Sickies, the beach, awards, finished quilts

 Chloe spent the entire weekend, nights and days included, laying around feverish and horribly uncomfortable. And by lying around I mean in me and Bill's arms. We each took a night and then last night just had her sleep with us. I planned to take her in this morning but my pediatrician is closed for Memorial Day. Thank heavens her fever finally let go a few hours ago and she's acting much more normal. 

In the few hours on Saturday that Chloe wasn't horribly sick we ran over to Y Beach at the lake and had a lovely afternoon swimming. The water is the perfect temperature and it was warm but off and on cloudy. Perfect weather for an afternoon at the lake. 

  I made the broken herringbone quilt pattern and loved it so much, particularly the dark blue square, that I started a topper for my piano with the scraps. I used up the fabric so I need to go get a few more fat quarters to finish, but it's quite striking. I've wanted a cover to protect that gorgeous wood for a year but couldn't find anything available ready made. This is a fun little project to complete it.

  I finished this quilt top. It didn't have the border or corners on before. It's as big as the top of my king-sized bed so I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but I love how bright and cheery it is.

 Spencer had his baseball awards banquet at a local pizza place. It was fun. Chloe immediately broke his trophy about two minutes later, so now it has been glued and placed somewhere she can't reach it.

 Spencer had several awards ceremonies this week. I missed writing one of them on my calendar and wasn't there to see him get five different awards! Talk about parental guilt! I wish I had been there to cheer for him.

Chloe discovered corn on the cob this week. She's a huge fan.

 Aaron uses the fan to cool his off. He's always coming up with smart ideas like that.

 Another shot at one of Spencer's award ceremonies.

 I ran out of the dark gray and picked a light gray for the finishing border. I don't love it, but I don't hate it, and I love that it's done! Haha!

Lots of endings this week

 The six quilts that kept me sane the last two months.

 New chairs for the kids.

 T-ball banquet. She had the best time playing this spring.

 New clothes from Grandma

 Last t-ball game in the pouring rain.

Photos and captions

 He's reading Harry Potter. He's finishing up book two. I'm not convinced he's reading every page, but he's happily whiling away hours and it makes my heart flutter. Creating lifelong readers is one of my favorite parts of this stage of parenting.

 Finished this quilt top aside from the outside border. I need more white for that. This was easy but fun to do create the pattern. Bill helped me with the fabric placement. And so rewarding as the lines turned out straight. You can't see that until it's all sewn together so there's a good bit of faith involved, hoping this very geometric design won't look all soft cornered and skewed. But it worked out nearly perfect.

 This is the month of movies in the park and the kids are loving it. This week was Trolls. We've heard a lot Trolls songs floating around the house and Trolls jokes.

 Illicit stealing of big sister's jewelry while she was at school. 😁

 And the big news is Chloe is potty training. I never would have attempted it this young except Aaron potty trained himself at barely two. She's showing all the signs, so we're doing it and it's going very well. She loves her underwear and doesn't like it wet. Perfect combination. And she takes her diaper off on her own, wet or poopy, so it's kind of a necessity. Bill walked in on a happily asleep bummed baby naked this morning, nighttime diaper discarded. Her bed was damp but not too bad. I guess we're upping the stakes to no diapers at night too. Wheee! Hopefully next week I'll have excellent news to report.

 I've made 20 of these pinwheels for Activity Days Recognition Night this week along with a number of other things. It's going to be a fun night.

Teacher Appreciation gifts. I used some leftovers from the above pinwheels to make little ones for these plants and sent along some tissue as well for their classrooms. It was an easy gift!

Just another normal, good week

The three younger kids have taken to going outside together and adventuring in our yard. It's pretty stinking cute to watch Chloe run along with the bigger kids. 

 I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own clothes for ages but I don't have the time, money for fabric, or for patterns just now. However, I did have a couple yards of fabric I bought last year that I've been trying to figure out what to use them for. Only a yard of each, so I was pretty limited what I could do. I have a Lularoe maxi skirt that I really love and on Saturday it got super warm and I made an instant decision to try my hand at using that as a pattern to make a couple more short ones. I brushed off my serger, which hasn't seen action for like a year. And I made two yoga band skirts that completely and totally worked out perfectly. I'm SO excited about it. They're comfy and will work great for this summer. Choosing fabric seems to be the hardest part of this all, but hopefully I'll be able to start doing more of this because it's very satisfying!

