Treasure Island

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Alex's school was out for a teacher's convention. We decided to take the kids to Treasure Island in the Wisconsin Dells for a few days for a small vacation. :) Alex finally conquered his fear of the big water tube slides and rode several having a great time! (Yes, it is October in WI, It is an indoor waterpark.) You cannot really tell, but this is a pic of Alex as he lands in the pool of water beneath one of the larger slides.

Katie on the other hand was much harder to persuade. I didn't expect her to go on any of the larger slides, and she is too short to go on them anyway, but there were several "kiddie" slides no larger than the ones at any 2-5year old playground that she wouldn't go anywhere near either. She spent much of her time at the water park like this. :) On the last day she did spend a bit of time without holding onto Dad's hand, and did splash about a bit in the wading pool, but that was the best we were gonna get from her.

We all had fun in our room though and out at restaurants.

All in all it was a nice family get away even if it was only a few days long. :) And Katie was plain tuckered out by the time we left the last restaurant after a late lunch on the last day before returning home. I swear this last pic was taken just as she tried to put another mini corn dog from her child meal into her mouth and instead she slumped against mama fast asleep. She slept the whole 2 hour car ride home, which was wonderful because she often does not travel well!

Just Nan RR

Just finished up stitching on Allie's piece for the Just Nan RR. Her Round Robin has outlines for several "smalls" - little pieces she intends to put on a special table in remembrance of her grandmother. I decided to do the small card holder. I orignially thought of doing "Girls Night Out" which is Halloween themed, because of the time of year, but decided against it because I just didn't think it would dispay as nicely with the other pieces when they were finished. All the motifs in this piece are from "Common Ground". I think it turned out better than I expected it would. :)

In other news, Katie was actually pretty good in church today. Alleluia! She wasn't perfect, but for the most part she was quiet and didn't try to run into the aisle or slide into the family next to us, or generally cause any ruckus. I'll take it! Don't know what I did differently, just seemed her temperament was a little more calm this morning.

My mom was just recently diagnosed with viral spinal meningitis, and she was in the hospital for a few days. She was released yesterday, and it looks like she is going to recover just fine, but it was a little scary thinking of her having such a serious disease. I'm not really close with my mom, but I was still pretty shaken up over her being that sick. It surprised me how stressed and worried that made me feel. Not really that I was surprised that I care about her - I've always known that I do - just that I was that worked up when all the signs were clear that she was going to be just fine.

On Wednesday Sean and I are taking the kids to Wisconsin Dells for a few days (Alex's school is out for a teacher conference). The hotel we are staying at has an indoor water park with big slides and we are all really looking foward to a few days of fun. :)

Look Mom! I'm pretty!

That's what Katie said when she came out of her bedroom wearing this little ensemble. I was cooking dinner and not really paying much attention to what she might be getting into. Turns out she was digging in her closet and dragging out all the summer floats and clothes I had just put away! Silly girl. Pretty cute bag lady look she's got going on there though.

Here are some other pics I've taken of the kids recently. Not much to really write about lately, so thought I'd share a slice of my life this way instead. :) I discovered last week that I can do braids in Katie's hair and it is really cute. She is going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz this year, mostly cause she has the right look for it and I got the costume from my sister whose daughter has outgrown it. (My neice was a cute Dorothy too!) Anyway, I discovered the braids work well when I was dressing her in the costume for the family Halloween ball at Alex's school last week. It is now one of my favorite ways to do her hair.

Sweetheart Tree RR

The pic is a little blury because of the large beads in the center holding the fabric away from the scanner, but you get the idea. :) I really liked stitching this one as it was on Joblean - my favorite type of fabric.

Foldable Book RR Happy Dance!

ARGH! Blogger isn't letting me upload any photos right now so here is a link to my latest RR finish.

This is my last finish for this Round Robin. :) I'm pretty happy with how this Round Robin went. It was my second time moderating a RR, and it went much better than the Mirabilia RR I moderated. That one is actually still not done - and I'll likely never see my piece again. Oh well, live and learn, I guess.

