The Super Secret Project Revealed

Since I've started sewing again I don't think I've made anything for my mom, who makes us stuff all the time and who is mostly responsible for any sewing experience and early exposure I've had to the craft. She still gives me her old sewing books, magazines patterns and sometimes buys me fabric. She and my dad even bought me my current sewing machine early last year! So I decided for her birthday (which was last Sunday) I would make her something. Thus my super secret project. I gave it to her today. I think she likes it. She is bringing it to her sewing guild to show her friends.




I love the fabric! I found the pattern in the Spring 2007 Quilts and More magazine that my mom passed on to me. The pattern is called Apron Strings. Looks like there are a lot more neat things to make in this issue. Click on the link above to hopefully find a place to order a copy if you want one. The apron pattern is actually for a trio of different aprons. I made one other out of some left over Amy Butler fabric I had from a diaper bag that I made. I have no idea what to do with that apron and will post it after I figure that one out!

Weekend in Wisconsin - Part Three (Sunday)

Sunday morning was spent playing at the waterpark. Here are some general pics of the place:






Some of our group:




For lunch we headed out to "The Moose Restaurant" which turned out to be actually called "Moosejaw". I asked what was so interesting about the jaw of a moose to which our Canadian friend (she now has dual citizenship) replied that Moosejaw is the name of a town in Canada. That explains some of the decor in the building. It was very "rustic" but in a very clean, mostly tasteful manner. The chandeliers were made of horns and antlers from various animals, also stuffed deer, moose and bears as well as some deer paw coat hooks which I found a little creepy. Don't ask me why I don't find the mounted animals as creepy. The kids got to wear moose hats and the food was MUCH better than the buffet the night before. Afterwards we said "goodbye" to our vacation companions and headed home. We did stop at a gas station that had a large pink elephant with glasses next to it. Weird but fun.








This is the FINAL post on our weekend trip. It was more than we expected and great to see family and spend a special trip with good friends. We really turned out to be compatible travel companions and hope to do another mini trip together again sometime! I also learned that a family of 4 can happily live in a 2 bedroom rather small apartment.

Weekend in Wisconsin - Part Two (Saturday)

We arrived at Chula Vista Water Park Resort in the Wisconsin Dells at around 11 am after an approximately hour drive from Madison. It was too soon to check in to our room, but not too soon to use the water park. And so we did. We started out on the "Lazy River". By the second time around I realized I didn't have to push the kids in the innertube, that there was actually a current in the "river" and I could just hang on to the tube. Duh. We then headed to the zero depth kids area which I pleasantly found the water to be much warmer than that in the river. Soon our friends Brad and Gail and their son James (6) arrived. We hung out with them in the "lazy river" and then Gail and I made a bee line for the hot tub with Miles. After lunch our room was ready, so we checked in. And this is what we saw (we were not expecting this)...







Yes that is a hot tub in the living area. Here is the master suite (Jason, I and the kids stayed in the other bedroom which I did not photograph. The lighting was awful). I forgot to get the amazing bathrooms, but I'm sure you'll live.




As soon as we settled in, Gail and I went to check out the gift shops, then came back and the guys went back to the water park to ride all the "big boy" slides. We stayed back with the kids. Miles napped and Ella and James took a dip in the hot tub while Gail and I discussed the suite. We decided we loved about everything except the window treatments which is funny because we both sew and make window treatments. She actually does it for a living and has much more experience than I. As for the kids playing in the tub, Gail did a great job at improvising tub toys by giving them plastic bowls, colanders, spoons and spatulas.



When the guys got back we all played Eucre! Well, Ella and James played Go Fish and Miles watched some cartoons.



Finally we all went to a buffet at the hotel. I really did not find the food all that appealing and the price was crazy as well. It did not include beverages or dessert. We still had a great time as you can hopefully tell by these photos:










Day is done...

Weekend in Wisconsin - Part One (Friday)

We live in Northern (Northeast) Illinois, relatively close to the Wisconsin border, for all of you who are not familiar with this part of the country or are not great with geography, Illinois shares its entire northern border with Wisconsin's entire southern border. We sometimes are made fun of because we are so close to Wisconsin. Why you ask? I just can't explain it, I guess you have to live around her to get it. We are constantly making fun of Wisc. for being "cheese heads" and for having the Packers, and for talking slightly stranger than we do. I hear they make fun of us too, not sure why except that I heard lately they are tired of us thinking that their state exists for our vacations. Huh? Why of course it does. I truly love taking trips to Wisconsin. It is ever so slightly less flat than Illinois, has lots of beautiful farmlands and just this unexplainable feel to it.