 Bill printed a holder for our electric toothbrush heads on his 3D printer. It is perfect! And I decided if I wasn't an adult already I certainly am now as I revel in the excitement of no more heads floating around my bathroom. LOL!

 Chloe is all about putting her hands in her pockets. Another cute thing she does.

 I made another cute thing! This one is an invitation for our activity day girls recognition night and it totally worked out and the ones the girls made at our last activity turned out great too. It was fun!

 Chloe loves lego storybuilders at the library every week. She's a big fan of the duplos, particularly the animals.

Everyday happenings

I can't think of anything particularly memorable about this last week. Just the normal stuff. I snapped a shot this morning of Chloe in Genevieve's hand me down nightgown. She loves it. 

 The kids setup a bed on the table the other day while I was still transcribing. I overheard Aaron tell Chloe after a few minutes that they should go get on his bed because the table wasn't comfy. Made me laugh!

 Chloe loves being big enough to push these shopping carts now.

 A square for one of three quilts I'm working on. This is the only square so far for that quilt.

 There was a rainy day and Aaron involved in this. That's all that really needs to be said. Chloe always ends up covered in mud.

 Her black eye is coming along nicely. It's still there nine days later. Those things take forever to heal!

Bits and pieces of this week

Chloe learned to open her bedroom door this week. So yesterday when she finished her nap she just came out and hopped up in my lap. Score! One more thing she can do. Obviously that also means some amusing conversations with her about how no, she can't come out of her room during nap time, but hey, I like the progress.

 Bill made alfajores. They were delightful.

 Got a new duvet. It's comfy and squishy and cuddly and wonderful.

 Took a little hike with a friend this week on a warm day. Chloe was all over that. She loves her sunglasses and it makes me smile every single time she puts them on.

 Spencer and Genevieve performed in their school talent show Friday night with each of their classes. I wasn't at a good angle, so I think I can see Spencer's knee in this picture, but he was there and was so excited to perform.

 I told Chloe soon she'd be able to wear her own underpants, that being her favorite word. She first ran and got some of Genevieve's, then found some of her bloomers and put them on instead.

 This girl is so on the edge of being ready to potty train. I'm so not. When she can string more than two words together, sure. But she's so observant of her older siblings. She sat on the toilet one day while I was getting ready and grabbed some toilet paper and proceeded to "wipe" her bum. Whoa girl. Slow down! I want to be done with diapers too, but give it a few more months.

 We moved onto her riding on the outside of the cart as well. Her face is no indication of how much she loves this.

 These school pictures made me laugh so hard. Spencer lost his neck somewhere in his photo and apparently they didn't tell Genevieve to smile. 😁 There was another shot for each of them that was better, and I'm not buying them anyway, but I do love a good terrible school photo.

Lots of fun this week

This has been a fun week. T-ball and baseball are going great. The kids are having a really good time. We went to a couple birthday parties this weekend. The weather is warming up, though it's back in the 40s today, so that's weird, but we're getting outside a lot and that's lovely. Good times.

I took Genevieve to get a new pair of church shoes this weekend and as soon as she saw some she decided nothing but heels would do for her. This girl of mine is so stylin'. She's going to keep me on my toes. Look how cute she dresses? :) 

 And these are the beauties she picked out. She wore them all weekend and told us she feels all grown up in them. Oh my goodness. She's five going on 17!

 We did a girl's day while the boys went to a birthday party at a fun park in Greenville. We got haircuts and bought the shoes and went to a couple other stores. Both girls completely crashed in the car as soon as we were done with the haircuts.

 It's really sunny at baseball these days, so Chloe was all over wearing the minions hat while her siblings had their team hats.

 Spencer's team.

 Genevieve's team

I've waited for a year or two longer to start activities than I might have, but this year is just perfect. Baseball and t-ball is so fun. We're doing swim lessons in June and I'm looking around for what to do next. It's so nice to have four mobile children. Chloe gets more capable every day. She's a rock star. Not gonna lie, it's kind of expensive to do activities for all four, so I have to plan, but turns out it doesn't bother me. It's awesome to see them loving the new experiences. I have a feeling the next decade is going to be full of a lot of sports and dance and gymnastics and on and on. Good times!