penny carnival

In defense of Shrek 4 ... and mama sews a birthday dress

What's with all the bad reviews of Shrek 4? The Shrek movies were the first films our girls fell in love with. J and I liked that we could laugh along and that the girls were getting a strong princess role model in Fiona. The girls liked the music, the characters and the tooting.

So we'd all be looking forward to Shrek 4 ... until I read some of the reviews this week. Critics are either saying it's mediocre or just plain awful. I knew we'd still go see it, but I wasn't jumping for joy to spend two hours in a movie theater after my expectations had been so greatly slashed.

We went yesterday, and the movie was GREAT. Funny, clever and Fiona was as strong and independent as ever. The plot is a little over Bo and Magpie's heads, but they still found plenty to laugh about. As did J and I. If you've seen it, I have two lines for you:

"I love you, Daddy."

and

"... Then my donkey fell in your waffle hole."

We laughed about those scenes all the way home.

I just had to throw that out there into the world. I know sometimes I get on my soapbox here about various lofty things like the First Amendment and simplicity and religion and such. Today it's Shrek 4. There. I've said my peace.

Moving on.  

The other day, when I wrote about Bo's upcoming "Barbie Goes Camping and Eats Ice Cream" birthday party, I forgot to mention one project I'd planned: sewing a camping-themed dress for her to wear. 

Done! Here it is:

 

I used a pattern for the basic shape (I'll update this later with the number), but then added the straps for the tie in the back. The fabric is "Happy Campers" by American Jane for Moda. The only problem is that the birthday girl thinks she's supposed to wear this when she goes camping since, she now tells me, this is going to be a Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping birthday party and therefore now needs a Sleeping Beauty dress to wear.

Cheese and crackers, kid. Where's Fiona when you need her?

In which a mocktail makes me giddy

Just got home from the grocery store and had to share this crazy little concoction with the world (or the tiny fraction of the world that reads my blog).

 

Last weekend I enjoyed a delicious cilantro-jalapeno margarita at a Latin-American restaurant in Spokane called Agave. Have I mentioned how insanely good the restaurant scene in Spokane is? Crazy good. 

Anyhow, this is my lame-o attempt to re-create what I tasted there. It cuts some major corners (um, pre-made margarita mix, hello?!), but it's still quite delicious, if I do say so.

And, yes, it's spicy. Be prepared.

By all means, add tequila. I'm home alone with the girls and I tend to get a little goofy after just looking at a bottle of tequila, so I'm going to leave that on the shelf of the totally rad mirrored '80s bar in our basement. For now, anyway.

1. Fill a glass with ice. 

2. Chop some cilantro (maybe a tablespoon or two?). Muddle it (I didn't muddle, but I should have). Put it in the glass.

3. Cut two slices of a jalapeno pepper. Put them in the glass. 

4. Pour in one-part margarita mix and 1 part sparkling water. Stir. Drink. Sweat a little. Drink some more.

Easy pillows and birthday party prep

My husband could eat grilled chicken breast and a can of French-cut green beans every night for the rest of his life. He holds high expectations for himself in many ways, but when it comes to almost everything else, the guy is really easy to please.

So it was no surprise that these very simple pillows knocked his socks off this morning.

 

His face lit up when he saw them. It was cute, but seriously, Hon. It's a square of fabric in the front and a square in the back with a flap. Not even a ruffly trim. Chill out.
 
 

These super easy pillows are about all I can handle right now. Life is going a mile a minute, like normal. It's all good, but hectic and there are some unknowns lingering in the not-so-distant future. I'm anxious for it all to be settled. 

I can't even remember the name of the beautiful fabric (which I think is what really impressed J, but I'll let him believe it was my mad sewing skillz instead). Anyone? Anyone?

One other thing I'm starting to work on is Bo's fifth birthday party. If you've been reading Penny Carnival for a while, you might remember her princess party last year. If you've been reading Penny Carnival for a long while (thank you!), you might remember her rainbow party in 2008.

This year's theme: Barbie Goes Camping. And Eats Ice Cream.

The kid is as indecisive as her mother, so we're blending her three favorites.

Did I ever write about the thing J once said about Barbie? We were debating whether to buy the girls each a doll. Neither of us are fans, but he was particularly against it. He said, "We're not buying a Barbie. She has big boobs and a tiny waist." To which I replied, "Since when have you had a problem with big boobs and tiny waistlines?" Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. So laugh.

Despite our feelings about the doll, we're both on board with the birthday theme. Here are some ideas so far:

-I'm going to bake one of those Barbie doll cakes where the skirt is the cake and Babs is poking out the top, but she's going to be holding a fishing pole and wearing a fishing vest and, if I can swing it, a plaid skirt.

-I'm going to make graham cracker tents (similar to making graham cracker gingerbread houses) and let the kids decorate them with royal icing and candy.

-We're going to have Blow the Fish Down the River contests, similar to the rubber ducky race you can see Magpie competing in here. 

-For the invitations, I'm going to take a picture of a Barbie doll in a miniature camping scene. Since the only Barbies we own were purchased at a junk sale for $1, don't be surprised if her hair is a little ratty and she's missing a limb. It will take all my self control to not place a tiny can of beer in her hand. 

-We'll make s'mores over a fire pit in the backyard.

-The favors will be placed in hobo sacks made from pink bandanas tied to sticks the girls and I collected at the park after a particularly windy day. Inside the sacks will be magnifying glasses, compasses and candy lipstick tubes.

-We'll make fireflies out of glow sticks (for the body) and coffee filters (for the wings).

