Shh… Quiet

I have been working on a quiet book for Lincoln for a few months now. After several missed deadlines and delays I have finally reached a good stopping point. I think I will probably add some more pages in the future, once I can look at a piece of felt again (I am missing the standard lace the football page after all), but for now I am calling it a day. I hand-stitched everything but the cover (similar to how I did my Advent Calendar), so that drew the process out a bit, but I think the results were worth it.

I had a hard time finding a tutorial for the cover, so I sort of had to make it up as I went along. I made some mistakes, but that can’t be helped.

I got the idea for this house page from Leafy Treetop Spot. There are pictures of Jonathan and I behind each of the shutters and one of Lincoln behind the door.

                                                                                         

Homemade by Jill included a rocket page in her book, but I decided to change Lincoln’s to an airplane since they are still his favorite thing (his most recent obsession is watching air shows on YouTube, but I digress). The opposite page is just shape matching with Velcro.

Two more pages from Homemade by Jill. I still need to make a few more finger puppets, but you get the idea. Lincoln can also send and receive letters in his personalized mailbox.

This alligator page is probably my favorite in the whole book. The original idea came from this blog, but I expanded and fancied it up a bit. We took the book with us to Church for the first time last week and I put some Reese’s Pieces in the alligator’s mouth. Lincoln was pretty pleased. The cars opposite just snap on and off.

This page is probably my second favorite. It took forever to make because stitching that entire road on was quite the undertaking. 

This is just a simple counting page with beads. The idea came from this blog.

I decided to put a pocket on the back cover in case pieces need to get gathered quickly or I’m feeling too lazy to put them all in the right places.

There you have it. Lincoln’s quiet book. We took it for a test drive at Church last week and, I must say, it was very successful at getting him to stay on our laps, but not as successful at keeping him quiet. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

Easter Festivities

Now that Lincoln is two he is really starting to get holidays. This is what I have been waiting for. There is nothing better then seeing his eyes shining with excitement and watching him dart around as he yells, “Eggs! Eggs!!” I didn’t get very many good pictures of him looking for eggs in the morning because the light was bad and I was filming it, but that’s okay.

                                                              

Lincoln had a few chances to practice looking for eggs before the Easter Bunny came, though, so he was thoroughly prepared. A few weeks before Easter someone came and “egged” our house and we had a ton of fun searching for all the eggs around our door (and eating the candy inside.)

                                                                                     

                                                         

And we had a little, last minute Easter egg hunt with some friends from Church last week. The kids might have been a little disappointed when they realized most of the eggs has raisins in them, but they still had fun finding the eggs and doing a bunny ear craft.

                                   

Now I just need to hit the stores and round up all the clearance Starburst jellybeans before they’re gone and my Easter will be complete!

Croquembouche

We had our annual Branch Talent Show last night and this year I decided to contribute a Croquembouche.

cro·quem·bouche

[kroh-kuhm-boosh; Fr. kraw-kahn-boosh]

     –noun, plural -bouches [-boo-shiz; Fr. -boosh] Show IPA. French Cookery .

     a pyramid of bite-size cream puffs coated and held in place with caramelized sugar.

This was my first time attempting a Croquembouche, although I have made cream puffs before, but I was pretty pleased with the result. Mine wasn’t the towering cone I was envisioning, but it didn’t fall over… and for a Branch Talent Show I think that’s enough.

Sunshine and Mice

We celebrated Spring this week by escaping Ithaca’s frigid temperatures for the much more pleasant weather in Orlando, Florida. We travelled with our friends, the MacLennans, which really made the trip awesome!

Once upon a time I spent about 9 months working at Walt Disney World, and this trip, seven years later, was the first time I have been back. Luckily, I still have some friends down there, so it was nice to spend a little time with them and show Jonathan and Lincoln around my old stomping grounds (our hotel was even right next to my old apartment complex!)

After a brief stop into Epcot (Lincoln wasn’t impressed), we spent most of our first day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This is the park where I worked, so I was especially anxious to visit it. There were still a few people I recognized working in the stroller area, which surprised me. Lincoln especially liked the Finding Nemo show (maybe we should pick up that movie because he sat perfectly still on Jonathan’s lap the entire time), the petting zoo, and the Safari.

                                                                          

I had plans that evening to have dinner with my good friends Christine and Lisa. It was so fun getting to catch up! A lot can happen in seven years and one dinner wasn’t enough to cover it all. I wish we’d had a few more days to spend down there!

                                                                                      

After dinner we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to meet back up with the MacLennans and watch the fireworks. They were just as good as I remember.

We decided to split the next day between Hollywood Studios (but I still call it MGM) and Magic Kingdom. Looking back, I wish we’d just gone to the Magic Kingdom, but we had a lot of fun at both. Lisa had warned me that there was a very popular new attraction at the Studios called Toy Story Midway Mania, so we headed there first. I can see why it’s so popular, it was so fun Lincoln didn’t even mind waiting in line. (Though, as you can see, he wasn’t quite ready to go until he finished off his morning cup of coffee milk.)

                                                                                          

Next we headed to the animation section of the park were we watched a little show about Disney animation and then went and looked at some examples. While we were wandering, Sorcerer Mickey walked by, so we hopped in line to meet him. Lisa bought Lincoln a little Sorcerer Mickey doll that he had immediately become attached to, so we thought this would be a great photo op. While we were waiting in line Lincoln seemed so excited to see Mickey, but when our turn came he got pretty scared, which we were expecting. It’s okay, I still like the photo.

                                                                     

The last thing we did at the Studios was watch a Beauty and the Beast show. Since Lincoln had liked Nemo so much, we thought he might enjoy this one too. He did, but we didn’t. It is just not well done. (Lincoln took the picture of Jonathan and the sandwich.)

                                                                                  

Finally we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Our first stop was, of course, to buy Lincoln and Graham their mouse ears. Unfortunately there was a long wait to get them embroidered so his name is not on the back. I am bummed, but it will be okay.

                                                                                  

                                                                                                            

We rode the teacups, of course. Lincoln loved it.

                                       

We drove on the Tomorrowland Speedway…

And we rode Dumbo.

Up until this point on the trip Lincoln had not taken a nap. He finally crashed just before we got on Pirates of the Caribbean, but I didn’t mind sitting out since it meant he was finally sleeping! We headed back to the hotel early so we could watch the BYU game, and because we were all exhausted.

For oiur last full day we just hung out by the pool at our hotel. Lincoln loved playing in the kiddie pool and took a great nap when we finally went back to the room.

                                                  

                                                                                          

That afternoon we went to Downtown Disney to do some souvenir shopping and hang out with even more friends from Ithaca (It’s really cold here. We were all fleeing to the south.) It was such a nice way to end a really great vacation!

Going to Disney World with a child was really a special experience for me. I think I got a little jaded when I was down there in 2004, but going with Lincoln was like looking at the parks with new eyes. It was so fun watching him have so much fun. Big thanks to Erin and Lisa for the tickets!