Last weekend we took a trip up to the Wisconsin Dells. I, a rare exception for a Chicagoland person, had never been there before. But before I get ahead of myself, we first went to Madison (one of my favorite cities ever) to visit my cousin Andrea and her family. Her husband Denny is in school at UW Madison for a PhD in Philosophy. They have two kids close in age to ours. More on that leg of the trip soon.

First I wanted to show a couple of examples of the majority of what you see when driving the highways of southern Wisconsin. These were actually taken at the end of our entire trip.




On Friday, midday, we headed up to Madison to our lovely hotel called "Super 8". After settling in for about 5 minutes, I called my cousin and we headed over to their apartment on campus. It was a 10 miles in 30 minutes trip. But we've been in Madison before so knew what to expect. Plus, as Andrea suspected, a 30 minute trip is short to us Chicago folks. When we arrived, Ella and Dora (Andrea's almost 5 year old daughter) were fast friends, Dominick (her 3 1/2 year old son) fit right in and Miles took a little while to warm up, but was in there too. I have to pause to say that I truly believe Ella and Dora may be soul mates! I've never seen Ella so drawn to any other child. When they met over a year (maybe 2) ago at my great aunt's memorial service, they were best buddies. Ella doesn't remember that. When we left that night they were asking each other for their phone numbers! I hope they get to see each other again soon and at least stay in touch. They should be in Madison for at least a few more years. Well... On with the pics...

Dom and Miles being boys...





Dora and Ella, best cousins...







The bunch. First cousins once removed...





Oh, and lest I forget, here I am with my cousin Andrea.


Next up will be our fabulous hotel room at the water park...

Be Back with You Shortly

Miles toilet training has gone "down the drain". Not happy.

We had a GREAT time in Wisconsin. Jason posted pics on our family website, but left out some that I find important, so I am uploading said photos onto FLICKR at the moment and will post them at a later date.

The secret project will be revealed after Thursday.

Had a great shopping day today.

I'll be back soon with more to share...

What Was I So Worried About?

I am so happy. Don't want to jinx it, but I started some serious potty training with Miles today. Basically using the technique from Toilet Training in Less Than a Day by Nathan Azrin. If you have the patience and discipline (and are in need of training a toddler/preschooler) I highly recommend this book. I used this method with Ella and had pretty good results. She was a toughy and did regress a few times, but finally got it when she was totally ready.

Well my experience with Ella had me dreading attempting any sort of potty training with Miles. I realized yesterday that Ella would be gone an extra hour for school today because they went on a field trip to the symphony. So last minute I decided to give it a go. Wow, it was soooo much smoother and easier with Miles. He was so much more cooperative too. So we trained from 8:30 am to 12 pm and there were no accidents and 3 successes after some silliness/not able to keep still episodes of trying. I threw on a plastic covered training pant (on Miles, not myself) and we were then off to pick up Ella and her friend from school. Got home, clean pants!! Then I decided to quickly check email (after sitting him on the potty with no result). He sat next to me with a toy and I did a pant check (for wet or dry - it's all part of the system). At that point he said "Oh, I wet!" So we did a positive practice (which he was less devastated by than Ella was when she would do hers). He was very cooperative and really seemed to get what we were doing. After changing his pants and doing some more checks it was time for lunch. As he started to climb into his chair he quietly said "oh potty". I asked "Do you have to go potty?" to which he answered "yeah". So he went directly to the potty and... well the golden moment occurred. He had a first. And I'll let you figure that out because I'm not going to spell it out. I was ecstatic! Now I'm glad he's napping so I can rest from this whole thing.

I think that from here on out I'm going to try to get away from Pullups except at night. This means lugging more plastic pants, a change of pants (probably more than just one), changes of socks and perhaps changes of shirts around with me when we go out.

I know I'm getting excited rather early, but all signs point towards a more cooperative child and smoother experience.

This has been weighing on my mind for a while and didn't know when I'd have time to work on it. And as I said before I was dreading it after my experience with Ella. I will be so happy when we are well on our way to a Pullup free life (or at least days for now).

Now I'm going to get back to a secret project that I'm working on!

Better Picture

OK, I think I found a better pic of the style I like.



Or does that look pretty much the same to you as the last post?

Now I'm not going to be able to show you the after pics of me because I will pale in comparison to Heather!