If you’ve been following here for awhile, you know how important our tradition of birthday breakfasts in bed are, so even though we weren’t home for True’s birthday, we still made it happen. Naturally, the breakfast items aren’t quite pancakes and waffles like normal (and no way would we do room service because it’s typically way overpriced for basic menu items), and when we travel (even for a weekend) we have a cooler of food ready. Thus, her breakfast in bed was yogurt, O’s, and strawberries. We even made sure to have the little fruit characters made for her too! Now it’s harder to come in and surprise her since we are all in a room together, but I’m glad all the girls still find the whole tradition very exciting.

After everyone had their breakfast, we had True open the gifts from her sisters (and one from Auntie Linda and Uncle John). Oh my oh my, Soul and Brave made a bazillion presents and cards to give to her. I only shared with you a small sampling, but they were just busting out with all this thoughtfulness and creativity for their big sister. It made this DIY loving mama proud. By the way, that colorful handwritten birthday note (last photo) was made by True, so that we would have the words to the birthday song to sing for her. Seriously, these girls are so great!

Do you have any birthday traditions you do at your home?

This is the birthday dress I came up with since True was having a Fluttershy My Little Pony party for her 8th birthday (a peek at it here). I bought yellow fabric to make one like I sketched in this post (and actually started cutting and sewing it), but as I was making it, I wasn’t feeling it, so I switched to sewing a simple shift dress from this vintage bed sheet I had. It had yellow and butterflies like Fluttershy, and then I made her a pink bow to go in her hair, and it made the perfect 8th birthday dress for my biggest girl.

She loved it and pretty much had it on all weekend (when she wasn’t wearing her bathing suit). Also, on her birthday wish list were these checkered slip-on Vans, so she was super excited when she opened the box to see she received them. She declared them her new favorite shoes, although this wasn’t her favorite birthday present; the winner present of the weekend was a planner! Yup, my 8 year old girl asked for a planner for her birthday. She’s already started writing in it and marking dates. I think I have a type-A personality on my hands.

And if you want to learn how to sew (or want a few sewing projects to add to your to-do list), don’t forget to pre-order my book, Let’s Sew Together. Sewing can be intimidating, but I’m telling you it isn’t. It’s so much fun and it’s even more fun to do for and with your kiddos!

Well, you already know we’re big Frozen fans over here (as proof here). One day, as I was cleaning their room for like the umpteenth time, I saw this card that True and Brave had made inviting other princesses to a party. I know they made it only for their “pretend” party, but I thought it would be fun to make their little princess party come to life. Seeing their card (from Elsa and Anna) sparked an idea to have a “Snowman Building Party” with shaved ice!

So one afternoon, while they were on spring break, I told them to get dressed up (my MIL had gotten them the Elsa and Anna Frozen costumes from Target in Texas because they were totally sold out in California), and since she got True and Brave a costume, I went to Target to make sure Soul and Glow had a (Cinderella and Belle) costume too. Can you tell they love it?! And their crowns have become a normal accessory that they, oh you know, wear to the grocery store. HA! Soul has been saying she wants a princess party for her 5th birthday, so I’m hoping she’s cool if we re-use this for that occasion (and they also wore it when Brave performed “Let It Go”). We didn’t have Elsa and Anna crowns, so I created this template, cut it out of gold poster board, added elastic to the back, glued on a jewel, and they were set to go.

I got some simple streamers that were Frozen-esque, and draped them over a tension rod between our arches (see arch here), I covered their play table in a striped, metallic gift wrapping paper, and then I laid out all the snowman building party fixings. I didn’t tell the girls what we were going to do, and they were so curious and watched me lay all these things out. I made sure to remind them all to wash their hands before the party started, and once they sat down, saw the ice shaver and ice, they figured it out… they were going to build a snowman!

We all love Olaf, he’s my favorite character in the movie and I totally crack up when he gets grabbed by the ice monster and says, “All good thing, all good things.” I thought since True and Brave had made the invitation and signed it “Elsa and Anna,” well, we couldn’t leave Olaf out now, could we?! So having princess sisters and their princess friends build a snowman to bring our version of Olaf come to life would be something they would totally have fun with!

Build Your Own Snowman
best to use an ice shaver (this one should do the job), but putting ice in a vita-mix works too (the kids plowed through the snow so fast, that we used both methods to get shaved ice)

Ingredients:
Shaved ice
Pretzel sticks (for arms and hair)
Sugar candy eyes (from Target in the baking section)
Sour Patch Kids (for the nose)
Chocolate chips (for the buttons)

Tips for building your snowman:
You’ll want to build your snowman in a bowl, so you don’t have water spilling out as it melts. Build the bottom of the snowman first, then add the head on top, and let the kids decorate. We used a small spoon to help carve into the shaved ice to insert the different parts of the snowman.

They had such a fun afternoon of Olaf building and shaved iced sundaes. True said, “Mom, it felt like we were in the North Mountain.” So I guess if it felt like we were really there, then it was a job well done. We were all laughing at how silly our Olaf turned out, and then he kept melting away as they were indulging in their own shaved ice sundaes. Eventually, True plopped Olaf’s head into her bowl and ate him. She kept saying, “I’m eating Olaf!” and the other girls thought that was so hilarious! And of course, throughout their mini party, they kept singing, “Do you want to build a snowman?…”

Shaved Ice Sundaes
inspired by Taiwanese shaved ice

Ingredients:
Shaved ice
Condensed milk (I put ours in a dispenser bottle)
Fresh fruit (we used berries, strawberries and peaches, but bananas and mangos are also yummy)

Directions:
Place your shaved ice in a bowl, put the fruit on top, and then generously drizzle condensed milk all over.

