Playing catch up

Here is Mia with her prizes for the coloring contest: a big cookie and a strawberry Italian soda. She was in such a great mood that she even gave Mason her cookie and shared her soda.

I tried to post the link to the local paper with the picture of the kids but alas I've come up empty.
We went up to Manistee and spent the 4th with most of Mike's family. It was a nice time filled with lots of beach time, pool time and good food. Every year we try to get a pic of all the cousins together so here is one.

Mike's sisters and us took turns with the meals so his mom could relax. It was our attempt to get her out of the kitchen and hang out. If we got her out of the kitchen then she started cleaning. It's hard to break out of set habits. Fortunately or unfortunately....cooking and cleaning is something that's very easy for me to walk away from.

While Mia and Bailey are like "Ebony and Ivory". When I look family pics that include me...I'm like the Asian exchange student in the class photo of the yearbook and I hear that song from Sesame Street running through my head...One of these things is not like the others...... I don't think Mia looks as Asian as I do but everyone always tells me she is my "mini me". I'm pretty smitten with her so I guess I'll take that as a compliment and let her deal with it when she's older.

Where are the videos?

Posted a couple of things from Youtube and then realizing they're not showing up on the blog. What? I've done it before......

Anyway, I've been super busy running the kids around. This morning I'm waiting for the water heater guy so who knows how much time that's going to eat up. I'll post if I get more time.

The "other" VBS

It's no secret that was a little disappointed with how VBS was run this year at my church. This was Mia's 2nd year at the "other" church's VBS. The other church is CRC and while some people may be offended that a Catholic family sends their child to a CRC church, I have no problem with it. This VBS is so organized and the music is phenomenal. They build their own set, have their own band, their own singers and the Pastor leads it all. Here's a view of what I see when I pick her up.

I'm still blown away by the organization... you get a newsletter at the end of every day, there are pictures added every day to their site and of course a DVD to purchase. There's pretty much been 600 kids every day.

Lot's of stuff to post through the week as usual but too lazy and no pictures. I keep saying I'll post that later and then don't.

Mia's Mini Me

OK, didn't add the bow to the pettiskirt because I discovered I suck at making big bows. I thought since I can make hairbows just tying a bow for a skirt will be easy. Not! I did however make a pettiskirt for her doll with the left over scraps. It's kind of short and I was NOT going to attempt that last ruffle in mini size. Mia was thrilled with her little look alike. When I posed the question "where will Mia where this?" Apparently the answer was: to walk to Walgreens pushing her doll in a stroller wearing the same skirt. She even picked out the bowflops I made to finish off her outfit. Aren't we fancy. I keep mulling over making another one and doing the double ruffle, changing up the color and trying to sell them. I'm afraid I'd just be wasting a lot of time though.

I got a phone call this afternoon from the newspaper telling me Mia won 3rd place for a coloring contest. We need to go to the Alpenrose tomorrow at 2pm so she can get her picture taken for the paper and get a prize. I'm guessing that not a lot of kids entered. Her coloring started off good but then there was a lot of black and scribbling. When she brought it to me to send in I said: Mia what's this? It looks good here but this just looks like scribble. Mia: Yeah, well I had to hurry to finish it up so I could be done with it. So I sent it off anyway. Funny!

Also to add to the fun of my life I discovered that Mia left the freezer door ajar last night when she got her dessert out. I discovered this around noon today. All the ice cream, Popsicles, etc. are garbage and some of my meat thawed. Guess, I have a lot of cooking to do tomorrow.

My go at the Pettiskirt

I saw some pettiskirts at a local upscale children's store and noticed they sell for $80. The matching tank top was another $80. I thought maybe I can make one so I found some free instructions on Ehow. I did change them a little bit and the skirt itself is "easy peasy". I don't have a ruffler foot for my sewing machine so I gathered by hand and doing that last ruffle was a b****! You can see what the boutique petti's look like here. For some reason I couldn't get that good of a picture. I still need to add the ribbon though so I'll try taking another pic of the finished product. All in all I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. If I do another one I think I'll do the last ruffle in a contrasting color to give it more pop. Now....where is Mia supposed to where this?

Smile!

Haven't posted forever. I seem to get in a pattern of posting every day and then not for weeks. It's not like I don't have stuff going on... visit to my parents, Mike's 40th birthday, visit to the doctor (Mia), visit to Mike's parents....plus the usual chaos that is my life. I like to have pictures when I post so if I think of what I want to post and don't have a picture or just was to busy to upload from my camera... I don't. The latter is usually the problem.

A few days ago I got a letter from the kid's modeling agency basically informing me they are going away from the composite "head book" and going to digital with the website. I didn't get their pictures done last year thinking I was going to just get out of it. They don't get that much work. In yesterday's newspaper there was a big article about another local girl that models with the same agency. So out of the blue about five minutes ago I decide to go to the website to see if they've put any of the models pictures there and if so to see what they look like.
There's Mia on the homepage. Shock! I don't think it was her most recent modeling picture either. Now do I keep them in or not?