Seven Quick Takes -- Avi Edition

~1~

 I am in complete shock that an ENTIRE YEAR has passed since Avila was born.  Look at that sweet smooshy face!  Where did it go??

~2~

 She is growing and changing at lightening speed, but she is still one of her daddy's favorite nap partners!

~3~

 And is there anything better that sisters??  Grace was so excited to celebrate Avila's big day.  She baked and decorated a beautiful cake for her.  And she made her a sweet little clothespin doll and wrapped it up for her.  Big sisters caring for little sisters make this mama happy!

 ~3~

               

It wouldn't be a first birthday without a naked baby eating chocolate cake!  She loved it!

~4~

 Presents from her ever crafty and thoughtful Nana!!  (Can you see the card in that second picture? Anja is a genius!)  There were other gifts, too, but these are the only ones that jumped in front of the camera!

~5~

It was great to celebrate our Avi!  As the fifth child, she probably doesn't get the undivided attention that the others get -- at least not of the gentle variety.  Does getting knocked down by a reckless older brother count?  I don't really think so!  Also, as the fifth child, she is the literal embodiment of why it is so great to be Catholic, so great to go against the secular grain, and so great to allow God to control our lives.  So, hooray for Avila!  We are so glad she is here!

~6~

Seven is starting to feel like a really ginormous number!  Sheesh.

~7~

Happy Birthday to our sweet, messy, curious, ornery little monkey!  (Did I mention she can climb anything??  Like the backs of chairs.  Yikes.  I am to terrified in the moment to take pictures, so you'll just have to use your imagination!)

Visit Jen for more Quick Takes!

Campfire Mass

Tomorrow night, Christopher's scout group is having a campout at my parents cottage.  Since the campout if from Saturday to Sunday, we have arranged for Father Jeff to come say Mass for the boys.  I was explaining this to PeterXavier, who at first was horrified at the notion of having Mass somewhere without a steeple!

And then he horrified me when he proposed we roast marshmallows during Mass!

Oh sweet little boys!

It's a Tough Job, But Somebody Has To Do It!

These cuties made it down the aisle and immediately fell asleep!

Yarn Along --Too Much Yarn Edition

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

This past Saturday, my sister and I packed her car full of small girls and headed to Southern Indiana for their annual Fiber Fest.  Too Fun!!  And now, poor me, I am drowning in beautiful yarn!

I was able to get a ton of beautiful blue-grey hand-dyed wool for Andrew's sweater.  And Annie and I got a hank of nubby cotton to try our hand at dyeing.  I am so excited to try.  I think we will use the instructions Elizabeth gave here.

The Monday after Fiber Fest, I found the hand-dyed wool I had scored through a Heartsy deal in my mailbox!  It is a fun "spearmint" hank of 80/20 merino/bamboo blend.  It's fate is yet undecided, but it will be fun to use!

 I haven't been reading OR knitting much lately.  I am still enjoying flipping through "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and have read a few of the short stories in Daphne du Maurier's "Don't Look Now".  But with this intsense heat, we have just been hanging out at the pool, mostly!

And, I have the beautiful deep earthy skein of wool from Yarnology.  What will it become??  Maybe a small sweater for Avila?  Any suggestions for small, one skein sweaters?

(Visit Ginny for more yarn alongs!)

Packing up Sanity

 As I have mentioned, this past week my brother in law was married.  We packed the kids for an eight hour road trip to join the festivities.  Andrew was his Best Man and the kids all had various parts as well.  As the mama, I had the daunting task of getting every little detail and item safely to Minnesota and then to Wisconsin.  Any mother can imagine what this entailed!

Sometime back, I read about a packing tactic, which I chose to impliment for this trip.  Oh. my . word.  I will never pack another way again!  Here's what I did.

On paper, I divided out entire trip into events, for example "Friday Play" or "Friday Rehersal".  Many days had multiple events and therefore required multiple outfits.  (Because you can't really have a three year old wear her flowergirl dress to lunch four hours before the wedding, right!?) 

I purchased a package of gallon sized ziplock bag and with a Sharpie, I labeled one bag, per child, with each of my plotted "events."  So an example would be "Christopher, Friday Play" (actually, I just put a 'C' or 'G' instead of the whole name).  Then I put in EVERY SINGLE ITEM that went to that outfit.  Going with our example, into the "C Friday Play" bag, I put shorts, a t-shirt, socks, and underwear.  Somedays, the girls got hairbows or the boys got ties.  Whatever the event, everything was right there in the proper bag.  No more searching for last minute belts and matching socks!

This also made it a snap to match the kids on any given day.  Most days the kids had matching or coordinating outfits, so we always looked nice, even if we were just hanging out for the morning. Each morning, I handed each child his respective bag, along with their "PJ" bag.  The children dressed and replaced their pajamas in the "PJ" bag to be ready for the evening.

This packing plan drastically reduced the frenzy that generally accompanies travel and major events!  My only regret is that I haven't yet figured out a way to impliment this in our every day at-home life!

(This post has been updated and linked at We Are THAT Family - Works for Me Wednesday)

Yarn Along - Gifting Edition

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

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This weekend, after the wedding festivities, the brides parents generously let us stay at their Farm House in rural Wisconsin.  The home and grounds were beautiful and we all had a great time.  I wanted to leave a token of our gratitude behind.

I was able to quickly knit up two coffee cozies, using a pattern developed by my sister.  Slipped over an empty (clean and unused!) to-go cup, it presents very nicely as a hostess gift.  I added a couple Starbucks gift cards, attached to the lids with bits of yarn.

These gifts will be repeated shortly as end-of-the-year gifts for Christopher's teachers at school!

And what am I reading??  Andrew purchased "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" for me when we visited a yarn store over the weekend.  I am enjoying the book and drooling over the patterns!  He gift came with a caveat, though -- he had seen a sweater in the store that he asked me to knit for him.  The pattern is in this book!  I told him that I am happy to knit him a sweater, provided he not expect to wear it before 2015.

A Wedding Road Trip

It will take more than one post to cover the big weekend we just had!  We headed to Minnesota this past weekend to celebrate Paul and Cathy's wedding.  It was a beautiful, funfilled weekend!

My sister-in-law had my camera most of the time so I have many wonderful pictures!

The Beautiful Bride and Groom

Avila is completely in love with her Uncle Joseph.  Maybe because they share a name?  I don't know, but she LOVES him!!

The hipest ringbearer around.  The shades were his gift from Paul and Cathy -- perfect!  We thought he might wear them down the aisle, but luckily he didn't.

Brothers

Is there anything more beautiful to a little girl than a bride?  The girls loved chatting with Cathy before the wedding.