Nora's Tea Party Birthday

I wanted to do something for Nora's 3rd birthday, but since I'm 8 months pregnant, I needed to do something pretty low key and easy. We decided to just invite grandparents and Godparents to keep it small (if we do a family affair, it's upwards of 30 people, and the idea of having a bunch of toddler running around and trying to keep them entertained seemed to daunting to me!). Nora's loved playing with a tea set that was mine as a child and being the "hostess with the most-est," so I thought a tea party would be right up her alley. Plus it gave me a reason to use my grandma's China for the first time. (Not something I would have wanted to do with a bunch of toddler running around! Yikes!) So here's how it went and what I did...

We'll start with the easy stuff... Tea! I made three "teas" for everyone to enjoy. I had a cold black tea with mom's garden raspberries, hot Tazo Zen tea with mint, and lemonade in a tea pot for the kids. I think both Nora and her "God-sister" Abby tried the teas, but Nate had a little lemonade in a toy tea cup, then decided that his finger food went better in the cup.

Silly brothers!

 Of course I needed to make sure that there was something my kids, and Abby (Nora's "God-sister"), would eat, so I used the flower shaped Pampered Chef baking tube (similar to these) to make homemade white sandwich bread in. I made half a batch of bread and had to extend the baking time in the tube. After I sliced the flower-shaped bread, I used a small circle cookie cutter (similar to the smallest from this set) to put a hole in the center of half of them. I spread peanut butter, then my mom's homemade apple jelly on the ones that I didn't put the hole in, then put the ones I had cut the hole in on top for the pretty flower effect. These were a hit with Grandpa Jack too since his favorite thing to eat is a peanut butter sandwich.

I made one batch of French baguette that I used for two different sandwiches. When I split the rolled out dough into two, I put cracked pepper and Parmesan on one before rolling it up, and dried spicy basil from my garden and cheddar on the other.

With the cracked pepper and Parmesan French baguette, I made cucumber ranch finger sandwiches. For these, I used a package of cream cheese mixed with a dollop of sour cream (just enough to make it a little more spreadable) and ranch seasoning to taste to spread on. I had Adam assemble these, so he spread the cream cheese mixture then put a slice of a garden cucumber on top.



With the basil and cheddar French baguette, I think I made the hit of the party: BLT finger sandwiches. (Maybe you can tell from the picture, Adam and Nora's Godfather, Dave, got to them before I could snap a picture, and they were the only ones we didn't have any left.) While Adam was cooking up the bacon, I spread mayo on each slice, cut up a piece of garden Romaine lettuce for each, and a slice of garden Roma tomato for each. When the bacon was done cooking I used a scissors to cut up each piece of bacon into thirds (which was roughly the length I needed to fit across the baguette). I put the lettuce down first, then the bacon, then the tomato, because I thought that order looked the nicest, but you can really put it in whatever order you want (though the mayo should probably go right after the bread ;) )

My lovely mother made her famous turkey roll ups, and Nora's Godmother, Theresa, made these super cute tea bag cookies.

Of course a Birthday Tea Party wouldn't be complete without mini cupcakes. I like to bake better than cook. But, oddly enough, I almost always end up using a box mix for cupcakes instead of making them from scratch. I think this was a chocolate chip chocolate cake mix, but I don't recall for sure. I know the frosting was called Strawberry Mist though. The only down side was I couldn't quite fit 3 candles on the little thing... but Nora enjoyed being able to eat 3 of them instead of just one. I'm pretty sure that made up for it, if she had any hard feelings about the two missing candles. ;)

My birthday girl!

Announcing #4: Eviction Notice

So I probably could have posted this a while ago, but life with two toddlers is pretty hectic! All of my friends and family know by now, and if they don't, they'll figure it out when they see me! But without further ado, here's the pregnancy announcement we went with for baby #4. I was going to have Nora wear Adam's glasses to make her look even more like a little business women with her tie & bun, but I forgot, and they were in no mood to try again!

I will put the disclaimer in here that this was totally Adam's idea again, just like Nate's pregnancy announcement was, but this time he let me pick from about four different ideas he had found. This was the one we agreed upon, so I set it all up and took the picture, with his help, of course!

