This was a nice holiday weekend. On Saturday I got to hang out all by myself with my friend Marisa and her little squirt Avi. It was a nice visit and she gave me a huge box of fabric and a few vintage dresses. Only one of the dresses fit me, which was kind of disappointing. Then again, I was only interested in one of the three that didn't fit me so I guess that's ok. I posted over half of the fabric and the dresses on my local freecycle and they had a ton of answers. It was hard to choose whom the dresses went to. Although they were old, and one needed slight repair, they were still beautiful dresses that were fit to be worn and I was not going to give them to people wanting them for dress up. Grrrr.......... If they were beyond repair, large stains, holes, etc. it would have been a different matter. The dress I kept was a black with large pink and blue butterflies on it and the bodice is a wrap around style. The woman that made it did a beautiful job and it fits me perfectly. It's a bit long though, so I may take it up a bit. Carey doesn't particularly care for it though. :(

This is my beautiful vintage dress. It looks much better on. LOL. It makes me think of spring which is definitely on her way! I counted 18 crocuses making their appearance today! And, we are starting to experience the typical N. Idaho spring. Gorgeous and sunny one day (it was actually almost 60) and the next day nasty and snowing. :D

Sunday wasn't the best I ever had. Carey had really sharp pains in his lower abdomen and he was worried that he was getting a hernia because of all the coughing he's been doing. He wound up going home early during Church. I had to leave the sanctuary because Kitty was being fussy. Sigh.... it was a topic that I had been looking forward to, too. Ah, well. I did get the time to talk to the girls in the nursery and asked them to dress up as fairies for Deedee's party and help out. They're both really excited about it. They just like Deedee period, so anything to do with her they enjoy. Unfortunately, it was a pain getting four uncooperative children into the van. I had forgotten my sling at home, so my usual free arm was taken up with Kitty. The boys refused to come with me so I had to load the girls into the van first and then chase the boys down. They had climbed to the top of the play equipment. I was able to convince James to come down the slide and he went happily off to the van but I had to pull Charles down. And, of course, as soon as I did, he started screeching that he wanted to go down the slide and he didn't want to go with to the car.

I dropped the boys off at home, as well as a sleeping Kitty, and took Deedee shopping for her party. I didn't find anything that I was looking for so I'll have to order some of it offline, make the rest and hope for the best. I had a blast with her at Goodwill. LOL. She discovered the children's shoes and had to try most of them on. Off came the boots, and one of her boots I found stashed in the toys. She did find two nice pairs that fit her. Both are slightly big on her, which is good because they'll last longer. And one has a velcro "buckle" so she can put them on by herself. I also got a pair for Charles but I misjudged the size and they fit James better. I even bought a little pair of black boots for Kitty. They look adorable on her. My two favorite purchases were one of those all in one wooden game sets and a 100% wool sweater. The game set wound up missing two chess pieces, but I can't complain too much; I only paid $2 for it. As for the sweater, I'm not sure why I bought it. I mean, it's absolutely gorgeous and it had been hand knit in Nepal. There is no way I could have knit this sweater myself for only $9. My problem is that I don't know what to do with it. Carey refuses to wear sweaters of any sort. And I'm swimming in it; it's a men's XL. I don't know. Maybe it will fit my father. Here are a couple of pics of Carey and the boys playing checkers on the new game set.

After the kids were in bed, Carey and I shared half a cheesecake and played The Order of the Stick again. This one went a lot smoother because we (or should I say I) understood it a lot better and we didn't have to look at the rules as much. This game really is a lot of fun and I"m glad that I bought it for him.

Today we actually got quite a bit done. My knitting group was cancelled today because everyone was sick. :( Ah, well. That just gave me the extra time to get stuff done. Carey and I hooked up the bike trailer to my bike and we both practiced riding around with it. He complained about it a little saying it was akward, etc. until I reminded he was riding my bike and that it was a lot smaller then his. When I went to put it away, I realized there wasn't any room for it so we did a bit of spring cleaning on our little plot. All trash and leaves that had accumulated were swept out and thrown away, everything was rearranged to fit better and we actually got rid of quite a bit. Wow, I can't believe I said that. But, everything fits nicely now and it's all even covered with tarps. Carey and I were also supposed to straighten up and clean the office but only about half of that got done. Still, it's all straightened up and I can actually get to my sewing machine now. Yay. So maybe I'll get those little leather shoes sewn for Kitty, and my nephew Jordan this week. Or at least get them started. The kids messed up. They were little boogers and wouldn't go to bed. They also destroyed their room again. :( Carey reached the final straw and took the bulbe from their light. They were asleep in less then 20 minutes once they longer had a way to get up and play. James has a little flashlight but he wouldn't share it and kept it under his blanket.

I had fun tonight. It was time to get started on Deedee's party invitations. There were only two little punch out invites that came in her little tea fairy party book, so I scanned them in and then printed out the number I needed. This way, I'll have them to use again as I'm sure that the girls will be having more fairy tea parties. They look really cool. I got them printed out, and filled in tonight. Since they're double sided, I had to scan in both sides, and then print one invite to a page. I'll have to cut them out and glue them together tomorrow. And I really had fin with the envelopes. Since these weren't store bought, of course they didn't come with any so I made my own. Sorta. :D I had a brand new package of thank you cards and I snagged the envelopes from that. They were the perfect size and number. I then crumpled them up, tore the edges along the glue strip on the flap, dunked them in tea and laid them out to dry on the lowest setting in the oven. If you haven't guessed it yet, I did a fake parchment job on them and they look neat. If they're too faded tomorrow after they've dried, I'll do it again to get them a bit darker. Since there isn't any glue on them anymore, I use a sticker to hold it closed. I'll have to look for some fairy or flower stickers. Here's one of the trays of envelopes before it went into the oven. They're looking good so far.