Christopher the Creative Cat

I can remember summer vacation as both fun and exciting. I can also remember wanting school to start about 2-4 weeks earlier than it was supposed to.

During these hot (and somewhat boring) days, while a couple of my other kids are sleeping, I engage Christopher in play of his choice. Being the constructional engineer that he is and having such a great imagination, he usually wants to "build" something. This day he picked buidling a castle with his Leggos.

I let him build most of the castle (what fun would it be for him to watch Mom build the whole thing anyway?), but I added a few details so I could interact with him. I just love Christopher's imagination and it helps him self-entertain when needed. He inspires my imagination and that's one of many reasons I love him so much.

We named it Christopher's Chateau! Pretty catchy I think and so...I took a few pics.

Here is the castle with a roof on top...

He immediately decided that the roof carried too much weight and the entire castle would come crumbling down. So, he removed the roof to save his masterpiece, phew...good thinking on his part!

Close up view of the drawbridge that actually slides up and off rather than down and out.

What a nifty little idea, I think. :)

View of the drawbridge sliding up and off...

Final view with the drawbridge successfully removed, revealing the spacey interiors. This thing has a room up at the top, as you can see from this photo. However, what is impossible to capture with a camera (unless, I were to disassemble the castle and take photos as I progressed) is that Christopher's Chateau has a secret compartment "downstairs" with two trap doors. It's actually quite impressive, if I do say so myself :)

4th of July...

tad bit late, I know. A few days after the holiday, I tried to upload pics from my camera and they wouldn't budge. Did I mention that I accidentally left my camera, full of nice photos, in my hot car for 2 days? After that, my camera didn't "know" how to connect to my computer. So, I waited a while and now, I have successfully uploaded them onto my computer, phew!

I made some hairbows that were for Marley to wear on this great holiday. As usual I was running late with getting her ready and I wasn't able to get photos of the boys. So, here she is in her outfit and July 4th Bows...

We went near Rawhide with the Siler Family (Heather's clan), opened up our "trunks" and sat in the back of our cars while watching the fabulous display.

I am actually quite proud of myself for this nice picture!




All of our kids were in awe, screaming and jumping as each one burst into the otherwise silent sky.

Photos are starting to turn crazy in some areas...

Heather's youngest (Ethan-20 mos) wasn't so amused. He whimpered, burried his head into Mom's chest and held onto her arms for dear life! Then he dozed off right then and there! I have to say, that was adorable!

So, this was the first year I had a camera with a "fireworks" setting and I think they turned out okay. However, I was disappointed with a few blurry/strange photos. Take a look at these crazy pictures, all on the same setting of my camera as the above pics!

So, all in all, this was a fabulous evening, spent with dear friends. I am so thrilled that I actually got photos of the event this year...unlike last year when my kids fell asleep before we could watch any fireworks at all!

Take a Bow...a Boutique Hair Bow, that is!

So, not only am I constantly fixing Marley's hair, but I am now making hair bows. So far, I have attempted Boutique, Pinwheel and Stacked Bows and Loopy Surround-A Bows.

Today I put Double Lattices on Marley's Hair with an angled off-center part.

Side view of the Lattice.

She was wearing this outfit (which her Nana bought her) which mostly consists of White, Pink and Green. We don't have any matching hair accessories, so I decided to whip up a couple Boutique Bows. It only took me 20 minutes to do 2! Not bad considering I just started 2 days ago!

Modern Style

Close up view of one of the bows I made for her outfit today. I used lime green 7/8" Grosgrain for the main bow and pink with lime green dashes 3/8" grossgrain for the center knot.

Finished Hair 'Do with 2 Boutique Bows to match her outift. Ouila!

Girly Bows

Here is a Stacked Pinwheel Bow. I still need some practice with this style of bow because you are suppose to see the dovetail ribbon ends at the top & bottom. I used light pink 7/8" grosgrain ribbon, white 5/8" grosgrain ribbon and light pink with white dashes 3/8" grosgrain ribbon.

Patriotic Bows Here are 2- 4th of July Loopy Surround-A Bows. I used quite a few ribbons for this bow. These were the very first bows I made and I think they turned out pretty good. There is definitely room for improvement in these bows (it took me 2 hours to complete these), but I think I will get better and quicker with practice.

Close up view of Patriotic Bows.

I am excited to see them in my little girl's hair on the 4th of July!