Photography-wise, it's not the best picture, but we wanted to get it taken. It was a dreary day, so I needed the light on in the room to catch my fast-moving toddlers without a blur, but then I have a blue cast from the window and a yellow cast from the light in the room. My friend over at Stay at Home Who edited it a bit for me to get rid of some of the color casting.

Making T-Shirts Fit: Toddlers & Preggos

Yesterday, Adam brought home t-shirts for all of us from his work that we're supposed to wear on a company walk to raise money for Fill Their Plate. Of course they didn't have toddler size t-shirts, so we got the smallest they had for the kids, youth smalls. And, they were huge! Nate's could have been a ballroom length dress on him... not so fashionable, if you ask me... and I'm not really that fashionable.

I saw a couple different ideas (pretty much all of them were for little girls) on how to make t-shirt dresses and such, but I saw this vintage t-shirt dress from an Etsy store that I figured the pattern would probably suit my purposes close enough. I had to be careful to work around a lot of wording though, which was the trickiest part, and the reason I couldn't make several of the others I had seen for Nora. So onto what I did...

For Nate, I pretty much just sewed and cut to make the shirt more his size. I turned it inside out and put it on him (well, actually Nora, because he wouldn't sit still long enough to let me see how much to take in, let alone pin it). I pinned the top of the sleeves starting from the collar and working down to the end of the sleeve. (I could have used more pins, but I also needed to take it off a toddler to insisted on doing it herself, so two was good enough!)

I made sure the collar edges lined up and the end of the sleeves lined up, then sewed straight across using a jersey needle and matching thread. This brought the neckline up and kept it from hanging off his shoulders. 

Then I put it on him inside out again to try to figure out how much to take the sides in. The problem I ran into was that if I made it small enough to pit him properly, the beginning and end of the company name on the back and the end of if on the front would be cut off. So, instead of trying to wrestle a toddler who'd rather be sliding in the closet, I just took it off and free handed it. While it was still inside out, I measured in from each armpit into where the letters were, then left about a 1/4" extra space. I believe it was about 1 1/2" for this particular t-shirt. Then I measured in from the bottom 1 1/2" and sewed straight up until the armpit, at which point, I set my needle down, picked up the foot of my sewing machine, and turned the t-shirt so I could sew straight to the armpit. I did the same to the other side then flipped it right side out and had him try it on. It fit him, but it looked like I had tried some ruching in the armpit and side area since I hadn't yet cut off the extra material. Once I decided that it fit him and I didn't make it too small, I took it off him, flipped it inside out again, and cut off the extra fabric. 

When I had him try it on again, it looked much better, but the sleeves were still pretty big, so I figured out how much smaller I needed to make the arm holes the same way I did the top collar and arm part, and sewed it. The sleeves were still pretty long though, so I decided to just cut them off right inside the actual seam where the sleeve is attached to the body of the t-shirt. Since I was working with jersey knit material, I didn't have to worry about hemming it, which made my life much easier!

Now it was starting to fit him better, but it was still the length of a dress, so I figured out how much I needed to cut off the bottom to bring it up just below his waist. I took my rotary cutter (okay, so it's the one I'm borrowing from my mom for another project), and sliced it off. If you don't have a rotary cutter (like normal for me!), you can use a yard stick or straight edge to draw a line and a scissors to cut. Just make sure that when you are cutting and measuring that the bottom edges of your t-shirt are lined up. And, again, I didn't have to worry about hemming it since I'm working with t-shirt material.

With Nora's, I did pretty much the same thing, but I wanted hers to be a belted dress, and I didn't mind the longer sleeves on her. So I did everything I did to Nate's, but I didn't cut off the sleeves or the bottom. And since I was going for a dress instead of a long t-shirt look, I took the sides in a little differently. I measured in that 1 1/2" from the armpits, but instead of going straight down, I went to the corners of the t-shirt. (Hopefully the after picture makes sense!)

I was originally going to have her just wear a belt with it, but since I had so much leftover material, I figured, why not make a matching belt? So I used the bottom part of Nate's shirt and cut off a 1" wide strip using my rotary cutter. Since there's no seams, I just cut the circle of fabric at a random point so I had a long "rope" where I could pull both ends to make the edges curl in.

