Bet you didn't know that April is when all the big fireworks distributors start showing off their latests and greatest in pyrotechnics gearing up for the busy summer season of ballgames, and city Independence Day celebrations? Tonight was one of the many shooter schools and catalog demonstrations happening this month in KS and MO. Despite a busy day ... starting with me leaving for Women's Conference in the wee hours of the morning while GR fed, clothed and packed a car for three morning soccer games, then spending a hour and a half at the school carnival that afternoon once I got home from WC, we decided to live life dangerously, armed ourselves with well rested children, McDonald's for dinner, jackets and a good size blanket, and venture out about an hour from home to the middle of nowhere Kansas to meet up with GR's fireworks buddies and watch the demo.
For GR it was exciting to watch huge fireworks ... 2.5", 4", 6", 8", 10" (that's the diameter of the individual shell) and rank them with the children. Rebecca and Dim rated the cakes and decided that there are some really boring cakes out there! And I loved listening to the announcer as he read off the name of each shell before it exploded in the air. Finally learning the names of the fireworks I love ... like Peony, Chrysanthemum and Willow. Sam announced the he really likes Willows and Falling Leaves, and like his mother, loves the ones that whistle! (if you follow the link connected to cake you can read the definition of each of those names if you want to know what they are an sound super knowledge able at your next fireworks show.
ETA: We didn't leave the show until 10pm (the boys crashed well before that with me in the car), and it did make for a very, very, predictable church experience for the boys, which GR and I were prepared for (although looking back, maybe we should have warned the rest of the congregation?), but everyone had a great time and we are always in need of more quality family time and this fit the bill perfectly!
Today is the birthday of one of Rebecca's good friends from school. They became friends the summer between Kindergarten and 1st Grade when they played T-ball together, and were very excited to be in the same 1st and 2nd grade classes. We've had lots of play dates together and I adore her family!
For the last two years Kira's birthday party has been on Sunday ... Sunday birthday parties happen a lot for our kids and it's always a sad day when we get an invitation to a Sunday party. Our solution for Rebecca and Kira is an after school playdate after the party.
When I asked Rebecca what she wanted to give Kira she instantly launched into explaining how Kira loves dinosaurs and that she wanted to make her a dinosaur pillow. Hoping she meant a pillowcase using dinosaur fabric, I asked for more details. No such luck, a pillow in the shape of a dinosaur. I'm a pattern girl, I'm not a make-it-up as you go, pull it out of my head girl by any stretch of the imagination. I need something to go off of.
Softies are hugely popular right now and I thought surely I would be able to find a tutorial or pattern on someone's crafty softie blog somewhere ... and although I found some seriously cute dinosaurs, the one free pattern I finally found was way more complicated than I/we wanted to get.
So I took a deep breath, handed Rebecca a large piece of paper and a pencil and told her to draw a picture of what she wanted for our pattern ... using pictures we found on Etsy and Flickr, and a few of Alex's board books as inspiration, along with the image she had in her head, she drew a great dinosaur. Together we enlarged it and simplified it, all the while praying it would turn out the way she wanted!
She cut out the paper pattern, she ironed the fabric and ironed on the interfacing, she cut out some of the fabric and she also did about half the sewing.
She also helped me turn it right side out and did most of the stuffing before we had to send her to bed. In all we worked on it for about 2-1/2 hours with me finishing up the hand work after she went to bed. She is very excited about giving this to Kira and is just sure Kira will love it ... oh how I hope she's right!
I've been informed that Sam and Alex both want dinosaurs!
