Jessi's quilt is finished!!!

I am so excited to finally be done with my six-year quilts! I cut out the fabric for these two quilts back when Kaitlyn was just under a year old. The girls are very happy to have their quilts too. Jessi told me it was the best day ever!

Kaitlyn and Jessi showing off their matching quilts!

Bethany's quilt

Last week, I started making the squares for Bethany's quilt. I am making a design called "Log Cabin." What is really neat about this design is that once you have the squares made, you can make different patterns depending how you arrange them. I am very pleasantly surprised how quickly the squares came together. Bethany, Carmen and I played around with some of our favorite patterns and took pictures of them. I have yet to sew the squares together. Bethany has decided she likes the Starlight pattern. But I still want to play with them! This is a lot of fun! It is like getting to make 20 quilts for the price of one! Hope you like it too!

All Sevens

Wirly Gig

Starlight

Fields and Furrows

Navajo

Piggy Pot Pies

We had more adventures in the kitchen on Saturday. It was Bethany's turn to choose and help bake. She chose Little Piggy Pies, which are basically a pot pie filling topped off with a little pig made from store-bought biscuit dough. The filling turned out to be pretty tasty and was definitely worth the experiment but I'm afraid the poor piggies were only good to look at as they were crispy on the outside and doughy in the middle and underneath. If we were to try it again, I might try cooking the piggies separately and then place them on top of the hot filling. It wasn't a total disaster thanks to the filling and of course, Bethany enjoyed making them! The other girls are arguing who gets to cook next week!

Three little piggies and two big piggies.

The cook's assistant and her adoring fan

These guys are only smiling 'cause they haven't tried them yet!

Octodogs

Last week, Malia found a fun recipe that turned ordinary hot dogs into octopi and when placed on a bed of sea shell pasta, created a intriguing looking dish. So on Saturday, we were able to have this fun treat. Malia helped cook and decorate the "octodogs" with ketchup and mustard faces and arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing manner on their sea shell bed. The only disappointment of the endeavor was the lack of goldfish crackers. We improvised with cheese-its and called them "rocks" and were satisfied with the outcome.
It was actually better than I expected. The Alfredo sauce on the shells made this dish a classy and fun version of mac & cheese and hot dogs.

Malia, co-cook and the one who found the recipe in the first place.

Jessi, biting off multiple limbs.

Kaitlyn, eating hers, one leg at a time.

A close up shot of the masterpiece

The WIB or (Women In Black) enjoying a fun meal together.

New clothes

My girls just don't cooperate when it comes to clothes! They are growing so fast that their clothes are just not fitting anymore. Worst than that is they are not growing fast enough to be big enough for the clothes that their next biggest sister just grew out of! So we had to go out and do clothes shopping. Sigh. I don't like clothes shopping. However, I really did enjoy shopping for the girls this time. We went to Savers for pants (jeans, mostly) and had a blast monopolizing their biggest fitting room. We had a pretty good system going with Grandma handing us more pants to try on as I was handing her pants that were either "Yes" or "No." The girls were very cooperative and didn't complain either, which was great. Savers was great because we got most of the pants for either $3 or $4 as opposed to retail of $20-$50! Also, the girls had great fun dragging each other around in these little hand baskets with wheels.

Bethany and Grandma Hammari

Jessica Red Riding Hood

Malia

Kaitlyn

The big purchase of the day were the dresses. Bethany's ensemble was the only one not bought at Dillard's. We got her at Saver's and her sweater she had gotten on her birthday but this the first time she got to wear it. We like Dillard's because we have had good success finding modest dresses for girls. It is harder to find things for Bethany now that she is so big. She is exactly the same height as Grandma Hammari now and is wearing the same size shoes as I do. Heaven help us!