I even managed to put little belt loops on her dress so it would stay in place. I cut off about an inch of a seam and zigzag stitched it onto the sides of her dress. You're going to want to go back and forth several times to make sure it stays attached. One of the sides of Nora's came off at the walk. 

The final touch was adding a cute little flower to her dress. I used this basic Twisted Petal Flower tutorial as my starting point, and I put it on the upper right side of her dress.

As for me, I had to get a t-shirt that was too big for me, everywhere but my belly. So I took my shirt in under the arms and tapered it out to the sides right above my pregnant belly. Then to make it a little more fashionable, I found this dental floss ruching tutorial that I added in fairly quickly.

At the walk we got many compliments on Nora's dress and the ruching on my t-shirt. We also got a couple questions on how we got a t-shirt to fit Nate from parents of other toddlers. Hopefully we'll have another company event to wear them to before the kids outgrow their t-shirts!

Early Pregnancy Symptoms

On January 22nd, Adam went to the Dollar Store and picked up a pregnancy test. I took it that evening before bed, and it was positive! So beings our 4th journey down this road...

I've been meaning to get on here for a while now and write down some of the pregnancy "symptoms" I've been having, some enjoyable, some not-so-much. Here are the top 3 that have been "ailing" me since about a week ago (about 5 weeks pregnant).

1. Tired. All. The. Time. Chasing around the two littles we already have, one of which woke up twice last night, and being pregnant... yikes! I go to bed when the kids go to bed and struggle to get up an hour or two before them so I can shower and get ready for the day. (That's like 10 hours of sleep!)

2. "Funny tummy," as Nora calls it. No matter when you eat or how often, you just have that "funny tummy" pretty much 24/7. (Again, chasing around two toddlers doesn't help matters any.)

3. This one I just started this morning, and it is always my favorite pregnancy symptom! My hair barely falls out! By the time I have the baby, my hair is so full and thick! I love it! Of course a few months postpartum, it all starts falling out in mass quantities, and I hate it, but at least I can have 9 months of beautiful hair!

Nap-Time Doings: Lids Rack

So I've had all these pins pinned on Pinterest (whoa, a little redundant!) showing different ways to deal with lids in cabinets. I've been sick of mine sitting on the shelf taking up a bunch of space that I could use for... well, probably more stuff I don't actually need. This pin is probably the one that most closely resembles (though it really doesn't) what I ended up doing. I wanted them tucked away in a safer place than on the cabinet door like I've seen in some pins, because I didn't want it to be easy for my kids to get at them and break them. So here's my version!

There are probably quicker, easier, prettier ways than what I did, but I was trying to procrastinate while putting the dishes away (but I still was putting them away, since I mean, look, the lids look so much nicer now!). So I used what I had: scraps from a tongue and groove board from my brother's basement remodel project that I am in the process of turning into one of those growth rulers that you also see all over Pinterest (yep, it's been re-purposed twice!). The two pieces that I used were the tongue side of the board that I cut off about a 1/4 inch into the board past the tongue. I measured the cabinet front to back, then cut the pieces just slightly longer -we're talking maybe a 1/16 of an inch- so that they would stay by tension (okay, so a tension rod would totally do the trick, but like I said, procrastinating instead of putting the dishes away, and I didn't have them on hand). I tried installing them by lining up the back side, then sliding the front side down until they looked level, but since they weren't both exactly the same size after I cut them, I had to rasp (or sand) the end of the longer one of them down just a little. It seriously took me less than 10 minutes to do the whole thing, and that counts two trips back to the garage to rasp the one side. Super easy, and I love it!

Flying with Toddlers & Babies

Art folio pictured from Two Little Gingers

I don't know how many times I've seen friends post on Facebook looking for advice on flying with their toddler(s) for the first time. Nora has flown four times. Her first time was when she was 3 months old, then again at 9 months. Once Nate was born, we flew two more times. Nate was 5 months and Nora was 22 months. Then right before my grandma passed away, we went out to visit her one last time when the kids were 2 1/2 years and just over 1 year. Sam flew at 6 months and Jessica at 3 months both to different parts of California. So needless to say, we've had our experiences with navigating airports with all the gear and the children, entertaining two littles on the plane, dealing with ears popping, etc. So instead of trying to remember all of the things I have learned from our travels each time a friend asks for advice, I thought I'd put it all in one place and just share the link. Feel free to share with anyone you know, as well, or add any tips or tricks you've learned in your travels in the comments below.

