for lego parties on the web. When the kids arrived we had them work on some lego coloring sheets and dot-to-dots I printed from the lego site. I had a few different ones so they could do more than one while the other guests arrived.

After everyone arrived we had lunch. Tristan requested mini hamburgers (sliders) and those tiny hot dogs wrapped in bread (pigs in a blanket). We also had pirate’s booty and mini cheese crackers. I used a plastic green tablecloth from the party store and a runner of bubble wrap painted green to look like lego baseplate. The only other decoration on the table was the giant lego minifigure head. I had been wanting to get one and amazingly I found one at Target the day before the party, on sale even. In the sweets department we had an awesome lego cake that Papa made by making a really big sheet cake and topping it with six cupcakes to look like a giant yellow lego. Candy legos from the store were in a lego pick-a-brick container and we also had lego chocolates we made in a silicone mold.

After lunch we split the kids among three tables and had them start building. I had purchased bags of bulk legos from the lego store. First we asked them to build a house and awarded prizes — series 5 minifigures — to the best house at each table. Then we asked them to build boats and did the same thing with the prizes. After that we had them each build an animal and they got to keep the animal they built.

Then it was time for Happy Birthday and cake! After everyone finished their cake we let them go back to building until their parents arrived to pick them up. As his friends left Tristan gave each of them a favor that consisted of a small lego building set — that I also got on sale — sugar cookies I made to look like legos packaged in a cute lego box, and two chocolate minifigures that Papa made using silicone molds. I found a lego font to use for the tags.

Back to School

Published September 6, 2011 This & That Leave a Comment

Hey there! Happy September! Did you all have a nice summer? We did although it was a short one that seemed to have a lot of commitments. All that snow we’ve been getting the last few years prompted our county to start school a bit earlier this year so the urchins have been back at it for a week already. We have a third grader and a kindergartener, I can hardly believe it. I know better to make promises but maybe, just maybe my blogging mojo will come back with the school year.

Holiday Home Tour – Have a Treat

Published December 16, 2010 Homemaking , In the Corners , This & That , Through The Lens 1 Comment

If the sugarplum fairy ever visits this is where she’ll be hanging out, I’m sure. The dining room is definitely the land of sweets.

Holiday Home – Grab a Seat

Published December 15, 2010 Homemaking , In the Corners , This & That , Through The Lens 1 Comment

Today I’ll be showing you our living room. This is our fancy room so it has the fancy tree. That means it’s filled with mostly glass ornaments and other ornaments I don’t want to find broken/ruined. We have another tree in the family room that is much more homespun looking. But in the living room I try to keep it elegant.

Holiday Home Tour – Come On In

Published December 14, 2010 Homemaking , In the Corners , This & That , Through The Lens 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to the urchin home. So glad you guys stopped by to see us. I decorate the porch with my childhood sled, a grapevine wreath, a vintage red lawn chair, a lot of pinecones, and some rusty jingle bells. The large pinecones are from sugar pines and the smaller pinecones are the cinnamon scented ones. Their scent would be way too much in the house but on the porch it’s rather nice. The bells are oversized and rusty.

I try to keep the entryway fairly simple when I decorate for the holidays. We have one cabinet in there and I don’t like the top of it to be cluttered with decorations, I do enough cluttering of it daily with my keys and mail. The little pillow hangs from a front closet doorknob and says “star bright… Christmas light” and has the year Papa and I were married on it. The snowman sits at the bottom of the stairs right next to the living room which is where we’re headed tomorrow.

Please be sure to drop by these friends who will also be showing off their holiday homes this week:

If you’d like to join the tour just post some photos to your blog or flickr and let me know so I can add you to the list.

Holiday Home Tour

Published December 13, 2010 Homemaking , In the Corners , In the Garden , This & That , Through The Lens 9 Comments

I was recently talking with Grace about holiday decorating and I told her I would take a photo of a little vignette I always do on our front porch for her to see. It got me thinking about holiday homes and how much inspiration can come from seeing what other people do. Now don’t get me wrong, the images in magazines are really magical at this time of year but they often seem unattainable too. I certainly don’t have the budget or skills to create one of those kind of rooms. And honestly, I don’t want my home to feel like a magazine, especially at this home-y, cozy time of year. So this week I’ll be giving a little holiday home tour of the urchin house and I’m hoping you might want to join in. I’ll be posting every day but you can post as little or as much as you like. Let me know and I’ll make a list so we can all be inspired by each other’s holiday homes.

Feeling Inspired and Catching Up

Published December 3, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Knitting , This & That Leave a Comment

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We’ve been busy in the urchin house these last weeks and Thanksgiving day was a welcome calm. But here’s December and I am feeling so inspired to make this the merriest of Christmases. I have some things planned for this joyful month but I feel like that can’t start until we do some catching up, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

Tristan turned 5. Five! I can hardly believe it. He’s gotten taller, thinner, and very few traces of the baby he was are left. I can get all weepy just thinking about it.

Katie was the cutest gingersnap to ever grace the stage. Just a few weeks ago the choreographers asked if she could be in four performances instead of the planned two and she did incredibly well with the added commitment. That girl loves to dance. I’m sad that photo up there is blurry but it really is indicative of the weekend, an enormous ballet blur.

My newest niece was christened last Sunday. Seeing your baby brother as a father is really a remarkable thing. He is head-over-heels in love with that baby girl. I knit that bonnet — twice! but more on that later — so her little wet head wouldn’t get cold.

Lots of other things happened since we’ve chatted last but those are the highlights. So what have you guys been up to?

In Thanksgiving

Published November 25, 2010 This & That 3 Comments

For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

Wishing you a day when your blessings are too great to be counted.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail or How I Spent My Columbus Day Weekend

Published October 17, 2010 This & That 3 Comments

We spent last weekend camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had perfect weather and perfect company. It was a really fabulous weekend. I had my doubts about four days in the wilderness without showers or hot water but it turned out to be relaxing and so much fun.

One of the highlights, and there were many, was spending some time hiking on the Appalachian Trail. For those unfamiliar, the Appalachian Trail runs along the mountains of the eastern coast of the US from Georgia to Maine. We walked for a very short time along the ridgeline that separates Tennessee from North Carolina near the top of Clingman’s Dome. We had driven our cars up the 6000+ feet and only walked the last half-mile or so to the summit, thru-hikers walk the whole way up. We picked up the AT on our way down from the top and it was so beautiful and peaceful compared to the paved tourist-filled path from the parking lot. It reminded me to always be on the lookout for the road less traveled.

Welcome October

Published October 1, 2010 This & That 4 Comments

Right on cue mother nature gave us some Autumn weather today. I’m wearing corduroy pants and leaves crunched under my feet on the walk home from school this afternoon. I love October. So what have I been up to in the last month? Well, the urchins returned to school, my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Tristan started soccer, and Katie was asked to be in a local production of the Nutcracker Ballet. We’ve been busy. September kicked my butt.

But October is going to be different. I think we’ve gotten a grip on the schedule. We’re going camping with some of our favorite people. We have family coming to visit, and pumpkins to carve. We’ll be picking apples and making applesauce. The canning pot will spend more time on the high shelf in the pantry than on the stove. 31 of my favorite days of the year, starting now.