Shaved ice sundaes are so refreshing and simple to make. The girls ate bowls full that afternoon, which overflowed into evening — all they wanted for dinner was pretzels, and then we called it a night. We cleaned up the messes, bid the princesses farewell, and it was off to bed they go. “In summer” (sang Olaf style), we are definitely going to have another snowman and shaved ice party. Who wants to come this time?

Download the crown template…
Cut out on poster board, punch holes, add elastic, glue on a jewel, and you’re set!

This post is sponsored by Target. More Princesses, More Sparkle: Blur the lines of fantasy and reality with your favorite Disney princesses at Target. Thank you for the time you take to visit this space!

Totally late seeing how True turns 8 at the end of this week, but this was her 7th birthday and photographed by my brother-in-law, Christian. True wanted a mermaid & under the sea party, so this is what we came up with. We took her to the aquarium on her actual birthday, but part of her requests was to have a party, so we threw that on the weekend after her birthday. It was a very bright and warm spring day, we had her friends over, and had lots of fun partying with the birthday girl.

She wanted to do some crafts, so we made some masks…

We have this kid food fun recipe book and so she planned out the menu. We served squid dogs, which are just hotdogs that are boiled with spaghetti speared through it, and we had clam burgers, which is mini burger patty put into a half opened bread roll…

We made a mermaid cut out for all the party guests, so they could take an instagram picture of themselves home…

And the birthday girl requested musical chairs…

Of course, we opened presents, and she got showered with tons of My Little Pony things…

We ended the party with a dance party and Taylor Swift…

This year will be different, since as you know from this post, she’s requesting a My Little Pony party at a hotel. I thought that was going to be easier because then I wouldn’t have to worry about a lot of people, but since she’s requesting all the sisters have home-sewn pony costumes, I’ve got my work cut of for me. We really enjoy indulging them (as long as their requests are reasonable) for their birthdays. It is so worth it to see them so excited and happy!

We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. We gave the girls a community Easter present (some card games, fun glasses, and things for drawing), we didn’t get to do our own egg hunt, but they got to do one at our church gathering and at Grammy and Grumpy’s house, and of course we had a good time worshipping and being reminded why we celebrate Easter with our church family. We got to spent time with our church family, Ben’s family, and my family, so we were totally happy campers as we bustled from one place to the next.

I know I get lost often and my eyes aren’t always fixed on the prize of Christ, but all my shortcomings just remind me why I need Christ so much more. I’m never going to be a perfect mom, there’s honestly no such thing. I fall short all the time and I make so many mistakes, and I’m thankful for their constant love and forgiveness, but more importantly, I’m thankful for the forgiveness that was given to me because of the cross.

on all the ladies: dresses, vintage (mine and true’s are from ms. tips).

This is it… Let’s Sew Together!!! This is my book! Book, meet all my dear readers, and dear readers, meet my book!

It’s all so strange, so nerve-wracking, but also super exciting! Let’s Sew Together officially goes on sale on May 20th, but if you pre-order it now (from the retailer of your choice, see my sidebar for suggestions!) before the official release, you will receive a special digital project booklet. Once you order it, just forward your receipt (attach the receipt or a screenshot) to [email protected]. There are a ton of projects in the book, and I made so many, that we had to overflow some into this special pack. I was bummed when because of page count and the sheer amount of good stuff we put in the book, we had to take some things out, but I’m glad you can still get it this way. It’s a sweet little pack (with 6 projects) and you’ll love them for sure!

You can see a quick flip through of the book, but it doesn’t even show all the projects. The focus is on sewing and teaching you the basics, and how to incorporate kids into it. Making and creating with your kids is really something special. It’s not always about the project, but more so about being together. There are also non-sewing projects and activities, as well as a list of books to read along with almost every project. Sort of like the “Read & Make” series I do here on the blog. And, don’t worry, there are definitely boy friendly projects in here too. I borrowed my friends’ son and he was my faux-son for the book.

I know many of you in the past have wanted me to make a pattern for my giant dollhouse pillow, or my world map quilt, and some of my softies. Well, these things are in the book (you can learn how make your own giant dollhouse pillow and you own world map quilt!), plus a whole lot of other projects I’ve never shared on the blog.  Some of you might have been reading from back in the day when I used to make and sell my wool felt crowns, and you can get a pattern and how-to for those too, but it’s in the special pack if you pre-order the book.

One of the most special things about the book, is that besides True and Brave working on the projects (we did this together after all), their illustrations are littered throughout the book. My biggest gals are published illustrators! I think they are already starting off with an impressive resume. Their names are even listed in the ISBN mumbo jumbo stuff at the beginning, and they were so excited to see that. This moment I shared on instagram was super special because this was them looking at their hard work in the book for the very first time.

There’s so much and I can’t wait to keep sharing more about this whole book thing. It’s so surreal and to have the people over at Random House (Potter Craft) behind me is truly a dream! There will be more posts about the process and how balancing (and unbalancing) in our home took place during the whole thing. I’m so excited about it and I hope you guys are too! So if you want to get more up close and personal with my book, you can pre-order it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, or Indiebound. You should get it on or around May 20th, just in time for filling up those summer days. Come on guys, let’s sew together!!!

RULES
To receive an exclusive .pdf with a previously unavailable Rubyellen Bratcher sewing pattern please forward preorder confirmation to [email protected]

Offer good through 11:59pm EST on Monday, May 19, 2014.

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