Free Under 2 Years
Maybe most people know this, maybe they don't. If you have a child under 2 years, they are considered "infant in arms," and you don't have to buy a seat for them. Your kiddo will be riding on your lap the whole time, but most kids that age would rather sit on your lap anyway. (Even when they're over 2 years they do!) Just make sure when you buy your ticket, you put that down. Because of the number of oxygen masks in each row, only one "infant in arms" is allowed per row per side (so if you're flying with 2 under 2 and another adult, you can sit on opposite sides of the isle, but not on the same side in the same row).

Where to Sit
It's not always possible, but if you can, try to get seats towards the front of the plane. You'll be the last ones on and the first ones off, meaning less time your kiddos have to be contained. With that, when they first begin boarding, after first class boards, they'll allows people with disabilities and people with small children to board. Don't. Yes, it does take a couple extra minutes to get kids and gear down the tiny isle of the plane and settled into their seats, but then they're contained to a small space longer, and most toddlers aren't happy about it (small babies don't really care one way or the other though, as long as they're cuddled up with momma).

Car Seats
We haven't ever done car seats on the planes. It's a lot to carry through the airport and juggle with everything else we have. We check them with our luggage. The airlines check them for free. We've always put them in some sort of car seat bag, just to keep them cleaner while they are riding in the underbelly of the plane (the last time we stuffed 2 car seats in one bag AND managed to get our winter coats in it as well -less to carry through the airport and pack on the plane). The last flight I was tempted to bring a car seat for Nora (to actually keep Nate contained), but opted not to, and they both did just fine. The Car Seat Lady recommends that you do have your child in a car seat, and buy a seat for your child, even if they are under 2 years. It's not the law, so use your best judgement.

Carry-ons & Checked Luggage
With having to bring diapers, extra changes of baby/toddler clothes, and all the gear that goes along with small children, we've found that the $20 to check a bag is worth it. Plus, then you can check your toiletries without having to try to get tiny bottles in Ziplocs through security lines (read that as quicker & easier to get through security). We've only ever done one. We pack as light as we can. We each take a carry on and a personal item. Just think about who's going to be carrying the child(ren) or pushing the stroller, and how many hands/ backs/ fronts each of you (or just you!) will have. I have been seen walking through the airport pushing a stroller with one child and a small carry on below her, using a carrier to carry a child on my back, and carrying a backpack on my front. Anything you don't think you can carry/ push, try to check. The airports do have Smarte Cartes that you can pay to use if you need. We take a wheeled carry on that we can attach bags to, a stroller that we put a child (or two) in along with whatever we can fit underneath or over the handles (if it's light/small enough), and backpacks. (More on transporting kids through the airport in the section below.) The big thing is thinking about who's carrying what and if you'll have enough hands. If not, try something else, or check a suitcase.

Strollers & Carries
I think we've done this differently each time we've flown. It depends on your child(ren)'s age(s) and what makes the most sense for your situation. We've always taken a stroller. The first time (when Nora was 3 months old), I wore her in the Moby, and we used the stroller to help to carry our stuff. When she was 9 months she was in the stroller. When we had a 5 month old and a 22 month old, we took the double stroller. At some points Nate was in the fitted sling, and luggage in his stroller seat, other times we were carrying more luggage, and he was in the stroller. The last time, we just took a small umbrella stroller that we could put one small item underneath. I pushed the stroller with Nora in it, had Nate on my back in the Boba, and a backpack on my front. Nora held her small backpack (with her entertainment stuff - see below), and my mom had her backpack and a wheeled carry-on with another bag attached to it. Again, just make sure there's enough hands for everything you need.
Note on carries: I've used the Moby, a fitted sling, and a Boba. Going though security I've always had to take the child out and carry him/her through. You can keep the carrier on, but then your hands will be swabbed. The Moby was too much work to take on and off, so I opted for swabbing (doesn't take that long). The other two were quick on and off, so I just took them off and sent them through the scanner.
Note on strollers: They will be sent through the scanner, so fold them up and put them on the belt. Our double stroller did not fit though, so they had to hand search it, which does take a couple extra minutes, but not terribly long. Just keep it in mind when you're trying to reach your gate on time. Strollers can be gate checked (you push them all the way down the ramp and leave them right outside the plane door). Make sure that they have a tag denoting that you want it brought back up, so that when you get off the plane it's waiting right outside for you. Otherwise it will be down in the over-sized checked luggage baggage claim area. If that happens, ask for a wheelchair if you don't want to try to wrangle a runaway toddler and all your gear.