-If I have time, I'll sew some fabric teepees for the kids to play in in the backyard. Otherwise, we'll just set up our tent.

-I'll ask everyone to wear camping-style clothes, if they'd like.

-We have one of those balls that makes ice cream when you kick it around, so we'll have the kids do that. 

-The pinata will be an ice cream cone, if I can find or make one.

Any other ideas? 

The privilege of motherhood

Today was as perfect as it gets. I woke up with Bo shoving a handmade card in my face with a sweet drawing of our family surrounded by hearts and dinosaur scales. Not sure about the significance of the latter, but she was proud all the same.

Then breakfast at Chaps. Grocery shopping (I'm sure some people wouldn't think of that as a treat, but when I get to do it alone, it's a pleasure). Gardening. Dinner at home--burgers and champagne. The smell of lighter fluid in the neighborhood. And a long run in the evening sunshine listening to P!nk.

(I'm a few months behind on pop culture--at least. Did you all see her performance at the Grammies this year? It just came to my attention the other day. Holy sha-zam! That woman makes me want to run a marathon.)

When I wasn't making plans to become a rock star and get tattoos, I kept thinking about what a privilege it is to be a mom. 

I watched this video from Stephanie Nielson the other day. I'm sure you all know Stephanie, her blog and her story. If I try to re-tell it here, I'll just crumple up into a puddle of tears. Tears of sadness for what she has endured. Tears of joy for the inspiration she provides.

Stephanie's video is about her faith. She's Mormon, and she draws on her faith for strength. 

(FYI, I'm not Mormon. You can read more about my difficult-to-label religion here.)

Stephanie's message about motherhood being a privilege really touched me. At one point in the video, she talked about how it's difficult sometimes to cope with wanting to look and feel beautiful again. But then later she concludes that motherhood and beauty are one in the same. Waking up each day, making her kids' lunches for school and watching them ride bikes down the street are all privileges she almost lost. My heart breaks that she has had to sacrifice so much to teach me that. 

I thought a lot today about friends who aren't celebrating Mother's Day today or are celebrating it differently. Friends who haven't been able to conceive. Friends--fantastic, wonderful friends--who have yet to find love. Friends who have one child but have been longing to have another, and their bodies won't cooperate. Two family members--both of whom have four wonderful children each--but who I'm sure thought today about the babies they delivered and never got to take home from the hospital.

What I would do to fix all of that for my friends who are and would be amazing moms. 

Motherhood is hard work. It's messy and loud and I screw it up all the time. But it is a privilege. And it is beautiful.

2005:

2007:

  

A chores chart. Finally.

The projects I love to make most are the ones that solve a problem around our house. Like the book slings. Choosing a book was taking too long at night because Bo couldn't recognize her books by their spines. Once I figured out a way to face them forward--without the use of my nonexistent carpentry skills--the bedtime story routine went more smoothly.

So, finally, we now have a chores chart. This thing has been a long time comin'. I couldn't for the life of me figure out a design that I thought would work for us. I didn't want a set list of chores running down one side because some days they need to wash the dishes and some days they don't. I needed more flexibility.

When I saw this chores chart from Jessica over at Balancing Everything, I knew I had my answer: fabric pockets that would hold cards with tasks I needed the girls to do.

This is what I created.

That's a "B" and an "M" on the left, by the way. The girls' first initials. I should have used a darker fabric for that. And, actually, both their names happen to have six letters so I could have appliqued their full names with one letter on each pocket, but I was trying to get this done during one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. 

I printed the cards on cardstock, and I'm in the process of drawing pictures on each one so the girls understand what I'm asking them to do.

As Bo and her birdie demonstrate here, once their task is done, they flip the card over to the back side, where there's a checkmark (drawn by me; colored by Bo). 

I'm sure the thrill will wear off soon enough, but so far the girls have been racing to get their chores done so they can turn their cards over. Naturally, Bo (being almost 5) is more on board than Magpie (who's 2 1/2). In fact, last night big sister did a couple of little sister's chores just so she could flip more cards over.

Now I need a little card for myself that says "make a chores chart" so I can flip it over to the checkmark side.

I have to share this story about Bo from yesterday. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but she was born early and small. Perfectly healthy and not super early (3 weeks) and not super small (4 1/2 pounds), but still--I've always felt like she was catching up a bit.

That has made the decision to send her to kindergarten next year tough. She has a summer birthday, so she'll be young anyway. Academically, I think she'll do great, but there are just times when she has meltdowns we thought would sort of be gone by now, you know?

So yesterday our neighbor was visiting. Bo decided to show her how she knows how to skip now (it's really more of a gallop, but that's beside the point). A few beats into the skipping, Bo tripped, fell and skinned her knee. For the next 10 minutes, she was sobbing on my lap. I could tell, though, that she was more embarrassed than physically hurt.

Once she calmed down, she went to the garage, took out an old chalkboard and on her own drew two pictures on it--a happy person and a sad person:

I realize they both look happy there (and with giant bellybuttons), but that's how she explained it to me. She wanted to show how at first she was sad and now she is happy. I guess my point is that maybe kids are more emotionally advanced than we think. There are plenty of times when I should have drawn a picture of a sad or mad face instead of throwing wet rags across the kitchen. Kindergarten, here we come.

And one last thing today: A reader named Angela Chevalier sent me photos of the three book slings she made for her daughter's nursery:

Get out of town, huh? Total cuteness. I love the alphabet addition and am so impressed by how straight she got the letters. And check out the cute matching book bags on the floor. Thanks for sharing, Angela!