I have two new RRs starting and I just started working on Ruth's piece for the Sweetheart Tree RR. I really love her fabric - it is my favorite - Joblean. The design I picked is coming out really pretty, I think. I should be getting the Just Nan RR in the mail shortly. Looking forward to picking out something for that one too. :)

New Luggage!

Okay, I know to most this is incredibly boring - but I have never owned a suitcase that wasn't a cast off from some family member two generations ago! Look - I even have two pieces that MATCH! I've been watching sales on luggage for the last few months knowing I wanted to get new bags (I didn't really have any because the last cast off fell apart some time ago) before our Disney trip next spring. We are also going on a short two day trip to the Wisconsin Dells later this month when Alex has off from school - so I'll get to use them for a trial run. These aren't top of the line or anything - they are from Nine & Company and I got them from Kohl's. Some rude woman in line when I paid for them commented about how I won't have any trouble finding THOSE bags at the airport carousel - but I don't think they are very outrageous looking and I wanted something that wasnt' your classic black, but didn't have an old lady floral pattern either. I really liked this print - so sppppttt to her! And purple is a great color - don't ya think? :)

I still have to buy bags for DH and both kids before the big trip as DH has one beat up suitcase he got in high school 15 years ago that wasn't that high quality to begin with. The kids have no bags at all. I think though we'll be set for the short trip.

In other trip news I bought our airfare for the Disney trip today. Just a tip for anyone needing to buy airline tickets for the whole family: Price tickets as though you were going to buy only one when pricing online. Sometime a flight only has a certain number of "discounted" fares available. If there are only 3 left and you need 4 tickets, the system will quote you the higher price for all 4. Someone clued me in to this today and I was able to book 3 of our tickets at the discounted fare, and then go back and book 1 more ticket at the higher fare. Saved me $96, and made me feel a little better about paying a little more for the more convenient times and the nonstop flights.

Headless No More!

I've been stitching on my mermaid. :) She is on 40ct Tropical Breeze from Silkweaver, and I like how she is coming out so much more now that she has a head. I have such trouble liking a piece before it has a "face" or focal point sometimes.

The next few days I'll probably spend stitching on Wendy's Foldable Book for one of my Round Robins, and then soon after that the Sweetheart Tree and Just Nan RRs will be arriving and I'll do those. Then I have to do another square on the blanket I'm doing for Katie. I hate working on that project, by the way, but it is one of those things I HAVE to do since I did one for every other baby in our family. *sigh* Ah well, if I keep pounding out a square every now and then I have to finish sometime right?

At the risk of being flamed, I'm going to share how my morning went. Katie behaved just terribly in church. Which is to say that she was only slightly more ill-behaved than usual. :( I see all these mothers and kids about her age around me that seem to sit quietly and politely without a peep, and I wonder what I must be doing wrong... Katie has no concept of talking quietly, she wants to run in the aisle or slide down the pew into the family next to us, neither of which has she EVER been allowed to do even once. I always thought children who behaved like this had no discipline at home or their parents didn't do anything the first time, or second time, or third time, so the kid kept pushing the limit. I usually end up taking her out of mass 2 and 3 times for a stern talking to after which she agrees to be good and then procedes to act as before. Rinse and Repeat. Today when I took her out I was so fed up that I spanked her. I'm not against spanking when it is really warrented and I felt it was. She slapped and bit me in church because I pulled her back before she could run into the aisle. I took her right outside and gave her one quick swat on the backside. Once she calmed down from the swatting, I took her back in where she was better, but still not really what I'd call good. Maybe I should be swatting more and talking less, which is what my instinct is telling me to do. Course it doesn't help that I'm worried if I talk too sternly to her someone will think I'm a terrible mother or worse - report me to social services. Sometimes talking works, and I always try that first, but sometimes it just doesn't. All I know right now is that no matter what I do, I feel terrible. I cannot take that child anywhere without leaving in disgrace.