Sippy Cups & Bottles
While TSA believes that you would drink explosives, they are okay with you allowing your children to bring them on board. Bottles of water or formula, expressed breast milk, or sippy cups of water, juice, or the like for your toddlers are fine to bring through security. Just make sure they are either taken out of your bags or that you are in an outside pocket (like in the wheelchair picture above). Baby food is also allowed, (read more on this in the ears popping section), and you don't have to allow them to open it. Most airports just want to have it out of your bag (some don't care).

Shoes

The shoes of small children do not have to be removed when you're going to security. Some airports don't even make you remove your shoes anymore, but if they do shoes you can slip on and off quickly are your best bet.

Naps
Depending on the age of your child, and if he's phasing out naps, or if he's very curious, he may not nap. We've traveled at all different times of the day with all sorts of disruptions to naps times and normal routines. We've only flew from Minnesota to Oregon/ Washington though, and that adds a 2 hour time change. Chances are the excitement of the airport with all it's people watching, places to explore, planes and ramp happenings to watch, they won't nap in the airport (you know your kid best, of course, maybe your kid will sleep anywhere... lucky parent you are!). The plane, I've found, is a toss up. When they're young and over tired, I've been able to put them in a carrier after take off (don't try before, they'll wake up when they're ears start popping... see below for more on that), and get them to sleep. I've used a Moby, a fitted sling, and a Boba. Use what you're most comfortable with and what your child seems to like best. Mine typically whined and cried for maybe 5 minutes until they passed out, or they nursed to sleep quickly.

Ears Popping (Equalizing)
Nora was a nuk kid. No problems there. If yours is, use it. Nursing babies (or giving a bottle) has helped as well. But, when they're a little older, I've found those squeeze packets of baby food or applesauce are amazing! Not only do they keep your toddler or baby busy and content sucking the food out and swallowing it, but their ears are equalizing (popping) the whole time, so they're not fussing about the pressure. I've heard other people suggest suckers and I've seen gum too. I rarely give my kids candy, and besides, they'd bite the suckers anyway. I don't think she'd quite know what to do with gum either, and would probably just swallow it. Just be aware that depending on what airport you're flying out of and the mood of the TSA person, they may try to open them to make sure they're not explosive. You can refuse. They'll swab your hands and your stuff, see that you're not trying to feed your children explosives, and send you on through.

Diapers and Potty Training
Diapers: Change your baby/toddler right before you get on the plane in hopes of avoiding a diaper change mid-flight. Though, sometimes, poop happens. A small baby will fit on the "changing table" of the teeny tiny bathrooms on the plane, that is if the plane has one. A toddler will not. On a plane that didn't have one, a flight attendant gave me a blanket to put across the seats. I've done changes a couple different ways. The changing table was the worst option (keep in mind we also hit some turbulence after the diaper was removed, but before the baby was wiped... not a pleasant experience for anyone involved). I did do a standing change with Nora on the changing table, and that seemed okay (if you don't hit turbulence). Otherwise, I've found the plane seats have been my best option. (Though if you're sitting next to a stranger, they might not appreciate it, so just be considerate!)
Potty Training: Yikes! You can barely fit one person in those bathrooms. Add a curious toddler, it's an interesting experience. This probably goes without saying, but make sure she tries before boarding the plane. Depending on where you are with it, and how your toddler is doing, you might want to consider using a diaper or pull up for the plane. I knew my daughter could handle the flight without an accident, and that she would refuse to wear a diaper for it. So we went for it, and she was fine.

Entertainment
This always depends on the age of your child. Books and small toys along with mom and/or dad's undivided attention is usually enough for a baby, plus chances are they'll take a small nap for you. Older babies and toddlers need a little more entertainment. Both of my kids have needed to just get up and walk the aisle at some point (or two) during the flight. My mom always held one of their hands in case of unexpected turbulence or unseen feet in the aisle. Books, again, are good for toddlers, and so is coloring. (The picture at the beginning of the post show my daughter using an Art Folio from Two Little Gingers, which are awesome for keeping crayons, markers, paper, stickers, etc. together, so you don't have to dig through your bags. But what kept my daughter the most entertained was some sort of electronic device like a phone or a tablet with games downloaded on it for her. Depending on your device, just Googling "toddler apps for (Android/ iPhone/ etc.)" will result in tons of apps. I always go for the free ones, but from what I've read from other blogs, there's some paid apps out there for toddlers that are worth the money. I just don't let my kids have really any screen time otherwise, so I didn't want to pay for apps that I'd only use on the occasional flight, but that screen time could have pretty well kept her entertained the whole time. So even if you're a "no screen time" type parent, I'd highly consider it for a flight where they're trapped in their seat the whole time. There are plenty of educational and book-type apps out there if you want to stick to that type (that's what I did).

I'd love to hear from you!
Did you take a flight with your little(s)? What tips/ advice would you add to this list? What worked and what didn't? Leave a comment below and share with everyone!

Celebrating 4, 3, 2, & 1 Years: Our 2013 Year

Dear Family & Friends,

We hope you had as eventful of a year as we did! This year we celebrated 4 years, 3 years, 2 years, and we are about to celebrate 1 year!

In February, Adam signed a contract with Aerotek working as a temp employee of Sauer Danfoss (they have since been bought out and are now just Danfoss). We were really excited that he got a job fairly quickly after graduation, though while he was searching, it seemed like forever! They like him there, and are talking about hiring him on sometime late next year. In the meantime, he continues to work early AM’s at UPS before heading to his “real” job.

In April, I took a long term sub position teaching math at St. Agnes. It was rough for this Bulldog (St. Bernard’s) to be an Aggie, but I enjoyed being back in the classroom. Several of my mom friends helped watch the kids while I was at work. It was a great experience; however, it made me realize that my place right now is at home with my babies!

On May 9^th, Adam and I celebrated our FOUTH wedding anniversary. Four years doesn’t seem that long, but when I look back to our wedding day, it seems like an ancient memory!

A couple weeks later, we celebrated Danielle’s THIRD birthday on May 17^th. The weather didn’t cooperate, so we didn’t release balloons this year, but we had cake and celebrated with friends & family.

At the beginning of June, mom, the kids, and I went to Oregon to visit my mom’s family and introduce them to our little man, Nathaniel. My grandma was so excited to see us that she ended up slipping off the ottoman and breaking her leg on our first day there. So we spent a lot of time going back and forth visiting her, but we were able to celebrate my cousin’s pregnancy and throw her a baby shower while we were there.

On August 12^th, our little Eleanor celebrated her SECOND birthday. She spent the day playing with her cousins and even got to skip her nap. After dinner she was able to blow out candles on a birthday cupcake, though we didn’t have her birthday party until October, since we were in the middle of moving.

At the end of August, we bought a new house in Woodbury. We love all the space that we have (coming from a townhouse!), and the room we have to grow our family. Though I am finding that with more space to grow, comes more space to clean! I’m pretty sure that’s the only part I don’t like about moving out of our townhouse. Since then, we’ve been kept super busy putting our home together, from yard work, garage improvements, painting, decorating and more!

In October, we celebrated Adam’s dad’s wedding to his mom’s sister. Even though it rained a little, it was a lovely wedding, and reception. It’s been great to have his aunt take a new roll in the family and grow closer to her.

While we haven’t gotten to it yet, we will be celebrating Nate’s FIRST birthday just a few short days before Christmas on the 21^st. To my disappointment, at 10 months, he’s recently started walking. But, it’s been such a fun year watching him grow into such a little man!

We hope that 2013 was a wonderful year full of blessings for you and your family, and wish you a Merry Christmas filled with joy.

Love,
Sarah, Adam, Danni (3 years), Nora (2 years), and Nate (11 months) 


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